Submitted by youngbuck215 t3_124a0tr in philadelphia
Internet rage bait distracts us from problems in our communities.
Comments
TheFAPnetwork t1_jdzjnwt wrote
I like when I get to take my kids to CHOP for doctors appointments. They have shelves of books for kids to take home and read, free of charge.
I encouraged my 9 year old to get the Sideways Stories from Wayside High. She took one but told me she didn't like the book.
TheAwkwardOne-_- t1_jdzkzqg wrote
> I encouraged my 9 year old to get the Sideways Stories from Wayside High. She took one but told me she didn't like the book.
Yeet the child /s
Gjardeen t1_je0w1t4 wrote
It's one of the crappy things about having a kid in the public school. Luckily I'm a Sahm so I can take my kids to the public library once a week. Our elementary has a small library (maybe 300 books?) but the kids can't take them home so the opportunity to read them is limited.
tigerbalmz t1_je0xjx5 wrote
I feel you on that!!! My kids are in public school as well. They have a library but this year has been a bit more difficult with getting books my son is interested in reading because there’s such a limited number of them. Libraries are hard for us to get to, so we try to get the books online through Libby. More often I end up buying the books and they’re very costly as my kids get older. We keep them in great condition and we’ll donate them back to the community when we’re done with it. Books are one thing I’m willing to spend on and pass on…
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hellocloudshellosky t1_jdym07m wrote
Wait - 7 SCHOOLS total in the Philly public school system have libraries??? That can’t be - gods, I hope so much that isn’t true.
jea25 t1_jdyoq0b wrote
I’m not sure there are only 7 libraries, I think there are 7 librarians in the district. There are some schools that have libraries but they are run by teachers or parents. A lot of times schools have the books but no one with the time to keep them organized enough that they can be lent out.
SanjiSasuke t1_jdypald wrote
My lazy Googling suggests that this is exactly the problem, and that Philly has the worst ratio of libraries to schools in the country. That's awful.
MaimedJester t1_jdyyalc wrote
That's what Charter row does for a city.
For some ridiculous reason I don't understand every chatter school private enterprise company tries to use Philadelphia as their testing grounds. And 90% of these for profit charter schools fail within 4 years. Like there's something about federal funding they're abusing to get somewhere. But it's absolutely nuts you go to Allegheny West and there been like 4 different schools under different management in the same building hiring Americorps volunteers over the last ten years. Starting up a school system from scratch is insane to comprehend the logistics. You're not just selling Burgers or Jeans to a customer who walks in, you're educating a child for an entire year and dealing with Chicken pox outbreaks or kids with Asperger's. You're not in a consumer based climate when it's just one annoying Karen yelling at the restaurant about garlic bread you can ask her to leave. You're stuck with a kid by law you have to contractually educate for a year and make a process to state overseers saying exactly why you expelled/recommend this kid for Alternative schooling.
Kinkyregae t1_jdzqbcu wrote
I worked in a charter school in south Philly. 1000% shady shit going on with funding.
Regardless of the money, we were cheating tests and bending rules to make our school scores look way better than they actually were.
When public schools die, so to will the middle class.
Ng3me t1_jdzqxbr wrote
Yup. Charters suck you dry. That’s why rich districts don’t have them.
Clarck_Kent t1_je0lgkd wrote
The owners of the charter schools also tend to have a separate company that packages curriculum, then uses the tax funding they siphon from the public school district to buy the curriculum packages from themselves.
Check out Vahan Gureghian and CSMI.
BureaucraticHotboi t1_jdzwtvj wrote
They are working to send public school the way of our health insurance system. Jeffrey Yass the richest man in PA and a massive conservative donor just happens to donate a good deal to a few prominent Philly Dems like State Senator Anthony Hardy Williams who support charter schools and “school Choice”
BongButNoWeed t1_je1byt0 wrote
The ceo of my charter school made 500k a year.
We didn't have a library
a-german-muffin t1_je0ih9m wrote
> or kids with Asperger's
Not for nothing, but Asperger's hasn't been a diagnosis for a decade (not least because Herr Asperger was a Nazi collaborator who referred disabled kids to a clinic where they were probably murdered). It's folded into the somewhat broader autism spectrum disorder (ASD)-1 as of DSM V*.
*whoops wrong revision
CheapBoxOWine t1_je0yrvx wrote
That sounds made up. Literally not saying it is, but it sounds fake. I will have to look this up or someone please source.
a-german-muffin t1_je10blr wrote
Right year, wrong Roman numeral — it was the DSM-V revision (got that one mixed up).
