I know our public school district is trying its darndest to cut back on all the "fat" in the system and I am trying to keep an open mind. But last week, when it was announced that ALL library aides in LAUSD might be cut (which also meant that their libraries would be closed if proper district employees were not able to run them), I became incensed.
It's just not enough to cut our favorite teachers, I suppose, or the arts programs. And maybe it's not enough to expect our parents to fund "extra" programs like PE, or computers, or classroom aides to help ease the burden of an ever-escalating ratio of students to one beleaguered teacher. But the library? It is so essential to the process of learning that I find it hard to imagine NOT having a library on any school campus.
Some of the fondest memories from my childhood took place in libraries, where I could spend hours sorting through a single section, sitting on the floor, books both open and piled up near me. Pages flapped like wings. Time evaporated. I learned to read, research and take responsibility for returning books I'd checked out. I can't tell you how much my library card meant to me.
My kids and I don't go to our city library as much as I'd like, but that hasn't been an issue because our school has a Wonder of Reading Library equipped not only with books but with a librarian named Miss Ellen. Miss Ellen is lovely and knowledgeable and even looks like a librarian -- I have often opened up the door to the library and found her serenely sitting at her desk, legs curled up under her on her chair, hair twisted into a bun with a pencil, and her reading glasses sliding down her nose, engrossed in a book while she waits for the next class to come.
It was Ellen who tipped me off about the possibility of her position being cut district-wide. Our parents, who are no strangers to activism at this point (I even went to Sacramento last June to see what the problem was... and let me tell you, I found no answers there), were up in arms, threatening a letter-writing campaign and trying to find ways to save our library. A book sale? A bake sale? How do we earn enough money to keep a valuable program -- one that is a necessity, not an "extra" by any means -- alive?
I am grateful that today's paper offers hope about saving our library aides, along with teachers and other staff and administration. But there's always a sacrifice. To save these jobs, we must give up five instructional days for our kids (teachers and staff will take furlough days). So they will have five fewer days to learn and, hopefully, they will not have class sizes increase AGAIN next year and they will have more staff to support their educational efforts.
It is not enough, but it is a little shove in a good enough direction. My question is: when will our kids get more than just "good enough"? In this big city, for god's sake, don't they deserve to use the library at their school? And, give it to me straight... even if we keep it now, will we have to fight for it again next year?
Photo by Ana Garza
This is an original post for LA Moms Blog. Erin is the mother of three LAUSD students and a former PTA president. When she's not shaking her head at the public school system, she writes short fiction and blogs at Poprocks and Goblins and Traveling Circus.
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