Re: [LM_NET] What is it we are missing?

[JJ Stratton <stratton.jj@GMAIL.COM>]

Lisa hits it on the head.  I know I'm valued on my own campus, but not
outside of it.  People who have never set foot in my library, just assume
it's a big, dusty place full of books.  People in my building know that it's
the hub of the school, and they might have to wait in line for my help and
attention, because there's so much going on.  It's difficult to quantify
what I do because the link to the testing is indirect.  I could see the same
thing when I taught special ed, my successes couldn't be quantified through
standardized testing.

I think this is a disconnect between a local level as small as a
neighborhood or family, and what happens at a city, state or national
level.  A respected pollster in Arizona wrote an article a couple years ago
that explained this well - and now I can't find a copy of it anymore.  But,
essentially, it went like this:  Polls would show that while a large
majority agreed that those administrators in schools are a bunch of fat cats
who need to be trimmed, the principal at MY child's school was great!  Or,
government is wasting money, but don't close the park in MY neighborhood!
Or, we need a new freeway to ease traffic, but don't run it through MY
backyard!

So everyone at my school would be horrified if my position were cut, but
outside my school?  I'm just the "icing".

-- 
JJ Stratton, Librarian/Media Specialist
North Canyon High School
Phoenix, Arizona
stratton.jj@gmail.com

On Sun, Feb 7, 2010 at 8:32 PM, Lisa Hunt <lisa3moon@yahoo.com> wrote:

> Currently my philosophy about this is "we are icing."  I don't actually
> teach the students who take the tests.  I'm on-the-side, and so I'm easy to
> cut.  My current situation is that I have support, and I'm allowed great
> latitude.  I can pretty much do what I want; however, it is abundantly
> obvious that neither me or my program is important.  I'm respected by my
> staff.  Many teachers want to teach with me, look to me as a knowledgeable
> partner in education, and I'm considered the children's literature expert in
> my building.  The fact is though I'm NOT at the top of the list for
> consideration of things.
>
> I've done all the proper PR.  Plenty of people know about what I can and do
> offer to support instruction.  I'm important to students.  I'm just not
> directly connected to THE TESTS.  As long as that is the case I will be
> icing.  Icing is something people will cut when push comes to shove.
>
>
> Lisa Hunt, NBCT 2005
> School Library Media Specialist
> Apple Creek Elementary
> Moore, OK
> lisa3moon@yahoo.com
>
> ________________________________
> From: Kathy Graves <kgraves@4FAST.NET>
> To: LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU
> Sent: Sun, February 7, 2010 8:26:07 PM
> Subject: What is it we are missing?
>
> Will all of the current budget cuts and decisions to cut library positions
> as well as the arts, what is it that we are missing? What is it that we
> aren't doing to build awareness of the value of these programs?
>
> I am retired from the public school system in California where I spent 18
> years in the classroom, 4 years as a school site librarian, and 15 years as
> the director of a county schools library-media center program.  From the
> time I started teaching in 1967 we constantly worried about school support
> staff and programs being cut, so this isn't new.
>
> Over the years our profession has developed strategies and resources to
> help prevent proposed cuts but it always seems like those are localized
> successes.  Nothing seems to change at the state and national levels.  Why?
>  What is it that we aren't doing?  What are we missing?  Why do we
> constantly reinvent the wheel when it comes to advocating for our programs?
>  We know the right thing to do - we have the results of over 20 studies to
> support us, yet we continue to be back at where we were 40 years ago trying
> to justify our programs and fight for them.
>
> We must be thinking and working in too small a sphere.  What will it take
> to make this a national campaign?
>
> Kathy Graves
> IMC Director/County Schools Librarian, Retired
> Siskiyou County Office of Education
> Yreka, CA 96097
>
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