As for Asperger himself being a Nazi collaborator, it's well established.
> Sheffer lays out the evidence, from sources such as medical records and referral letters, showing that Asperger was complicit in this Nazi killing machine. He protected children he deemed intelligent. But he also referred several children to Vienna’s Am Spiegelgrund clinic, which he undoubtedly knew was a centre of ‘child euthanasia’, part of what was later called Aktion T4.
CheapBoxOWine t1_je26iv6 wrote
Dope. Thank you.
I don't go around reading a bunch about Nazis but if you went on the internet and someone just told you an autistic disorder is named after one, would you just accept it as fact?
a-german-muffin t1_je2dxb9 wrote
Legit, dude. No judgment from me on that mark!
am_pomegranate t1_je1rfsj wrote
My school technically has a library. It's just out of use and is only used for events and backup offices. We don't have a librarian or any book check-out system, we just have a bunch of shelves with random books people left there.
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Redpandaling t1_jdymgif wrote
Sadly, libraries are often the first target of budget cuts in education.
sandwichpepe t1_jdyo981 wrote
honestly it should be the very last thing they target
SgtBoaty t1_jdz3w0j wrote
sandwichpepe t1_jdykohl wrote
and people wonder how more than half the city’s adults are functionally illiterate
sandwichpepe t1_jdylsor wrote
like deadass there’s a regular that comes in to my work and he often brings in magazines - he comes over to me and points to a part on the page and goes, “what does this say?” or “can you tell me who this guy is?” (i read the article for him to find out). he even asked me to help him fill out the application for his REAL ID, he had no clue what was on the paper. i thought it was odd and was trying to figure out why he needed me to do this for him, and then i realized - this guy can’t read! he can read very little, like he understood the “no bathroom” sign on the door but even struggles to do that. this guy is 54 years old. fifty fucking four. he was homeless and begging for a long time but now he finally has a job!!!!!
casp514 t1_jdynukj wrote
without asking you to give away your personal work info, i wonder if this is the guy that i've seen frequently ask people to help read newspapers to him at one of the stores i go to in fairmount? he asked me to help one time when i was in line and i did but thought it was a bit odd, but then i went back another day and another dude in line was reading to him and i was like oh, this guy just wants to know the news but can't read
sandwichpepe t1_jdyo4at wrote
it could be, this guy shows up to my store in cc once a week but comes in at the exact same time and day. i don’t think he’s ever had newspapers though, just celebrity drama magazines 😂
casp514 t1_jdyooy4 wrote
i mean considering those library numbers i wouldn't be surprised if it was two different guys 🙃 but i love that for him. i'm not sure how often the guy in fairmount is there but he brings in a plastic bag with what must be at least a week's worth of newspapers and kinda just flips through em
Moose2157 t1_jdztg48 wrote
Funny to think the guy wakes up and thinks, “Time to hit the streets and see how Jeremy Renner is doing with his recovery.”
snooloosey t1_je05ef5 wrote
i got stuck reading to this guy. i wont give up OPs place of work but i was stuck waiting for something and had to read the whole paper.
luckygirl721 t1_je4yfur wrote
You’re so kind…God bless.
porkchameleon t1_je519n4 wrote
Could be dyslexic: I had a kid like that in school growing up (early years). Super nice, but massive issues with reading comprehension early on. I don't know if he was diagnosed officially (moved schools eventually), but back in the day they didn't focus on stuff like that and chalked it up to a general learning disability or something like that.
OccasionallyImmortal t1_je0oq71 wrote
Are they functionally illiterate because of a lack of libraries in schools? Sure, it's not helping, but it seems unlikely that people who cannot read are going to spend a lot of time in their school's library.
Anyone who graduates and is functionally illiterate has been failed by the school system and their parents. How can a school fail to recognize an obvious lack of education yet repeatedly promote them into the next grade or graduate from high school without being taught one of the most basic skills?
Inevitable-Place9950 t1_je33xfb wrote
Access to the variety of stories in libraries are part of how kids get motivated to read. Kind of like how the number of books in the kid’s home correlate to academic achievement.
OccasionallyImmortal t1_je3gae7 wrote
At no point in my life did the contents of a school library contribute to my ability to read because my school also did not have one. The public library contributed to my continued interest in reading which the school library could also facilitate.
