?!?!??!

Well, I am coming out of my blog hiatus to vent about something that has disturbed me in the past week or so and to see if anyone else finds this as illogical as I do!!

Let me begin by saying that although there are many aspects of being a librarian that I definitely do not excel at, I do feel that one of my strengths is an ability to choose books that will peak my students interest in reading and that they will enjoy. I think I happen to be pretty good at knowing my kids, knowing what they will like, and putting it into their hands. Now that I'm in my second year and have completed three big book orders, I have a pretty good selection of books that stay in high demand and keep kids coming in for more. As a result, I think there has been a definite increase in library usage and the number of kids actually interested in reading and reading in larger quantities. I've had one eighth grade reading teacher comment that she's had more students interested in reading this year than she's ever had, to the point that she is having a problem with kids reading in class instead of doing their "work." Now, while I see this as a good thing, apparently not everyone shares my sentiment. Let me share a couple of stories that have me up on my soap box today!

First, a few days ago, my principal happened to be in the library to use the phone while a couple of students were in during the passing period to return books and check out more. I'm doing a "Pop Open a Good Book" reading incentive thing where I have the students document all the books they are reading and returning and then have a popcorn party at the end of the month for those who have been responsible in returning their books. So since one girl was putting her popcorn stickers on her sheet, I pointed out to the principal that she had read about six or seven books this month alone and praised her for really being an avid reader. Our TAKS-obsessed principal then responded, "Oh, that's great! You're going to get 100% on that TAKS reading test!" As if the only purpose for reading in our school is to get the skills up to pass some test. Does EVERYTHING have to revolve around TAKS?? Can't students just read because they want to, because its fun? I'm so sick of the entire meaning of our existence at Pearl C. revolving around this test...sick of it being made to be the only motivation for students to do anything positive educationally. I mean, what about after she passes the TAKS? What about after she graduates? Is there no value in being a strong, lifelong reader beyond that?? Grrr....that comment really irritated me, as you can tell!

Then today I had a student come in and ask if she could leave her books in the library. I asked her why. She responded that she got in trouble and couldn't take her library books home anymore. Baffled, I asked for more clarification. She explained that she was reading her library books during TAKS tutoring yesterday and she got in trouble for that and her mom told her that she couldn't have library books for the rest of the year. What?!?!? How does someone get in trouble for READING??? As a librarian, my job is to fight to get students to read, and now that they're actually doing it, they get in trouble?? First of all, I'm appalled that one of my co-workers actually felt this was a serious enough offense to call home about. Second of all, I'm appalled that a parent would feel that an appropriate punishment would be to ban her from books. Don't they understand that sustained silent reading is going to do more for helping this student excel than 45 minutes of so-called tutoring in the first place?

I feel that the messages we are sending our kids are so skewed by the emphasis our school, our district, and our state has placed on these high-stakes tests that we are sabotaging their future! When a kid can no longer escape reminders of this dumb test even for a few minutes to read for pleasure, I take serious issue with that! What in the world is the purpose of my job at this school then??

Sigh. This is what we're up against, folks!!