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Having access to a smartphone and owning a smartphone are two different things. People see those numbers and then assume it means every person in the household has a new iPhone 14 with internet access, and that's not the case. A parent may be the only one in the household to have a smart phone. That counts as a teen having access to one. You can get a basic smart phone for $50. Some low income people are eligible for free phones. That doesn't mean everyone in the house has a smart phone.
And public libraries are great. But you also assume everyone can just hop in their car and get to one whenever they want. Access to transportation or reliable transportation is not something everyone has. Cars are expensive. Even if someone has one and can afford to insure, repair, and maintain it, doesn't mean it's just sitting in the driveway. Most low income people work. Many work long hours or more than one job. Public transportation is not available to everyone. Heck, I live in a city of a million people, and I don't have public transportation that services my area.
Anyone who has ever taught in a low income and/or rural area knows this.
The Internet makes a lot of options available - IF you have Internet access, & can print or read from your screen. But not everyone has that access. Public libraries are taking budget hits - a shame, because PLs often provide Internet access & PCs, Wi-Fi, copiers, etc. & local PLs are often portals to state or regional networks for books, newspapers, magazines, music, movies, etc. So that takes care of rural/poor transportation nets too. But you have to have the Internet access in order to use these new opportunities.
Rural high-speed Internet is gaining ground, with government support. This is a good thing, we don't want people's education to suffer purely because of their physical location.
If all books belong in Student Libraries than I say all videos should be there also.
There needs to be a nice Porn Video Section where they can "learn about sex".
No. TMK, there isn't any K-12 Public Independent School District (the usual name for them) that would endorse either proposal - the voters/parents/public aren't going to vote their support for that, & the local school library isn't the Library of Congress - which is charged with collecting two copies of everything that's printed or otherwise produced in the US.
Public school libraries are tailored to serve the needs of their students, & usually have trained/certified staff - a librarian - in charge of the collection, in order to serve those students better.
Having access to a smartphone and owning a smartphone are two different things. People see those numbers and then assume it means every person in the household has a new iPhone 14 with internet access, and that's not the case. A parent may be the only one in the household to have a smart phone. That counts as a teen having access to one. You can get a basic smart phone for $50. Some low income people are eligible for free phones. That doesn't mean everyone in the house has a smart phone.
And public libraries are great. But you also assume everyone can just hop in their car and get to one whenever they want. Access to transportation or reliable transportation is not something everyone has. Cars are expensive. Even if someone has one and can afford to insure, repair, and maintain it, doesn't mean it's just sitting in the driveway. Most low income people work. Many work long hours or more than one job. Public transportation is not available to everyone. Heck, I live in a city of a million people, and I don't have public transportation that services my area.
Anyone who has ever taught in a low income and/or rural area knows this.
Just go into any Middle School/High School, even poor schools and the majority of kids do have cellphones and do have access to the internet.
Go be a sub for a year and you'll see reality.
Yes I have taught in rural/low income schools.
The small towns don't have mass transit..never had mass transit and people are able to live full lives and get to where they need to go which includes the library
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TMSRetired
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Yes I have taught in rural/low income schools.
... people are able to live full lives and get to where they need to go which includes the library
But.. the public libraries in small towns are often only open 1-3 days / week and sometimes (in our case) those hours are ONLY when kids are in school and adults are working. i.e. 10am-3pm. Really stupid, really Texas. Most libraries have electricity and lights (think night shift hours when students and farmers are available to go to the library)
Our community is very strong about banning books in schools and library, but it offers me a great opportunity to buy those banned books, including recently "The Masonry Bible", how to build stone walls, bridges, homes... - Free, (because it was a bible )
But.. the public libraries in small towns are often only open 1-3 days / week and sometimes (in our case) those hours are ONLY when kids are in school and adults are working. i.e. 10am-3pm. Really stupid, really Texas. Most libraries have electricity and lights (think night shift hours when students and farmers are available to go to the library)
Our community is very strong about banning books in schools and library, but it offers me a great opportunity to buy those banned books, including recently "The Masonry Bible", how to build stone walls, bridges, homes... - Free, (because it was a bible )
Well I only lived in 2 small towns...5K and 7K.
Library was open 6 days a week...we had a full time librarian at each.
Now the post office...that was the one with sporadic hours.
In my system books weren't so much banned but taken off class reading lists or parents would go to the school's Library to put their kids on a restricted list.
One of the most restricted were the Harry Potter books, at least in Elementary. High schools were a mixture. It didn't really matter because most collections were a decade or more out of date. That's what happens when the Libraries are allotted $0.80/student for new acquisitions.
I disagree with this. Any books that capture a child’s imagination, and cause them to become voracious readers are a good thing. My own grandchildren were in grade school when the Harry Potter books came out, and I think they started reading them around 4th grade. I’m sure they were a stretch at that age.
As long as there is no inappropriate sexual material, anything that children want to read is fine. When I was in grade school, we’d visit my grandmother. She liked to read some trashy movie magazines. I used to sneak them, because they were interesting to me….I was reading inappropriate material, but I was reading.
Having access to a smartphone and owning a smartphone are two different things. People see those numbers and then assume it means every person in the household has a new iPhone 14 with internet access, and that's not the case. A parent may be the only one in the household to have a smart phone. That counts as a teen having access to one. You can get a basic smart phone for $50. Some low income people are eligible for free phones. That doesn't mean everyone in the house has a smart phone.
And public libraries are great. But you also assume everyone can just hop in their car and get to one whenever they want. Access to transportation or reliable transportation is not something everyone has. Cars are expensive. Even if someone has one and can afford to insure, repair, and maintain it, doesn't mean it's just sitting in the driveway. Most low income people work. Many work long hours or more than one job. Public transportation is not available to everyone. Heck, I live in a city of a million people, and I don't have public transportation that services my area.
Anyone who has ever taught in a low income and/or rural area knows this.
It is not the job of the school library to have every book ever written. School library budgets are very limited...I know (but apparently you do not) because I used to be a principal handing out $$$ to the library. So the school librarian needs to be alert to selecting books that represent the most appropriate for a school.
Put an inappropriate book into a schoo library, and one faces angry parents, and the school and staff may end up splashed all over the local newspaper and television news.
Our job as a school is not to push all the boundaries all of the time. You have to pick your battles. A school library may have 10,000 books in it. It doesn't need that one or two books you personally think is important. The principal and the librarian have to represent the entire community, not some spoiled parents who lacks taste.
Teens ? You have most middle school kids with cellphones now..pre-teens. There were very few that didn't have them and I was in Title 1 schools.
I think the picture of poor starving school children is a bit overblown by the media.
Library cards are free (at least in all the places I've lived). Just need to show proof of residence.
Yes. I did work in one community where a library card cost a family $5. Everywhere else they were free because the libraries were paid for by tax payer dollars.
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Fortune passes everywhere
night shift hours when students and farmers are available to go to the library
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