The critical ingredient are parents and/or teachers who value reading as important. Half of Philadelphia's children appear to have neither.
apricot57 t1_jdznwlt wrote
When I was a poll worker I got to see this first-hand. So sad.
meeemawww t1_jdzriwq wrote
This sucks. A big part of the problem though is that librarians, like teachers, are woefully underpaid. I have my masters in library science, a degree I had to take out copious student loans to get. When I realized during the program that even librarians at city libraries often make less than 40-50k a year, I was shocked. Yes, that’s more than a lot of people in this city make, and maybe you all will rag on me for this, but most people with masters degrees want to make more money than that. I would love to be a school librarian and help with literacy and information programs across this city, but I can’t afford to.
There are so many larger issues at play here just within the library science field regarding representation and gatekeeping and wage inequity…all of which is to say I am saddened but not surprised by this statistic. And I wish I could help somehow but I can’t because capitalism.
stormy2587 t1_jdztcz8 wrote
I really wonder what schools would look like if teachers and librarians were making say close to 6 figures starting salary.
Like how do we pay these people so comically little?
meeemawww t1_jdztru2 wrote
Well I can tell you that part of the problem is that these roles, teachers and librarians, have historically been filled by women, who as we all know do not deserve to be paid as much as men. /s
But in all seriousness, I wonder the same thing. How wonderful would it be if we invested money into schools and libraries and information literacy programs and not, say, PPD? :)
stormy2587 t1_jdzx7wc wrote
Agreed it seems like every extra dollar we spend on the PPD gets negative returns these days. Might as well spend it on something else.
apathetic_panda t1_je05jkp wrote
Do you still qualify for public sector forgiveness- or is continuous |persistent employment in said declining public sector jobs the impossible hurdle to clear?
meeemawww t1_je06ksp wrote
It’s a good question. If you work as a librarian at a public city library, you may qualify for public sector forgiveness, I don’t really know the answer. But continuous, persistent employment is one of the larger issues.
If it were up to me to fix, I would make library science a bachelors degree career and a track at more public 4-year universities. My hope is that more people would enter the field and want to serve the communities they came from in public and school libraries.
Libraries have the potential to hold a lot of power and help a lot of people, and are socialist institutions in their very nature. A library has so much more potential than just a repository for books you can borrow. This is what drew me to the field. I wish more people appreciated libraries and that collectively we invested more in them.
apathetic_panda t1_je080nm wrote
>library has so much more potential than just a repository for books you can borrow.
You kill imagination by preventing pizza 🍕 parties.
> at more public 4-year universities.
This would require the support of the other departments- as in encouraging their students to seek concurrent programs & curate.
Pizza could be a vegetable- if you wrapped a salad 🥗 in a pita 🪘🥁🛢🍗🥴
meeemawww t1_je08689 wrote
I’m…confused by this comment lol.
apathetic_panda t1_je08abm wrote
I do that alot, don't worry about it
Delfiasa t1_je2ks1p wrote
Public service loan forgiveness requires 120 payments on an approved income driven repayment plan. It doesn’t need to be continuous! Just the total number of payments while working for a qualifying employer
Trafficsigntruther t1_je0auo7 wrote
> I really wonder what schools would look like if teachers and librarians were making say close to 6 figures starting salary.
You just have to go to the suburbs to find out.
Lynn9330 t1_je0lzkl wrote
Jeez I just did and I know how they get paid that much now cuz I’m paying over 5k in school taxes
Sweaty-Inside t1_je1b0vx wrote
In addition to being typically female professions, they also benefit from it being a passion career. The kind of person who wants to go into the field would only do so if they really believed it was important, so the employer (or in this case, government) can bake that into it. "Sure, it's not financially rewarding, but it's your calling."
momentums t1_jdzzuqm wrote
Nah, you’re correct about MA equalling a higher salary – that’s an investment of time and money and education to specialize in your field!
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Kodiak_85 t1_jdyvkpm wrote
This is a fucking embarrassment.
Thecrawsome t1_jdzy333 wrote
What, The Christian Taliban, or OP telling us to stop worrying about it?
justanawkwardguy t1_je00q9x wrote
OP isn't saying to stop worrying about it, just that there are much bigger problems with the same boat
NonIdentifiableUser t1_jdytjcw wrote
Hard to fund a functional school district when federal policies siphoned away money to suburban sprawl instead of supporting the cities that built this nation. It’s a sad state of affairs.
