Disturbing Texas Library News

Within the last week or so, eighteen school districts in Texas received a letter from State Representative,  Matt Krause, chair of the Texas House Committee on General Investigating. He wanted to know how many copies of the 850 books on a booklist their schools owned, as well as how much money the districts spent on these titles. 

Here are two articles appearing in newspapers last week that summarize what has happened. 

Texas GOP lawmaker launches investigation of books on race and sexuality used in school districts. https://wapo.st/3mtNhag from Washington Post, October 27, 2021

Texas House committee to investigate school districts’ books on race and sexuality. https://bit.ly/3Cx46XF from Texas Tribune, October 26, 2021

As a former school librarian who supports a student's right to check out and read any book in the library, I am upset that any state legislator assumes the right to start an investigation of this nature. In my opinion, it's the parents' responsibility to guide their child's reading choices, and it's the library/librarian's responsibility to provide quality titles on subjects that are appropriate for campus students.

Here are some facts with a few personal opinions added:

1. To my knowledge, in a public school no child is ever required to read a specific library book. Sometimes, a teacher will require students to read within a range of Lexile levels and/or may require a certain genre such as fiction, non-fiction, biography, biology, mythology, etc. But NOT a specific title. There is always a choice.

2. Every school district has a board-approved Recommendation for Consideration policy with a detailed procedure for investigation and decision-making The process is designed to handle one resource at a time.  

3. The list of 850 books is 15 pages long, and 11 of those pages list titles were published between 1991-2018. Good heavens! Books published in 1991 are 30 years old and shouldn't even still be on the shelves anyway unless they are considered classics. Most school libraries in Texas follow the weeding guidelines found in the CREW Method: Expanded Guidelines for Collection and Weeding, first published in 1976 by the Texas State Library and Archives Commission and updated periodically. As a general rule, the books on Krause's list published before 2018 would have been evaluated and removed from the library based on these guidelines and local criteria. 

4. The amount of time required for any librarian to check Krause's request is counterproductive. A librarian is a teacher and who uses professional skills to evaluate and purchase materials that are appropriate to the needs and demographics of the campus. Besides all school library catalogs have public access, and anyone who is concerned about the books in a library can look for themselves. Public tax dollars shouldn't be spent to satisfy the whims of one individual or a small group of individuals.

4. A big question is where was the list originated. Do you suppose Krause has read all these books and personally evaluated them based on some criteria that seem reasonable to him? Is there some group, either in-state or out-of-state, that is providing Krause fuel for this attention-getting activity? 

5. Apparently Krause did not have consensus among General Investigating committee members to generate this information-gathering quest.

6. During the summer of 2021, I was asked by the Texas State Library (TSLAC) to work with a group of professional Texas school librarians to evaluate the contents of two educationally-appropriate online databases available to secondary students. While the databases are prepared by a company with many years of experience providing vetted resources, TSLAC wanted to make sure the resources were suited for student research. We looked at over 27,000 resources and recommended certain journals and other documents to be deleted from the databases. Specifically, we looked for salacious, pornographic, and graphically inappropriate content. After hundreds of hours of work using a complex search process, less than 1% was deleted, and some of that was because the information was out-of-date or inaccurate. What's significant, I think, is that the questionable contents were not found easily; a casual or inexperienced database user would really have to know what they were looking for and exactly how to search.  

7. I support sheltering children from inappropriate content, but what's inappropriate for one might be the most appropriate for another. It depends on the reader and his parents.

__________________

Update: On November 4, 2021 Governor Abbot added his endorsement to Krause's investigation. Texas governor calls books 'pornography' in latest effort to remove LGBTQ titles from school libraries. https://www.cnn.com/2021/11/04/us/texas-lgbtq-books-schools/index/html

As a result of my personal experience of working with hundreds of Texas school librarians and future Texas school librarians, I can safely say that no one has put a pornographic book in any school library. They do select appropriate books that are sensitive to social emotional issues of today's readers.

Against the Grain

At first glance, this photo is just one that caught my eye as I browsed through photos  in Flickr Commons.

But take a longer look. I assume this is a school.

What questions does it raise?

• What is behind those doors?

• Is what’s behind the doors for males only?

• Do the graphics encourage running in the hall?

• Does the student demonstrate being a risk taker by “going again the grain?

• Has this student been rejected from what’s behind the doors?

• Is this a visual metaphor for rejection? 

• What’s in the bag the young man is carrying?

• Assuming the photo wasn’t photoshopped, how can the floors be so shiny? 

•Mysterious. Curious. Perhaps a good story starter.

Passion

 Sunday. Isn’t this the most exquisite flower?  I found one blooming in my yard today. My neighbor says it is a passion flower. Not being familiar with this flower, I did what all librarians do first. I googled it and then I “wikipediad” it. I found the flower I saw was probably a variety of passion flowers named a Maypop. Maypops, the state flower of Tennessee,  are considered wildflowers and grow on vines in sunny areas. They can produce an edible fruit. I’m not sure why these flowers are called passion flowers except their scientific name is Passiflora. But perhaps the most intriguing and the disappointing thing is the flower only lasts a day.

