Libraries: The Heart of a School (or at least it should be)

My buddy Matt and I, friends from high school who went to Binghamton University together, used to say that the one thing we would do different if we were forced to do high school over again is to spend more time in the library. In college, we were turned on to thinking and reading and we wished we did even more of it when we were younger.

At the Brown, where I taught, the library was a welcoming place where the librarian worked overtime to make sure the school was full of resources useful to students (rotating new texts between subject areas each year and surveying teachers and students alike).

While doing research at a high school in Syracuse, the library was the hub for student interaction, creativity and safety - students went there because the librarian established a location they wanted to be.

Perhaps this is why I was rather disturbed yesterday when I was visiting a high school and the library doors were closed. I found a back way in and the librarian yelled at me. "Why are you here?" she demanded to know, "I don't want the kids in here and that is why the doors are locked. No one has permission to be in here unless they go through me."

That is the truth. Despite the fact that the library was the nicest location in the school, students were harassed about being there. This shocked me. Actually, this angered me. The one location that students in an urban school should have the most access to is the library. It should be the hub of energy in a building where reading is promoted, access to texts is encouraged, and space to read is allowed.

I'm still shaking my head at the way I was treated (and several students who also wanted a book). It seemed unbelievable, actually, and a symptom of much larger issues at the school, within the district.

Locking kids out of literacy? Shameful.