SaltPepperKetchup215 t1_jdzo3dj wrote
The faster we stop the mindless finger pointing and hold our local city officials accountable the better.
This city fails to fund every service for children every single budget every single year.
The schools, libraries and pools are the very last item on the docket and they cry poor and finger point every year. This city has a massive budget and provide shit services across the board.
mortgagepants t1_jdzu7vz wrote
there was a recent state supreme court case that is going to recalculate how funding is allocated.
doc89 t1_jdzolcz wrote
We spend ~$20k/student/year, which is more than what most of the suburbs spend.
NonIdentifiableUser t1_je03t98 wrote
From the Inquirer
> The district spends close to the state average per student, but when adjusted for student need, it ranks below many districts. Philadelphia’s weighted, per-student expenditure — a need-adjusted measure of what districts actually spend — is $10,796 per student; the state average is $13,688. Lower Merion, by comparison, spells $26,362 per student.
> Because many Philadelphia students require special education services, are homeless, live in foster care or in distressed communities, the cost of educating them is high, Monson said. City students often lack “things that should be basic in order to be prepared for education. We have to supplement in order to make up for that.”
doc89 t1_je0485l wrote
Yeah I find this kind of analysis silly and ridiculous.
"We may be getting the same amount of money as other schools, but when you factor in how much money I actually wish I had, we should be getting much more!"
NonIdentifiableUser t1_je05s1n wrote
Why is it ridiculous? That’s not what the quote I picked out of the article is saying at all. The point is that, on average, it costs more to educate children in Philadelphia, where a large percentage of the population is living in poverty and thus facing a number of externalities that complicate things, than a wealthy suburb.
doc89 t1_je065ii wrote
>The point is that, on average, it costs more to educate children in Philadelphia, where a large percentage of the population is living in poverty and thus facing a number of externalities that complicate things, than a wealthy suburb.
Why does it cost more? Most of the expenses (teacher/admin salary, books, etc) should be largely the same no matter where they are paid for.
signedpants t1_je0da06 wrote
The good news is that the above commenter posted the article that answers your questions. Not exactly shocking, but a lot more intensive teaching is required when you have a large amount of students who are homeless, lack internet access, require special education etc.
doc89 t1_je0e8te wrote
>homeless
What percentage of Philadelphia public school children are homeless? And how much more does it cost to educate a homeless child than a housed child?
​
>lack internet access
Why does this increase the cost to educate children?
The district could literally just pay ~$50/mo to get every family free internet and it would represent like 2% of the total budget.
​
>require special education etc.
That is the entire question I'm asking here: what is so "special" about Philadelphia children that they cost 50% or 100% more to educate than suburban children?
signedpants t1_je0fow4 wrote
I have not found a single website that comes close to your 50 or 100 percent numbers. What source are you getting these numbers from? Since we're discussing relative spending, the answer to your questions don't need to be hard numbers. Just that those numbers are higher in the city compared to the suburbs. Which certainly you can understand?
doc89 t1_je0hcav wrote
>I have not found a single website that comes close to your 50 or 100 percent numbers. What source are you getting these numbers from?
I'm just spitballing based on numbers in the inquirer article.
In reality, the philadelphia district and lower merion have roughly the same per student expenses:
https://www.niche.com/k12/d/philadelphia-city-school-district-pa/
https://www.niche.com/k12/d/lower-merion-school-district-pa/
...but the article implies that this number actually would need to be increased thousands more in Philadelphia in order to get up to the state average, or to get to what Lower Merion "spends":
" a need-adjusted measure of what districts actually spend — is $10,796 per student; the state average is $13,688. Lower Merion, by comparison, spells $26,362 per student."
Which gets back to my original point about why this type of analysis is so silly and ridiculous. Measured in dollars (which is how most people measure spending usually...), these districts spend similar amounts but measured in this mysterious "Needs Based Adjusted" metric, the numbers come out wildly different. It just seems dishonest and bizarre.
signedpants t1_je0jaod wrote
The poverty rate in Philadelphia is 23%, it's 3% in lower merion. Average household income in LM and median salary are double that of philadelphia. That obviously puts a massive strain on the school system. Does that really seem all that bizarre and dishonest?
doc89 t1_je0jxy6 wrote
>That obviously puts a massive strain on the school system. Does that really seem all that bizarre and dishonest?
