Re: UNeducated "librarians"

[Alice Yucht <AliceInfo@AOL.COM>]

Victoria DeFields makes  a very important point:=20

>Rather than boycott and talk about what an parapro shouldn't be doing,
>lets recruit new people for the profession.  [snip]
>If we don't recruit and help train then the "uneducated" will get those=20
jobs. =20
>They may or may not be able to do well.

As I note in my (to-be-published in)January column in Teacher-Librarian
magazine on "degrees of professionalism":=20

In my 34 years as a school librarian I=92ve worked with colleagues who held=20
magna cum laude degrees from highly-acclaimed and extensively-accredited=20
institutions, as well as those with (not-even) undergraduate courses from=20
local=20
colleges.   I've worked with doctorates and dunderheads, professional schola=
rs
and parents who were just helping out.   Unless they were incapable of=20
managing the basic responsibilities of the job,  or too lazy/burnt out to=20
make any effort to improve their own skills and knowledge, I rarely knew or=20
cared about where and how they=92d gotten their basic training. =20
What did matter was whether they knew -- and cared -- enough about=20
their roles and responsibilities to want to do the best job possible
so that there would BE a library for the kids.

It has nothing to do with a piece of parchment from a prestigious=20
university.  It has to do with attitude, and ability, and acquired aptitude,
and a love of kids, of learning, and of providing a facility for linking ide=
as
between readers and resources in any way possible.

And if we don't start recruiting for our profession, yes, we WILL be
replaced by a piece of hardware with no soul.

I'll get off my soapbox now.

Alice H. Yucht, Teacher-Librarian
Heritage Middle School, Livingston, NJ
Aliceinfo@aol.com

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