Feeling small
Wednesday, February 20, 2008 at 06:21PM 
I love rants. I love to read them. I love to write them.
But I am not so sure I like to be the subject of them.
Rob Rubis at the Internation School of Bangkok takes me to task big time for some comments and assumptions I made in regard to the program there in response to blog posts and commentary written by the TLCs (technology and learning coordinators) at his school. Please read Rob's post. His comments and frustrations may resonate with many teacher-librarians around the world.
If you have been following the Blue Skunk at all, you know I asked why it seems that technology cooridnators seem to be reinventing the same wheel that ibrarians have been rolling for sometime, with the efforts at ISB as an example/springboard. My comments were never meant as a criticism of ISB's particular program, but as a means of exploring why this seems to be a general trend in schools around the world.
Every now and then I do something so insensitive that my 6'3" frame shrinks to about 3" tall. Once it happened when I teased a woman about how important she must be to have left her cell phone on during one of my workshops. She later apologized and told me that her husband was in the hospital doing very poorly and that was why she left the phone on. I shrunk then and I've never mentioned a ringing cell phone in my presentations since that day.
I'm feeling pretty much the same way now. Looking at a situation in the abstract, as an exemplar, as a philosophical touchstone may seem harmless to me as a writer, but it obviously touched a nerve with those commented upon at ISB. All I can do is apologize and hope that I remember the lesson and become more sensitive in the future. Behind every generality are real people.
I've always said that while we are born homo sapiens, it takes a lifetime to become human. I am still working on it.
Reader Comments (7)
I appreciate your honest reflections. Thanks for window into your experience. I am comforted not to be the only one who occasionally puts my foot in my mouth. You have company in 'smallness'. Cheers also to Rob Rubis for saying his piece and letting you know. I suspect he is not now simmering with resentment but feels some sense of having set the record from his perspective straight. It is a good thing to have conversations, even if it sometimes means we make mistakes. It may not feel good to be corrected but it is better than the alternative - no feedback and boring pleasantries. Sometimes I forget that things are a conversation out here, I write only a little and receive similarly little commenting. I know I occasionally irritate people, I must as I know I irritate people in person at times. I have not had the feedback hit my blog. Public taking to task. I'm not sure I'd like it but I think it might be part of the process. I enjoyed your previous posting to which Rob responded personally. I had seen it as a general reflection and not necessarily a response to the ISB particularly. I think the key is "why haven't they been listening?" It isn' necessarily that the TL isn't there, it's more that the TL has been marginalized by technology specialists and reading specialists. What is the TL if not a technology specialist and a reading specialist? It's an interesting time to be a teacher librarian. Now if only I can get one of those positions.
It takes a big man to admit that he feels small. We all do the best job we can, blogging with the resources at hand. Make a mistake? Process, learn, move on.
Kudos to you for adjusting your opinion in light of additional information.
diane
Doug,
WOW! What do I say to That?...I shot from the hip and now I've got that "deer in the headlights" feeling - but WE'RE TALKING - both here and at my school!!.
I'm not going to try to pull my Rant in my own blog, although some of it makes me cringe in retrospect. Instead, I'll use it as a springboard to furthering the conversation on ISSUES that you and others like you are hanging out there for us to examine.
You have absolutely NO reason to "feel small". That's really my role for taking personally something intended as observation and rhetorical question - both of which were "right on".
Thank for the time you've given this, and DON'T STOP raising provocative questions!!
Hi Susan and Diane,
Thanks for the kind words. It's a good thing the LWW keeps me in practice in humility too!
All the very best,
Doug
Hey, Rob, it was a good lesson for me - a reminder that there are real people behind the theories and off-the-cuff comments. I appreciate your graciousness!
All the very best,
Doug
Doug,
One of the most fascinating parts of this is something I have also been experiencing.
By voicing something on my own blog, which is mainly read by people beyond my campus--it ends up circling back into my own campus eventually.
I think sometimes we have to "go abroad" to find solutions to our problems or to generate the discussion needed to bring back fresh perspectives in our own "homelands."
Rob and you both have raised some excellent points and really gotten me thinking about tech-library partnerships--why they aren't working sometimes, what we need to do to improve them, what a good model might look like?
And his comments about longevity are ones I also relate to. Those of us who see our instructional "partner" the tech staff come and go find it hard to maintain continuity in those partnerships, because sometimes ideologically it takes time to work that partnership out, (as neither of our "departments" are really trained to partner with the other!). So the comings and goings while bringing new ideas and new energies can also slow the flow of service/partnership/planning as we rebuild our teams.
I think if this was conceived of by administrators and IT departments as more of a partnership, then perhaps that would set the stage better as new staff do come and go(on either part).
Thanks again for the thought-generating post!
Hi Carolyn,
This whole blogging (AKA thinking out loud in public) is very interesting indeed.
I am not sure we have to look elsewhere for solutions to our local problems, but I do think we often need to look outside our district for confirmation that we are accurate in our perception of what our problems really are - and the proposed actions are reasonable. That "impartial eye" thing...
I've focused on the technologist (hardware/IT) vs librarian (educator) relationship for quite awhile:
http://www.doug-johnson.com/storage/rangewar.pdf
But it was interesting that at ISB, there seemed educator/educator differences.
One thing I have learned is that you better get ALL stakeholders to the table when decisions are being made - or somebody may feel left out, angry and obstructionist.
Thanks for the comment!
Doug