Who Needs 4-years of Science & Math?

I’ve been tipped-off to a great e-zine for teachers, by teachers, but of interest to anyone thoughtful about our young people’s education.
teachersnet Gazette
In the current issue Alfie Kohn asks the question: Are we all to enamored with teaching children self-discipline? Awe come on…read it before you make a judgment. Could it be we just want kids to take care of themselves so that we don’t have to be bothered? Does education that focuses too heavily on self-discipline train students to see studying as a means to an end rather than to help them enjoy learning. Secure, healthy people can be playful, flexible, open to new experiences and self-discovery, deriving satisfaction from the process rather than always focused on the product. An extremely self-disciplined student, by contrast, may see reading or problem-solving purely as a means to the end of a good test score or a high grade. I find this idea quite thought-provoking. What do you think?

Another article immediately grabbed my attention: Who Really Needs Four Years of Math and Science? by Steve A. Davidson. I started asking this question in about sophomore year of high school, when I decided: not me. And I’ve survived just fine thank you. I can’t help my kids with the algebra homework, but, hey, I read them lots of books when they were growing up. I’ve heard that counts for a lot. Check out what this guy says. He taught school for 32-years!

Three Tough Moms Fight for Libraries

Efforts have kicked off in Oregon and Arizona to save school libraries. Other states may soon follow.

It all started with three “Tough Moms”—see them on the September cover of the national magazine, School Library Journal.

As reported before in this blog they started a grassroots effort that succeeded in getting Washington State legislators to commit $4-million in emergency money to school libraries for this year.

But they have only just begun. Stories keep coming in from districts where the school year started with more cutbacks in library programs.

Lisa Layera Brunkan e-mailed supporters: Perhaps the most heart-wrenching story has come from a Central Washington elementary school located on the Yakima Indian Reservation -- the school serves 1200 children, 96% of whom receive free or reduced lunch. In June, the teacher-librarians there purged 2,000 titles from the collection because the copyright was 1979 or prior.

There are no funds to replace these books. One of the librarians reported that, despite contributing $1,000 of her own money last year to purchase materials and prizes for the kids, still the most popular fiction paperbacks are scotch-taped together every 3 months. Many of these books don't make it through the year because the thickness of the
tape renders them unreadable.

The mom’s campaign, Fund Our Future Washington, continues to lobby the State Task Force on Basic Education, inform citizens on the issue and gather signatures. Last week their petition topped ten-thousand signatures.

Check out photos of the latest rally. As authors of children’s literature, we understand the importance of getting good books in the hands of students. Can a school succeed in preparing students for the 21^st Century without school libraries? NO.We’re joining this effort and we hope you will, too: take action.

~~Mary Cronk Farrell

Libraries Boom/Economy Bust

Librarians have seen it before. When the economy sours, free services become a sweet treat for families needing to cut spending. It's hard to beat free books, movies, music and internet service at the local public library.

In Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a new library building opened last year has already recorded a 73-percent increase in library checkouts.

When I was a child I never visited a bookstore once, but Wednesday was Library Day, the one day our public library was open. My sister and I would walk a mile there and back with a stack of books every week. The librarian limited us to six each, but since we since shared we had enough. I can't imagine growing up without a library.

While public libraries are booming, parents and teachers worry school libraries may be an endangered species as school districts suffer funding shortfalls. I posted about this a few days ago and a parent e-mailed me with information on Washington States school library funding drive. They are near reaching ten-thousand signatures urging legislators to define basic education to include school libraries and librarians. Duh! Let me go on record: libraries are even more necessary than schools. Basic education? I think so.
Click here to help with the petition drive.

~~Mary Cronk Farrell

Money for School Libraries

Q: How many people does it take to convince the Washington State Senate to request $12-million for school libraries?
A: Three moms who refused to give up.

In March 2008, the Senate voted 49-to-0 for the $12-million, but it was whittled to $4-million in emergency money to last only one year. Here’s what you can do: take action.