Monday. For a while now I’ve been processing about the “why” of me, and that’s separate from the “what” of me. When does the what become the why? Or does it?  Is the why the same thing as passion.  Are passion and why related? Obviously, I’m having trouble articulating my thoughts.

This morning as I was wandering around the web, I ran across a poem by Trevor Bryan on the 4 O’Clock Faculty website. I suppose I was subconsciously thinking about that passion flower, and I guess my brain took a mental leap and substituted the word passion for the word mission.  So I invite you to read the poem and substitute the word passion for mission and substitute all words about reading for all words about art.

Where does your librarianship fit into the what/why or job/mission conundrum? I hope you take a minute to reflect, and I hope your passion lasts more than a day.

 My Job

As an art teacher,

my job is to teach the basics of

art making and

and art appreciation.

That’s my job.

That’s what the curriculum says.

That’s why I was hired.

But my mission

is to get kids to  love art

or at least, put them on a path

to like art.

My mission

is to help kids meaningfully

explore,

find,

and share their

unique voice.

This means

that I have to put the kid

before the product

and put the kid

before the process.

The child comes first

Every child that enters my art room

brings a different background,

different experiences,

different cultures

and different parents.

Their relationship with

art making and art appreciation

are going to be just as diverse.

In many cases,

focusing on my job isn’t going to cut it.

In many cases,

I need to focus on my mission

which means,

I need to focus on the individual child.

Not the product.

Not the process.

But the child.

I’m thankful for my job.

I’m grateful for my mission.

~ Trevor Bryan https://fouroclockfaculty.com/2018/09/my-job/

Connections

•Since it’s middle of September, I know it’s a little unusual for me to select the graphic for this week that shows a vividly green leaf. But I’ve looked at this photo for many months, and only today did it occur to me that it would illustrate a perfect simile for a librarian. Successful librarians build networks like healthy plants grow veins. Both create associations with others that are strong  and interconnected.

•

•I wrote this on Sunday, and then on Monday…

•Judi Morreillon posted this graphic on the Maximizing School Librarian Leadership Facebook group.

•http://www.schoollibrarianleadership.com/2018/09/03/building-connections/

•It’s interesting how the interconnectedness of ideas can be found in such dissimilar places.

Ideas Start Here

 My first impression for this photo was, “Wow! What a good idea for a school library. Of course, the sign would not be taken literally. Who would dare say you couldn’t sit in the chairs if you didn’t have an idea?

Other questions that immediately came to mind:

•Could this be the library’s version of a buddy bench?

•Where in the library could this kind of area be set up?

•Would this space need to be reserved for small group conversations? It might if it were in a large high school.

•How could the space be defined? Area rug? Floor pillows? Funky chairs? A low table with a dry- erase top? I think I would put a large ottoman in the middle of the four chairs in the photo rather than a table. Then you wouldn’t have to remind the kids to get their feet off the furniture. :-/ I would get someone (perhaps a parent volunteer) to make a portable dry-erase surface that could be  laid on top of the ottoman.

Running the Routes

•I had the craziest idea last night.

•As a pre-school activity, I’ve heard that some principals load up their faculty on buses and “run the routes” so that teachers can see where the kids live.

•While I know there would be some logistical issues to work through, what if sometime during the year you rode each route with the kids in the afternoon?

•You could turn these bus trips into a different vehicle for promoting reading.  (Bad pun intended!)

•Details are far from being developed in my head, and I know this idea would have to be crafted to fit the situation.

•Assuming this is not a crazy idea for you, email me and let’s toss around some ideas.   

Starting the Year

Jim Tyson. https://unsplash.com/photos/r9T0LZv8xWQ

The title photo was an easy choice for the first edition of Web Wanderings, volume 3 . At the beginning of the school year, everyone is standing on Start.

But the questions become how will we proceed through the year? Will it be basically the same as  the last one, or will we create a new, completely revised version of our individual Hopscotch?  Will we hop from one square to the next, being able to avoid barriers and bumps in the road, or will we have a misstep along the way?

I just finished reading Your Back-To-School Messages Are Hurting Teachers* by Shanna Peeples, the 2015 National Teacher of the Year. She articulated so well  many of the thoughts I’ve had lately. I seem to have created my own echo chamber of educational cheerleaders. It can be overwhelming  thinking that all librarians are super stars and  thinking that if I do everything faster and better I could qualify for at least one Distinguished level in the new Texas Library Guidelines and Standards.

Sue Kowalski‏ @spkowalski  said recently, “If we keep doing the same thing because it's comfortable & people know what to expect, are we really moving forward?”  I’m not suggesting that we must plan on reinventing the world or even moving a small mountain. Individually we should look for a molehill or two to level. Some of bigger challenges may just have to wait. 

* ShannaPeeples/your-back-to-school-messages-are-hurting-teachers-44508cfda269  Takes 6 minutes to read

Right now, I’m on Start and figuring out what to do with my first hop!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vicr748hwgqknja/Vol3_Issue%201_Webwanderings_Share.pptx?dl=0  or http://bit.ly/2vAV1wg