Yes, I think it's dishonest to pretend that the schools are "underfunded" when they are funded at the same/similar dollar amount as other schools or to pretend that poor kids need to have double or triple the amount of money spent on them as non-poor kids.
realityhofosho t1_je11758 wrote
It is required. I agree. But does it happen? I've never seen this.
(and I'm not saying it doesn't, but I've been in education for 25 years in the city, and I've yet to see it.)
Instead, I see (sadly) a "you get what you pay for" model in action. These schools are the worst funded, and you can tell.
justanawkwardguy t1_je0104a wrote
Suburban schools also don't have to provide as much to their students because they come from better backgrounds, so your point is moot
[deleted] t1_je048om wrote
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doc89 t1_je01wwq wrote
The point I was trying to make is that it is simply false to pretend like the problem is "federal policies siphoned away money to suburban schools" when the schools are in fact getting more money than suburban schools.
If you think that the schools in the city need/deserve more money than suburban schools, that's a fine argument to make/have, but I'm so tired of hearing about this fantasy of the schools being "underfunded".
realityhofosho t1_je11jy2 wrote
I would love to know what suburban school are providing that the city's are not. Not being snarky, just literally have no idea.
justanawkwardguy t1_je12ed8 wrote
I’m saying the opposite of that, city schools provide a lot of services that suburban don’t. More city school students need help with food and technology, issues that suburban schools don’t typically tackle
chciKaspp t1_je2dvbp wrote
Nurses, librarians, therapists, teachers aides, special education teachers for starters.
frogponder t1_jdzj8y4 wrote
Read by 4th is an incredible organization! Sign up to volunteer as a Reading Captain!
fudgebacker t1_jdytxei wrote
In the city where libraries were invented. Way to go Philly!
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stormy2587 t1_jdzsxe2 wrote
Yet another example of why we need more libraries.
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cashonlyplz t1_jdzuilg wrote
>In the first city to build a library in the so-called United States
FTFY
horsebatterystaple99 t1_jdzj4jl wrote
Also, the required texts for standardized texts [edit: standardized tests] are very expensive. It's like a high school version of the college textbook scam. So many schools also cannot prep the kids.
TheNightmareOfHair t1_je0mrmd wrote
Speaking of internet rage bait...
This "only 7" stat seems to be about how many schools have certified librarians -- not the number of schools that have libraries.
Couple of things about that:
- Libraries seem to be under-invested in, and some schools don't have them. Agreed.
- I don't know the number of schools with libraries. It probably depends a lot on how you define a library, but I would bet a bunch of money that if you use a normal-person definition like "a dedicated area with a sufficient number of books and a borrowing system," then the number is much higher than 7.
- I was never clear on what our school librarians did, and I'm still not. Did they need a certification to keep the shelves stocked, answer questions, and recommend books? Are students even coming to school librarians to ask questions or ask for book recommendations these days?
- Stop the internet rage bait, please, or at least the irony of calling out internet rage bait in an internet rage bait post.
BlackWidowLooks t1_je15dyp wrote
School librarians, specifically, are teachers of a kind (in PA and many other states the job requires a teaching license as well and a Library Science Degree.) During school library time students don't just get books and read. They have their reading skills evaluated by a dedicated professional, they get specific instruction in reading skills that greatly supplements what and overworked teacher can provide and is more focused on reading for pleasure than textual required reading, and most importantly for me, they teach research and information resource evaluation; the skills we need to, say, "do our own research on the vaccine," and not come away with some Q Anon garbage.
It's no accident that insufficient school funding policies over the last 40-50 years leading to a lack of school librarians, happening at the same time as a boom in technology changing how we get information faster than we can keep up, has lead to the exact situation we are in, where kids on Tik Tok think birds are a psyop and a not insignificant part of our nation's population believes the big election lie.
When I was a kid in public school our librarian taught us boolean operators. Now, I work with kids and even having grown up with google their whole lives they can often barely figure out the best way to get the information they are looking for because no one is teaching them.
youngbuck215 OP t1_je0rlbd wrote
Naw there are around a dozen schools with functioning libraries run by volunteers etc.
https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadelphia-school-district-library-building-21-20211016.html
realityhofosho t1_je11y2m wrote
Can't read, paywall, but wasn't this building just closed permanently last month?
cashonlyplz t1_jdzv3u2 wrote
As small minded as my hometown (and as poor as I) was, we had a fully functioning media lab and library.
