Libraries everyone are facing budget issues and thus it leads to staffing issues.
It is important that a professionally trained librarian (school, public, and academic) staff that library which is going to be able to truly help these students!

This country has invested in the library infrastructure and we put together great school libraries and then as soon as the going gets tough we take away the golden opportunities that a library staffed by a professional librarian offers.

Librarians might be the only role model that a student will see outside their instructional day that is not making serious achievement demands of them.

Let’s all remember that – “This library is your library, this library is my library – From California, to the New York Island.”

Start speaking up that you support libraries and be proactive to stop the destruction of all types of libraries. If you don’t know what to do – call your school library, call your public library, call your academic library and ask them, “what can I do to support you?” “Who should I write to?” Trust me, each library will tell you who to call and who to write to. Go to your school board meeting and just say – I support the school library and stop the cuts!

I am glad the article mentioned Charles Murray and his new book
Coming Apart: The State of White America, 1960-2010.
If you really want to see how wide the gap is take this quiz.
http://tinyurl.com/comingapartbubble

There is a longer quiz in the book but this sample is a starting point. I believe many we find this an eye opening experience. I took the quiz and found out that I am part of that gap who is out of touch. What to do? I can make an effort to engage all types of people I interact with during a regular day – not just those people that are “just like me.” I can make a point to know the support staff – that “wear uniforms” – this means knowing their name and recognizing them with a hello and say their name – not just a nod or wave.

Moving to the suburbs used to be based on the illusion that families would escape the effects of a class society. but such differences and tensions exist everywhere. There are many differences in suburbs, as well. Maplewood does not appear to resemble Levitown, does it? The L.I. north shore and south shore reveal class differences and always have.

The focus on race may have overshadowed what has always existed: class divisions . The world began before 1950.

I do hope that children today know the difference between having and being an Internet “friend” and an actual friend. And, will they truly understand historical events, characters in fiction, the delight and demands of fine research? And, in this gregarious culture, what happens to spending time alone to think, experience, remember, and enjoy?

I’m a bit extreme about “Social Network” which reminds me of communes (I don’t mean the loose, druggy kind) , the Big Brother kind where consensus, joining together to change the world without considering the consequences turned into 70 years of isolation from the world for Russians, and the overthrow of other governments; even fascism is connected to such a concept, and I shudder.

I used to consider myself “the tree killer” because I consumed so much paper (administrators also worried about budgets for supplies).

Who knows? Perhaps some teachers may create the nonfiction books you promote! Much is possible!