Anonymous wrote:Once a week foreign language will do nothing. Maybe teach your child hello, goodbye and to count to ten. No disrepect to the world language teachers since they would almost certainly agree with me, but it just isn't enough time and practice to really teach a language. My middle schooler's language teacher has gone so far as to say that even though they can't officially give homework, to really have the language sink in the kids should be doing even 10min per day of review in the evenings.
Librarians and school libraries aren't just once a week in the child's life as other PPs have already documented. The librarians and library are amazing resources for the teachers. The library is a safe and welcoming place for kids. At the schools my child has attended the library is open before school and sometimes even at lunch for kids to come in and read or study.
The other reality is even though we have tremendous public libraries in Arlington and Alexandria, time is also an issue. Working parents and busy kids may have trouble getting to the public library on a regular basis, whereas having the library at school means it's available daily or at a minimum weekly.
Anonymous wrote:It just makes me sad you would even ask this.
Anonymous wrote:A couple other purposes:
- the librarian helps teachers pick good books to teach content and loans books to teachers to read in class.
- librarians reach research skills and helps reach how a library works
- kids are exposed to a wide range of books. This builds content knowledge which is tied with better reading skills
- libraries have books of all reading levels, where classroom libraries are limited to the main grade level of the class. So my kindergartener can get a chapter book on his favorite subject we can work on at home
- it's hard to find time to go to the library, but if books show up, we end up reading them and my kids get far more reading in
As far as costs, they are far less than you'd expect. Many libraries keep books in circulation for many years.
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So speaking specifically about APS and ACPS - I have to agree with the OP. I feel the money would be better spent hiring reading teachers to remediate reading.
Both APS and. ACPS good public library systems that are within reach. And before you say something silly like parents who don’t speak English might not know about them! I suggest you visit a library in these areas mid morning for the toddler storytimes and check out how many nannie’s are there with their charges. Or visit one not in a wealthy neighborhood to see who is using the computers.
Throw in the fact that free books in these two areas are plentiful. A plea to parents can easily yield an amazing response. Then consider how many of the PPs on this thread have almost guaranteed to have purchased books for their kids in some format in the last 30 days and bragged to someone about their kids impressive reading level. They don’t need school libraries for reading material.
And research? Yeah that is so poorly taught and random that tbh they are better off taking a short virtual course and being directed to use a citation generation website.
Cutting school library funding and redeploying the space and resources has definitely come up in the past.
So you think maybe 1.5 reading specialists would be better than regular visits to the school library?
Yeah, that does not add up. How many people can 1 1/2 reading specialist serve in one on one meetings as opposed to entire class is visiting a Library a couple times a week?
Anonymous wrote:Anonymous wrote:So speaking specifically about APS and ACPS - I have to agree with the OP. I feel the money would be better spent hiring reading teachers to remediate reading.
Both APS and. ACPS good public library systems that are within reach. And before you say something silly like parents who don’t speak English might not know about them! I suggest you visit a library in these areas mid morning for the toddler storytimes and check out how many nannie’s are there with their charges. Or visit one not in a wealthy neighborhood to see who is using the computers.
Throw in the fact that free books in these two areas are plentiful. A plea to parents can easily yield an amazing response. Then consider how many of the PPs on this thread have almost guaranteed to have purchased books for their kids in some format in the last 30 days and bragged to someone about their kids impressive reading level. They don’t need school libraries for reading material.
And research? Yeah that is so poorly taught and random that tbh they are better off taking a short virtual course and being directed to use a citation generation website.
Cutting school library funding and redeploying the space and resources has definitely come up in the past.
So you think maybe 1.5 reading specialists would be better than regular visits to the school library?
Anonymous wrote:So speaking specifically about APS and ACPS - I have to agree with the OP. I feel the money would be better spent hiring reading teachers to remediate reading.
Both APS and. ACPS good public library systems that are within reach. And before you say something silly like parents who don’t speak English might not know about them! I suggest you visit a library in these areas mid morning for the toddler storytimes and check out how many nannie’s are there with their charges. Or visit one not in a wealthy neighborhood to see who is using the computers.
Throw in the fact that free books in these two areas are plentiful. A plea to parents can easily yield an amazing response. Then consider how many of the PPs on this thread have almost guaranteed to have purchased books for their kids in some format in the last 30 days and bragged to someone about their kids impressive reading level. They don’t need school libraries for reading material.
And research? Yeah that is so poorly taught and random that tbh they are better off taking a short virtual course and being directed to use a citation generation website.
Cutting school library funding and redeploying the space and resources has definitely come up in the past.
Anonymous wrote:Classroom "libraries" are usually a hodgepodge group of inexpensive Scholastic books and freebies that a teacher has managed to beg off their local Buy Nothing group. They can't be compared to the curated collection of fiction and non-fiction books that have been chosen and organized by a professional to support learning objectives and provide factual information. It's like calling the Little Free Library on your street corner the equivalent of a public library.
Anonymous wrote:The school library was my safe space as a child. The librarian was kind and had a limitless supply of books, and it was less chaotic in there than in the classroom. I spent as much time as I could in the library. God bless school libraries.