& i was the kid who went to the municipal library, after school, to use the internet (and stay the hell out of trouble). That was invaluable for a latchkey kid (of which Philly has no shortage of)
Libraries are an investment. I wish we invested in human potential & the resource of knowledge and education, as much as we invest in large capital expenditure projects and business. Can we have quality physical and social infrastructure, please?
Firm_Airport2816 t1_je07d2t wrote
I wonder if the ones run by home and school associations count. My Kids public school had a very small library a few years ago, now its a nice sized room with quite a few books, but parents volunteer to run it
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Ng3me t1_jdzqtco wrote
Every time there’s a school funding post some doofus chimes in with “money isn’t actually that important blah blah.” And they somehow aren’t downvoted into oblivion. It’s telling how many reactions to this post are “No way! How could a school not have a library?!” What do you think these funding posts are about?
iPoopAtChu t1_jdyzxsf wrote
Is that number real? Both my K-8 school and my high school had a school library..
SgtBoaty t1_jdz3v8y wrote
iPoopAtChu t1_jdz4f3j wrote
The only other high school I ever visited also had a library... 3/3. I wonder if the source published a list of schools with a library.
lyzgoestolawschool t1_jdzm19d wrote
Information on public employees is public, so it's not like there are more than 7 librarians being paid under the table. Sounds like you've just been fortunate in the schools you've visited, but your experiences don't trump data.
iPoopAtChu t1_je0fhpf wrote
There might not be 7 dedicated librarians but from my experience there were teachers that staffed them, or students actually. That's why I'd like to see the data to see if it's misleading in any way.
lyzgoestolawschool t1_je1yd07 wrote
That's a valid point but I'd argue that any library being staffed by a teacher who has another job to do is not an adequate library and shouldn't be counted the same as one staffed by a professional and/or full time librarian.
justanawkwardguy t1_je017dw wrote
It's not so much that schools don't have a library, it's that they don't have a functional library. They don't have the staff to run it so it stays closed
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jinntakk t1_je02ri1 wrote
l didn't even realize it but yeah, l work at a school and we don't have a library. The school does have books at the front desk that they purchase to give out to students whenever they want, but the selection is far smaller than a library would be.
Lynn9330 t1_je0ncaq wrote
Central has a very nice library which I enjoyed while going there. However towards the end of my time there, they were asking alumni and parents to run it. It was nice but honestly most used it more for the computers and magazines
oksis215 t1_jdzpz78 wrote
i went to like 6 different schools growing up, one had a library. someone wrote an article about how shitty it was lol
Starpork t1_jdzrm7o wrote
That's weird, I just toured two and they both have them so maybe someone's just counting funny
justanawkwardguy t1_je01j7a wrote
It's not that they don't have physical libraries, it's that they don't have the staff to run them
Starpork t1_je0983p wrote
Maybe OP should say that
OccasionallyImmortal t1_je0npyl wrote
My school in Philly had no library. The classrooms had a small selection of books, but that was the extent of it. However, it never felt like a handicap because the public library was easy to get to even for a kid.
Fly__Eagles__Fly t1_je0q8rm wrote
We don’t talk about the secret libraries
goldfinch_eggs t1_je1dfkk wrote
Yeah my kid’s school has one of those. I was so confused when they started bringing books home from “the library” then I volunteered at a Book Fair and delivered some books to the “library.”
The teacher gave my kid a banned book too - Strega Nona. I had never heard of it but apparently it’s banned in some states bc the little Italian grandma does witchcraft. I think it’s radical some people are doing this, the kids don’t understand but I appreciate it!
tigerbalmz t1_je0zaop wrote
Just put our time, energy, and money into making a great public school system for all communities!!!! Every kid deserves a great education… if you have shtty parents, you should have a school to support you through your toughest years until you can get out of whatever situation. Schools should be the hub of social services. They’re the ones catching the problems and they should have the support staff to help with the problems. The money is there! Get our politicians to care enough to fight for the funds.
jjdactyl t1_je1dfps wrote
I used to work at a school in Fishtown- we had a library full of books but no one could use it because we didn't have a librarian. That's almost more horrible than not having the library at all, you know? "Just behind that door, all the books you could want!" but the door stays locked.
hclvyj t1_je2wlrh wrote
It was 6 until recently. The public school in Chestnut Hill just got a library in October and its only open part-time through volunteer partnerships but not professionally staffed.
We only have FOUR librarians in the whole school district. Terrible. I know we have great public libraries but they are also always understaffed.
