I have been troubled for a long time now by the lopsided percentages of female teachers in comparison to male teachers across every age group of a child’s formal schooling experience in America. It has also been a puzzle to me that this has not seemed to bother most people—public, private, charter, or parochial adherents. If we had any other bureaucracy in America that utilized only male supervisors (93%) to oversee all boys and girls together for most of their day, every day, for the vast majority of 13 years, I know we would have heard about it by now. [...] Read more »
To the Woman Providing Unintentional Sex Ed at Barnes and Noble:
I am happy for you that you are fully at home in your sexuality. Really, I am. But I didn’t come here to get a free refresher course in Human Sexuality 101. You see, I came here to sit down in the corner of the craft aisle and enter that rare state of nirvana occasioned by the knitting, crochet, sewing, and quilting tomes scattered all around me while I bliss out in museum-quality silence. It is not my fault that the universe conspired against me on this one and that the powers-that-be at B & N chose to abut the [...] Read more »
On Why I Can’t Trust Good Intentions Alone
Recently I was abruptly transported in a split second back to my childhood—and the seven years I spent trying not to think about how I, along with my seven siblings, could be taken away from my parents at any time and placed in foster homes. I flashed back to how we couldn’t answer the phone during particular times of day for years at a time. I remembered how we were not to directly respond to any strangers’ questions about where we went to school during the years I was elementary-age. I remembered the school year I was 12, when a [...] Read more »
A work of quiet genius
I don’t usually reference things with the term “genius,” as I find the word is often overused in American culture. However, this book of photographs (“Where Children Sleep”) is extraordinary. Quietly so, because it allows the images to speak for themselves, freeing us to draw our own conclusions. And those conclusions might be far more stark and difficult than we’d prefer, especially when dealing with impoverished children. Please take a moment to look through these 13 images of children’s sleeping spaces from around the world (an excerpt from the book). Better yet, if you have an opportunity to show your [...] Read more »
Fighting Bullies with Babies
I have often observed through the years that families with lots of children or with widely-spaced children (where the older children were actively involved in the care and nurture of their younger siblings) often seemed to produce children with higher-than-average empathy skills. This was only anecdotal observation on my part, so you can imagine my surprise when the New York Times recently published an absolutely fascinating article about the innate power babies have to teach empathy to children. A wonderful educator out of Canada took this concept into the school classroom, formally implementing the interaction of children with a baby [...] Read more »
On Creativity, Part Two
Many people say they wish they were more creative, and the simple truth is that they can be. Anyone can be. In fact, researchers and authors such as Po Bronson now believe that creativity is a necessary part of a normally-functioning brain, not a special genetic endowment or “gift of the Muse” for only a few uniquely-gifted individuals. On the other hand, the ways in which we are educated into or out of our creativity, along with our experiences in being affirmed or criticized in it, has a great deal to do with whether or not we are even currently [...] Read more »
On Creativity, Part One
I have been musing about the topic of creativity off and on during the last few months. Creativity can be such a difficult thing to define, can’t it? Perhaps this is partially because creativity isn’t only about a specific set of behaviors that we do, or things we say: it’s about who we are. And it is often difficult to define the essence of something that can seem so intangible in ourselves. After all, what set of qualities is it that makes a person creative? Are these qualities innate, developed, or some of both? I was thinking about the history [...] Read more »
The Power of Story
I have wanted to write about this beautiful article for some time. Yet I have found that nothing I can say about it is as powerful as what the author herself has already expressed so perfectly and so completely. I wish this extraordinary manifesto on why author Katherine Paterson reads and writes could hang as a poster in libraries across the United States. But since I can’t see to that, I can at least see to it that everyone who reads this blog has the opportunity to be enriched by her wisdom and passion for reading, justice, and mercy. Her [...] Read more »
A strange and un-library thing
I do love libraries. I love the books in them. I love the tactile feel of the books—the weight, the height, the size, and the heft of the wrapped and covered words. I love the texture of the plethora of printed matter as it slides under my fingers. I adore the intoxicating mixture of mingled book scents everywhere— of new paper or old binding, of fresh ink or old news. I like the (mostly) quiet, inviting space the library presents to anyone who cares to use it and delight in it. I enjoy watching the wide variety of people—the very [...] Read more »
On Books and Reading
All right. So this is going to be a diatribe about books and reading. If you do not 1) like books, and if you do not 2) like reading, it might be best for you to stop reading this now and go watch some TV. For the rest of you, feel free to stay tuned while I go off about this matter. I read the results of a study not long ago that concluded many of us lie on those survey/interest forms asking for things like the titles of our favorite books. We apparently put down not the titles we [...] Read more »
A Response to “A Video of Students Today”
This entry is in response to the following video: After watching this video, I would like to address some logical problems with a number of the opinions expressed by the students. I will mention first off, though, that I really like the way the creators/collaborators structured this short video. It is thought-provoking, and I really appreciate the conversation it is starting (or continuing) across the country, specifically regarding our educational system. I am grateful for anything that promotes healthy dialogue and discussion about all levels of education (public and private) within the United States. If anyone wants to read [...] Read more »