Head for the Edge columns 2013-14 online

Each summer I share online my Head for the Edge columns published in Library Media Connection. The titles with links are below:

• 10 Ways to Promote Online Resouces, August/September 2013
• Everything I Know About Engagement I Learned in Kindergarten, October 2013
• The Online Librarian, November/December 2013
• School Libraries - a Student Right, January/February 2014
• Collaboration at a Higher Level, March/April 2014
• Easy Changes for a More Student-Friendly Facility, May/June 2014

If you don't subscribe to Library Media Connection, you should. It, along with Teacher-Librarian and School Library Journal, are the must-reads for progressive school library media specialists.  

Also, my HFE columns from 1995-2009, updated and edited, can be found in my book School Libraries Head for the Edge. Buy it and I might be able to afford a nicer nursing home one day. Thank you.

You can find all the columns I've written on my website <http://www.doug-johnson.com/columns/>

Remember, all my writing has been approved by the FDA as a non-addictive sleep aid.

Happy 4th of July!

Grammar Snobbery

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I'll be the first to admit it.  I am a grammar snob - and I am getting worse.

A sentence that ends in a preposition (Children are fun to spend time with.); a mismatched subject and pronoun (A teacher should always watch their language.);  non-standard word use (Irregardless, the show must continue.) and little things like using a qualifier with an absolute (The song was somewhat unique.) are all fingernails on the chalkboard* to me.

I am forgiving of spelling errors but not of homophonic errors (They're trip to the ocean was uneventful.) There are plenty of word usages that still confound me (lie and lay, ensure and insure, adapt and adopt).  I'm positive that I make errors that must drive other grammarphiles nuts. And even I will admit that many rules of language use are arbitrary, useless, and dated, adding little if nothing to the clarity of expression.

Grammar bigotry is probably a symptom of some deeper, more psychotic condition that compels a person to divide the world into acceptable and unacceptable levels of competence and therefore acceptable and unacceptable sorts of human beings.

I promise to do better to recognize my own biases in this area.

If you promise to use fewer language errors.

Oops.

*Another cliche that's rapidly becoming meaningless.

Fox News and ALA agree! Filtering is bad

  

"Studies and anecdotal evidence provide numerous  examples of blocked online resources dealing with a wide range of topics, from war and genocide to safer sex and public health." Kristen R. Batch “Fencing Out Knowledge: Impacts of the Children’s Internet Protection Act 10 Years Later” American Library Association, June 2014.

"... the Connecticut Republican Party website was blocked. The Connecticut Democratic Party website was not blocked. National Right to Life was blocked, but Planned Parenthood was not blocked. Connecticut Family, a pro-traditional marriage  group, was blocked, but LGBT Nation was not blocked. Andrew found that even Pope Francis was blocked from the school’s web service. But although he could not access the Vatican website, the school allowed him to access an Islamic website." ... "The National Rifle Association, Red State, SarahPac.com, National Right to Life, Second Amendment Foundation, Paul Ryan for Congress, Town Hall, TeaParty.org,  ProtectMarriage.com, and Christianity.com are just some of the websites the school blocked." Todd Starnes,  Jesus, Republicans and NRA banned on school website, Fox News, June 19, 2014.

Hmmm, something (finally) on which both conservatives and liberals can agree: Internet blocking based on political and social bias in a bad thing. At least it's a bad thing when the filter blocks points of view with which one agrees.

Here's the hard truth about intellectual freedom: you have to believe it applies to both the washed and the unwashed. To those whose values and beliefs you share and to those with whom you disagree. You have to actually have faith that when given a choice between your ideas and other's ideas, others will chose yours based on a fair analysis. And that most human beings have the skills to detect bullshit when they see it or read it. 

Scary stuff.

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See also:

• Are You Sure You Want an Internet Filter? Virtual Censorship is Still Censorship TechTrends, May/June 1998
• Best Practices for Meeting CIPA Requirements EdTech Magazine Q4 2005.
• Filtering Fallacies, Power Up column, Educational Leadership, December/January 2013
• Format Bigotry, LMC,  November/December 2009
• Freedom and Filters, LMC, February 2003
• Freedom to Learn (due process and filtering), LMC, January/February 2012
• Guidelines for Educators Using Social and Educational Networking Sites (with Jen Hegna) Library Media Connection, March/April  2010
• The Neglected Side of Intellectual Freedom, LMC, March/April 2013
• Response to “Just Give It to Me Straight: A Case Against Filtering the Internet,” in the May 2004 Phi Delta Kappan by Callister and Burbules. Appeared in Kappan Backtalk section, June 2004