Librarians Are the Best...

filters, that is, according Anne Collier who said “Librarians are the best filters,because they can teach students about the filter between their ears.”
I found this article in the School Library Journal worth reading because, among other things, it points out once again the value that librarians and media specialist bring to schools. While classroom teachers may feel more comfortable with their "doors closed" and their energy focused primarily on their own students; librarians and other specialists whose job it is to serve the whole school and the whole student body find it uncomfortable to have the doors closed. They often have a broader view of student needs and the context in which students learn.
Because of the different focus that specialists bring to their work, they are often more flexible and more open to new ideas. Our students need both types of caring attention: the sharp focus on immediate student needs and learning and the broader focus on the whole child over their whole educational career and that child within the broader context of school and community.
What we need is to raise the awareness of that value that librarians and media programs bring to schools...an awareness that can be diminished in economic hard times. What can you cut...those that not directly in charge of students. The learning is diminished for students.
We need to continue to raise that awareness and speak up when our work is not recognized!