Laura Brooks wrote:
>The answer to our image problem, I believe, begins with college teacher education
>programs. Why is it teachers stare blankly at me when I utter, apparently in a
>foreign tongue, the words “information literacy”? Wisconsin actually does (or did)
>require pre-service teachers to take an entire course on the role of the school
>library media program. We are required to take many education courses for obvious
>reasons, but why can a classroom teacher who has no clue as to what we do be
>allowed to teach in the media center, yet I can't enter a classroom? Doesn't this
>negate and invalidate almost all that we do? I, for one, have firmly believed that
>until LIS professors and department chairs start advocating for us by suggesting
>that Ed. Depts. require teachers in training to learn what it is we do; how we all
>work together in a school to further higher order thinking in our students, then
>we will forever be trying to prove our worth.
>
I think you have hit the nail with your head (yes, I did type that
correctly). Perhaps the solution is more librarians with PhD
credentials, but not necessarily in Library Science. Yes, our professors
are retiring (and dying) faster than they are being replaced, but
perhaps if some of you youngsters would get a PhD in education and then
get a job teaching the young adults who want to become teachers what it
is that librarians actually do, then maybe we will get somewhere.
Another place would be for some to become building principals and later
superintendents. A building principal sets the tone for the building,
and the superintendent sets it for the whole district. I tried, but I'm
too old. I have the principal's certification, but I can't even get
districts to acknowledge my applications, so I've stopped taking the
additional classes to get the Ed. Spec. with superintendent's
certification. I have enough expensive hobbies!
>
>
--
David Lininger, kb0zke,
MS/HS librarian
Hickory County R-1 Schools
Urbana, MO 65767
417-993-4226
tss003 at tnp dot more dot net
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