SouthPhilly_215 t1_je4bwiq wrote
Yo but we have all kinds of bike lanes and “pavement enhancements”! We also have dog parks and beer gardens and axe throwing! The stuff of super intelligent society. Lemme tell ya…
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Lunamothknits t1_jdzvkx0 wrote
This isn’t why the schools here don’t have libraries anymore. Someone was able to convince everyone that switching to chromebooks would be better than needing books and paper, and they got away with it. 🙃 I think it was 2016ish? It wasn’t the norm before.
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IntelligentCommenter t1_je03w42 wrote
both things can be serious problems. We can walk and chew gum at the same time dumbass
gingersnap0309 t1_je053o0 wrote
Traditional school libraries are being phased out and usually replaced with more computer workstations in the same space. Noticed this at some community colleges too.
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FormerHoagie t1_je26haq wrote
This article, although discussing NJ schools, explains the shift a bit.
BigShawn424 t1_je2954m wrote
Which of the schools have libraries?
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luckygirl721 t1_je4zahx wrote
Do you have a source for this? I’d like to see more and possibly share this. TIA
youngbuck215 OP t1_je5b4cf wrote
The easiest way to read up on this topic is just Google 'Philadelphia School Libraries'. There are a number of reputable sources writing about this topic on the first page of results.
Moose2157 t1_jdzu44k wrote
I’ll put my ignorance on display and ask why it’s important that schools have libraries so long as the public libraries are available. I went to private Catholic schools where we had libraries, but in grade school is was basically a free period of goofing off in the aisles, and in high school it was just a place to use a computer.
To put it another way, if funding suddenly became available, would it be best used in opening school libraries?
Legit curious. I’m not acting like I’m into something here.
justanawkwardguy t1_je01gc2 wrote
Please tell me how accessible our public libraries are.
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Oh, that's right, they aren't. They're open only from like 1-5, M-F at most locations. So while kids have the time after school to go, they don't have parents available to take them
Moose2157 t1_je0481g wrote
Why are you responding like a smug prick instead of just raising your (good) point civilly?
Pleasure chatting with you.
JayWalkerC t1_jdzyyo9 wrote
Ease of access. Lots of kids and their parents wouldn't think of going to a public library. If it's in school you would be more readily exposed to it.
Moose2157 t1_je01uz7 wrote
In a city as poor as Philly, it makes sense we can’t duplicate resources. We’re already funding public libraries, so it’s not as if kids don’t have access to free books. It would be nice to have them in schools, too, but it seems that money could be better spent.
My mind isn’t made up here.
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BlackWidowLooks t1_je14ck3 wrote
School librarians, specifically, are teachers of a kind (in PA and many other states the job requires a teaching license as well and a Library Science Degree.) During school library time students don't just get books and read. They have their reading skills evaluated by a dedicated professional, they get specific instruction in reading skills that greatly supplements what and overworked teacher can provide and is more focused on reading for pleasure than textual required reading, and most importantly for me, they teach research and information resource evaluation; the skills we need to, say, "do our own research on the vaccine," and not come away with some Q Anon garbage.
It's no accident that insufficient school funding policies over the last 40-50 years leading to a lack of school librarians, happening at the same time as a boom in technology changing how we get information faster than we can keep up, has lead to the exact situation we are in, where kids on Tik Tok think birds are a psyop and a not insignificant part of our nation's population believes the big election lie.
I can't vouch for your catholic education, but when I was a kid in public school our librarian taught us boolean operators. Now, I work with kids and even having grown up with google their whole lives they can often barely figure out the best way to get the information they are looking for because no one is teaching them.
Moose2157 t1_je1rwjh wrote
Thanks for sharing. I wasn’t aware of much of that. I was a child in the 80s, so no Boolean operators for me, sadly.
At the root of my initial shrugging was a sense that a library is almost besides the point when it comes to public schools, to go by my father’s decades of tales as a grade school teacher in the district. Seems precious little learning happens there.
BlackWidowLooks t1_je1xlhr wrote
Well, your dad is wrong! He should have visited the library more.
Moose2157 t1_je2j1re wrote
The horror stories go on for ages. He’s worked in several schools over the years and it got to where I told him to stop telling me the stories because of how depressing they were.
tigerbalmz t1_jdyk7se wrote
Whoa! That‘s the first time I’m hearing this… Never thought there would be a school without a library. It’s like how do you school without books?!? This is heart breaking…