Junk food for the mind

Miguel, this was supposed to be a reply to your post. But after writing my response and hitting submit at Around the Corner, it disappeared into the ether. Annoying,especially since each word in the original response was a brightly polished gem of thoughtfulness and originality...

Miguel Guhlin at Around the Corner riffs on my assertion that blogs are intellectual junk food and offers some  warnings. These are clever but I think he misses the biggest piece of advice for maintaining a healthy reading diet: It's not just about avoiding junk, but it's about seeking out  the stuff what's nutritious as well.

My fear about blogs and their addictive quality stems from my own dilemma that blog reading  uses the time I could be spending reading materials of possibly greater value. Here is where my pre-social web, old-school, Jurassic, print-bound biases come in - I still believe edited professional journals and books that treat a topic in depth are better for you than blogs. Sorry, but there it is. If you are reading The Blue Skunk at the expense of reading Kappan, Educational Leadership, KQ, Leading & Learning, and at least a few good professional books each year, then junk food reading is indeed hazardous to your professional health.

And  writing junk can be as hazardous to one's career as reading it. I should working on three articles (for print publication) due the middle of March right now, and what am I doing?

Snow Day

The Mankato Area Public Schools are closed today on account of snow.  You have to work in schools and live in the northern parts of the United States to understand the real meaning of "snow day."

• It is God giving you an additional day of life.
• It is looking out the window and seeing beauty in the snow and wind rather than work.
• It is getting to that movie, that book, or that task that would have eaten up a weekend - guilt free.
• It is digging out and fixing a favorite soup recipe that takes too long to make on most days.
• It is not being jealous of your colleagues'  weather in the South - for at least one day.
• It is remembering the delight of having a snow day when you were a kid.
• And the best thing - it is not setting the alarm knowing tomorrow will be a snow day as well. 

Do I sound insufferably smug and happy? Good. I am. 

Don't defend any book

Philosophy of Resource Selection
Public education in a democracy is committed to facilitate the educational growth and equal educational opportunity of all students. The freedom to learn, therefore, and the corresponding freedom to teach are basic to a democratic society. In order to meet these goals, School District 77 is committed to selecting educational resources which will aid student development in knowledge acquisition, critical thinking, objective evaluation and aesthetic appreciation. from Mankato Area Public Schools Board Policy 606: TEXTBOOKS AND INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

The discussion over the Newbery Award winning book The Power of Lucky continues on LM_Net, the AASL blog and, I am sure, in meetings, phone conversations and e-mails throughout the country. I find it upsetting that so many professional librarians seem to have lost the basic understandings of selection, reconsideration, in loco parentis, and intellectual freedom. But perhaps it's time for a wake-up call that we all need to brush up on some of these concepts.

The main objection I have to the conversations has been that we are trying to defend a single book rather than defending a fair and open process for selecting and retaining any instructional material in our schools. Quite frankly, if a school decides to remove Lucky or any other book from its library or classrooms, so be it. If it decides to block every blog on the web, so be it. If it decides that Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet movie not be not be allowed because it shows a glimpse of Olivia Hussey's breasts, so be it. So long as due process has been followed in making the decision. While I can't imagine the circumstances under which I would do so, I like knowing that as a citizen I can request that  ill-chosen materials be removed from a public school.

As I remember from li-berry school, this is how professionals deal with the selection of and potential censorship of instructional materials:

1. They assure that the district has a board adopted selection/reconsideration policy. Oh, and they've read it.

2. They select all materials based on the stated selection criteria in the  policy. Here are ours:

Criteria for the Selection of Resources. Selection of resources shall be constant with the following principles:
1. To consider the characteristics and philosophy of the school and community when selecting resources.
2. To select resources which will meet needs, find use, reflect current research, and meet current standards of excellence.
3. To provide resources that will enrich and support the curriculum, taking into consideration the varied interests, abilities, and maturity levels of the individuals served.
4. To provide resources that will stimulate growth in factual knowledge, literary appreciation, aesthetic values and ethical standards.
5. To provide a background of information which will enable individuals to make intelligent judgments in their daily lives.
6. To provide resources relative to controversial issues so that individuals may develop informed opinions and practice critical reading and thinking.
7. To provide resources representative of the many religious, ethnic, and cultural groups and their contributions to our American heritage.
8. To place principle above personal opinion and reason above prejudice in the selection of resources of the highest quality in order to assure a comprehensive collection appropriate for the users.
9. To anticipate and meet needs through awareness of subjects of current interest.

 3. They select only materials based on authoritative and reliable review sources.

4. If they are asked to remove an item selected from the instructional program, they do not defend the material, but insist that the board adopted reconsideration policy and procedures be followed. This policy should require that a standing reconsideration committee be appointed at the beginning of each school year. When requested by the committee, they will provide the rationale and resources used for selection of the item under reconsideration.

5. Once a resource is selected, they do not restrict its use by any student. Professionals cannot act in the place of parents (in loco parentis) to restrict access to materials to individuals.  

That's it. Know your selection policy, select from authoritative reviews, and insist on due process if a book is challenged. It's not hard, but it does take genuine courage at times. And it is not only why we need professionals in all our school libraries, but professionals who act professionally.

At some point in time, schools will need to wake up and realize that the principles of selection and reconsideration need to be applied to online resources, including the web, as well as print and audio-visual materials. Does your district have a written policy that upholds the concepts of intellectual freedom in regard to the Internet? Who decides what is blocked and how are those decisions made? Are there resources from ALA and ISTE that can help schools formulate good policy in this area? (The Office of Intellectual Freedom at ALA does not respond to my e-mails about this.)

Other basic rules that I've forgotten? Library school was many, many, many years ago! 

Schools are closed here in Minnesota because of snow and ice. Can you tell?  

Image from <www.artlex.com>