This weekly meme is hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading! This week's Musing asks us...
In MizB's local community, the Catholic schools have decided to close their schools' libraries as a result of budget cuts. The librarians have lost their jobs and all of the books that used to be in the library have been moved to the classrooms instead. Parents, students and teachers are in an uproar. What do you think? Is it a good solution for schools to be without an actual library room?
My answer...
First of all, I wanted to make a quick mention of Blogger being down last week. This caused some of my posts to be rearranged and for some of my comments to be deleted! :( If you have entered my giveaway, please make sure that your entry is still there and make sure to re-enter if it got deleted. Thanks to all for your entries...giveaway ends on May 31st, so there is still time to sign up if you haven't already!
Now to my Musing answer. My first thought is wow, that is really just SAD! I agree with MizB's response that libraries are not just "rooms" or "places" but instead, are treasure troves where magical books are held. I feel sad for the children who don't have a quiet place to go now, where they can check out books, learn about books, read books, study, or just rest and be quiet.
I have definitely loved and utilized libaries from an early age...I remember the excitement of signing up for summer reading contests at my local library when I was little to scouring out quiet nooks to spread out and study while in college.
Having said all of this, though, in this economy, hard decisions do have to be made and I'm sure the school board really had a tough time making this one. Maybe everyone in your community, MizB, can put their heads together and hopefully come up with a better solution!
I agree, in this economy, budget cuts are necessary, especially when there are alternatives like Public Libraries and home computers.
ReplyDeletei like your post i like how you see it from both sides, i think that the football teams should go first, but thats just me
ReplyDeleteThe Book mystess, xx
I love libraries too much to see them go away slowly like this... It's so sad.
ReplyDeleteIn many urban area, the local Catholic school (and I am a product of an urban Catholic school)is the safest, best alternative. And money is always a big issue. Can parents pay more, can teachers be paid less? If not, then terrible choices have to be made sometimes...sad but true.
ReplyDeleteI am NO fan of football..but in many schools they actually make money for the school.
I'm sure it was a tough decision - and you're right that as long as there are alternatives, it might be the 'best worst alternative.'
ReplyDelete