The moms, of course, told me they didn’t turn the light bulb alone. They created a website Fund Our Future to connect supporters, media, legislators and students, registering more than six-thousand signatures in favor of funding a teacher librarian in every public school in Washington State.

It all started when Spokane School District cut back teacher/librarians to solve funding problems. They couldn’t put one over on 7-year-old Isabel. She came home from school and told her mom, “It’s not a library anymore.”

Her mom Lisa Layera Brunkan investigated. “They literally turned out the lights, unplugged the computers and locked the door. The library was dark 2 ½ days a week,” she says. When the librarian was there, she had no time to help Isabel find suitable books.

Lisa joined two other concerned moms and began to speak out. “What were our chances?” says Lisa. “They told us, When pigs fly… We couldn’t wait until then. Our kids would be grown.”

They discovered they had to frame their message right for people to take action. “We know school libraries matter. We know test scores go up in schools with libraries, but saying that wasn’t enough,” says Susan McBurney. “We needed buzz words." What worked? Our kids deserve a 21^th century education.”

“Compared to some other states, Washington is in the dark ages,” Lisa says.

When they talked about preparing students for a global economy, about providing a relevant education that will keep them competitive, everybody started to listen, politicians, business people and voters alike.

Another talking point: Equity. A student in rural Steven’s county with no computer at home cannot compete with students at a Lake Washington school who take a camera on a field trip, then come back and create a podcast.

Next blog I’ll tell you how these moms set a fire now spreading to other states.

~~Mary Cronk Farrell

A Force for Children

Here at StoryForce our goal is to be a Force for children. Sometimes we meet or read about someone who inspires us through their own actions on behalf of children. Writer Lynn L. Caruso introduces us to one such a person in her latest book "Honoring Motherhood."

Gabriela Mistral:
First South American Woman to Win the Nobel Prize in Literature
Poet, Educator, Diplomat, Reformer

“We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child cannot. Right now is the time his bones are being formed, his blood is being made, and his senses are being developed. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow,’ his name is Today.”

– Gabriela Mistral Su Nombre es Hoy (His Name is Today)

Gabriela Mistral:

• Chilean 1889-1957, pseudonym for Lucila Godoy y Alcayaga
• Often referred to as the “Mother of the Nation” because her poems often referenced children.
• First Latin American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature (1945)
• Started her career as an elementary and secondary school teacher in Chile.
• Later worked with government educational reform programs in Chile and Mexico and as a cultural minister and diplomat.
• And later as a professor of Spanish literature in the U.S.

HER WRITING:

• Mistral wrote on the dominant themes of motherhood, love, childhood, nature, and death. She was an advocate for children, particularly those living in poverty.
• Mistral experienced many hardships in her life including the suicide of both her fiance' and her adopted son. The first collection of poems for which she received recognition addressed her lover's suicide.
• Four of her poems are included in Honoring Motherhood (pp. 24, 35, 72, and 91).
  • The Franciscan Order of Chile requested a monetary donation to “the impoverished children of Chile” as compensation for reprinting her poems in Honoring Motherhood. In this small way, her life’s work/legacy continues -- both her written work and her advocacy for children.

Support School Libraries

Citizens across the state of Washington are calling on state leaders to ensure that all Washington elementary and secondary students have full-time access to school libraries and a certified teacher librarian.

It is our hope that Washington voices can help reverse the trend of serious reductions to our school library programs by calling on our leaders to ensure that teacher librarians, library programs and technology training are no longer at risk. It is our wish that our children and their teachers have full and equal access to the literacy and collaborative opportunities provided by our school libraries and certified teacher librarians. It is our belief that information literacy and the technology training facilitated in our school libraries are crucial to our children, and that the teacher librarian's knowledge of student ability allows them to place "just right books" into the hands of students, fostering a love of reading and life-long learning.

If you want more information or to contact your legislature:

http://gopetition.com/petitions/world-class-education-for-washington.html