Saturday Night

Honestly, with 40 results on my Blogline feeds, you would think that I would be able to find lots to say, but I really can't.

An article from Library Stuff talking about the debate between core knowledge and 21-century skills was the first to stand out to me.

It frightens me, actually, that so much emphasis is being placed on these "skills": thinking creatively and critically, working with technology, and working well with others. What I see happening is that we will be producing generations who don't know anything. What good is thinking creatively if you don't understand the basics to go along with it? Why suddenly are the schools supposed to teach people to work well with others? The way I see it, that's a parent's job from day one. We are such a feel good society that we've become afraid to ask anyone to do something that they might fail at and that scares me. As we move farther and farther from the basics of education and personal responsibility, we see more and more children coming into our library who have no idea how to behave... and parents who don't seem to care to teach them. Yes, our teens are out of control and we try to deal with that. That is quite difficult, if not impossible, when they have no respect for authority. And why should they? Adults don't demand it. It might hurt their self image. Garbage, I say! And it's not just the teens. We have preschoolers who look at you as if you are crazy for daring to call them down. Today I was at the mall with my 3 1/2 year old and we were in the little play area. She couldn't enjoy herself because there were children too big for the area who were climbing on top of the equipment and jumping onto other pieces. I predict that the area will be destroyed within a year. Where were the parents? Watching. At one point I told my girlie that I'd stay by her so that she could feel safe from the kids jumping around her and got death glares from one of the parents. Honestly!

I got a little off topic there. Anyhow... we're starting to send kids through the schools who can't add 2+2, but can give you a creative story about why it should equal 5. Good grief! Preparing children for the grown up world is important, but if they can't read well enough to fill out a job application or do the simple, basic math to count a cash register drawer, we're doing them a huge disservice. Maybe I should quit my job and just home school!

More Reflections

Monday on librarian.net there was a post about metadata and the written word. I found it interesting seeing the old check out card and realizing that there really was a lot of information on them. It brought back a kind of nostalgic feeling. I can just remember writing my library card number on those little cards when I visited the library. I think I was in second grade when our library system switched over to the automated system. Today I was working on weeding in the juvenile fiction section and kept wondering if I'd see my old card number written on any little cards (in which case I might have had a hard time getting rid of the book), but most of those cards have disappeared. Last May, while doing a visit to my old elementary school to promote the summer reading program, I did have the opportunity to flip through some books and found the names of some of my classmates. Strangely, those were the last names on several of the books. The school librarian probably was right to be planning to weed that section pretty strongly!

This one made me laugh: A Call to Give Up Texting for Lent!
It's really sad that our society is becoming so dependent on technology that an archbishop feels the need to suggest young people fast from it. I know that in our library, we definitely have web-addicts. You can see it... the teen who comes in to all the computers being full. And he paces, checks his watch, his eyes darting up and down the row of computers, silently begging someone to leave. Another check of the watch. An attempt to talk one of his buddies into getting off the computer. The sad part of it, he has a reservation in 5 minutes, but that's too long to wait to start his 4 hours of Rune Scape. Ugh!

Getting the Blog Started

Well, here it is, in all its glory. My blog for my Computer-Based Information Tools class. Today I signed up for feeds from 3 blogs:

Librarian.net
Library Stuff
The Shifted Librarian

When I looked at the results for today, I noticed that all three had posts about Twitter. I have to be honest, I don't know a lot about Twitter, but I really don't get it. Personally, I don't want the pressure of having to report every part of my day to someone. I have a hard enough time getting through my email most days! And that doesn't include responding to them.

Of course, reading about a congressman Twittering secret details of his visit to Iraq doesn't help my feelings about the service... or security for that matter. Of course, you can't blame a computer application for the user's lack of thinking.

Probably what I found most interesting was the debate over gaming in public libraries. My library, which is a small branch of a county system, has 2 Playstations and a WII. We have monthly programs for our teens and tweens. Does it have any literary value? No. But it does get the teens into the library and gives them something to do while they are there. And we do see an increase in circulation from the teens on those days. Personally, I hate doing the programs because it's loud and I get bored. I don't think that holding the programs is a bad idea, I just don't necessarily want to be the one in the room.