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the librarians kill me. one day this year, my DD5 noticed one of the Harry Potter book in the library, and gleefully clapped her hands and squealed. the librarian responded with, "oh, you're too little for that, dear." um, no.
of course, this WAS the same woman who, when it came to the (mandatory) Birthday Book donation, blithely ignored DD5's list of preferred topics (robotics/medical) and instead put her name inside the umpteenth copy of Angelina Ballerina, based solely on the fact that she's a 5 year old girl. so glad i got a tax receipt for that one. ugh.
when did this happen to librarians? the ones i remember from childhood were super awesome and essentially said, "have at it, you little weirdo!"
The middle school librarian had a fit when I asked for Lolita and told me it was pornographic. I never had any guidance, and could have used some from a great librarian because I ended up really reading a lot of trash.
I have posted at length about our awful principal and the fact that she never spent even one day as a classroom teacher. (She had a corporate background when she earned an MLS and became an elementary school librarian. 4 years later she became a principal.) I have several friends who worked with her during her short tenure as a librarian and all report it was a nightmare. One reports working with a TAG student on a project and he finished the book he was working with. She gave him a pass and sent him to the library to get another so they could keep going on the next stage of the project. A few minutes later he came back, trembling and ghost white. Apparently when he entered the library - with a pass in order to check out a book for an extra project he was working on for the TAG program - she apparently threw a total hissy fit. Yelling at him that he had no right to enter "her" library at any time other than the one period a week his class came. Heaven forbid that a smart, well behaved child might actually want to learn something extra...
I live in Los Angeles area. If you live around here, could you tell me which private school your kids go?
Thanks!
I'm near San Jose, but I know of a few schools in LA.
Did you know that LA has a set of magnet schools for kids with high IQs? I don't know anything about them.
There are also private schools specifically for gifties (e.g. Mirman). Here's a list.
Re: School libraries.
Has anyone ever asked why they do this? It seems very weird to me. But I suppose one can never really plumb the depths (shallows?) of an edumacator's so-called logic. That was't very nice, and I don't care. Restricting a child's book choices is just plain mean. Not to mention that they're shutting bright low-SES kids out of books at their level (wealthier people can just go buy them)!
When I was a kid (remember, public school, but a long time ago), we could borrow any book we wanted. I remember a couple of coffee-table type books in the section of the library for 7th and 8th graders and up. The books were about ancient Egypt and ancient Rome. I loved them! I used to borrow them two or three times a year, starting in second grade. No one ever batted an eye. Most of us borrowed a range of books from all sections.
Our DS (6) was enrolled in Kindergarten in the public school at the beginning of this year.
We were there about a month and the best they could do for him was to pull him out for reading to go to the third-grade class. Unfortunately, they weren't serious about that...we realized it when I overheard an aide tell his Kindergarten teacher that the third-grade teacher needed his book report.
Um...book report? This kid can read at a fifth-grade level but hasn't a clue what a book report is. They never explained it to him.
So, we pulled him and placed him in a private school. They don't require book reports for the reading, but the teacher has a "beef" with "pushing" children. So, we've allowed him to "tread water" this year with whatever she wants to give him to read. (Maybe third-grade...I'm not sure.) And as far as math, he's been given third-grade worksheets without much instruction.
For example, today I went in early to check up on him and found him in the principal's office doing his worksheet. DS was needing some help with visualizing the answer to a problem, so I suggested a piece of scratch paper. (He asked for a calculator...to which the principal laughed.) I suspect because I was there, the principal gave him scratch paper with which to figure.
What I'm saying is the private school, unless specifically stated, will not be any better with differentiation than public.
There's no way around getting an appointment for a personal plan for your child. Don't expect anything from a private or charter that's not in writing.
We're hoping to hear from a charter that offers blended classes for his first grade year soon. Perhaps you have a charter like that near you?
For example, today I went in early to check up on him and found him in the principal's office doing his worksheet...
I asked him why he was in the principal's office during recess and he told me during math class he was like the girl on Schoolhouse Rock who is dreaming. Because he didn't do his worksheet, he lost recess.
We have a fantastic school librarian who seems to know all the kids, what they like, hand sells books pitched to their interest, and considers reluctant readers a challenge and enthusiastic readers a joy.
This stuff still happens at our school, because of teachers' instructions. The one time I heard the dreaded line "you can't check that out because you are in first grade" the librarian was pretty apologetic.
Val, I suspect it is all about a somewhat misplaced trust in reading assessments (which at our school don't go above grade level :o) and teachers' handling of the results.
hee - that's awesome about Lolita. i'm reading Sense & Sensibility with the kid right now - i think that's safe enough?
OMG i totally forgot this gem from my murky past! i did a book report on Dostoevsky's The Idiot in elementary school and my poor mother had to go in and explain to the principal that i clearly had to turn something in, so i just did the report on what i was actually reading. (i don't think she included the part about Iggy Pop being the whole reason i picked it up in the first place - but i doubt that would have comforted them at all.)
and i promise i'm done with the librarians - sorry, everyone!!
Last edited by doubtfulguest; 05/08/1301:59 PM.
Every Sunday it brooded and lay on the floor. Inconveniently close to the drawing-room door.
We are in the same boat with you, Ametrine...and its ugly out there outside of the metro area, isn't it?
There is a reason why even being in one of the best school districts outside of that metro area (probably THE best, come to think of it), we're still left going "Ummmm... okay... what the HECK do we do here??" and so are local administrators.
Clearly they can't do what DD seems to need. But at least we're lucky enough that they admit it fairly openly to us-- if she were only HG/MG, not so. It's only because DD is so flagrantly HG+ that they go there and just make it clear that she won't get an appropriate education from them because they don't have it to give.
Sad, but true.
There was a time in this state.... a magical time... called the 70's... Well, I digress.
My point was this-- for Ametrine-- if you want info on how we've (kind of) managed to cobble together something that has taken my DD from ages 6 to nearly 14 with somewhat minimal angst re: differentiation methods, feel free to PM.
We've been with our virtual charter for quite some time, and I can definitely provide names and tips for dealing with state administration, and tip you off to where the tripwires are with the national administration.
...they don't allowed him to borrow the book from other grade's section. He only can choose the book from K section.
Ah, the lovely sectioning off of the school library. During the public school open house, before my daughter started kindergarten, I remember being in the library and there was large strip of tape on the floor marking the farthest kindergarteners were allowed to go. In my ignorance, I walked over the line to the "Little House" books and said to my daughter, "Hey, we've read some of these..." - then turning back to the tour group, I felt like I had just been caught sneaking out of East Germany as all eyes were on me, not one person had followed me over the tape line, and I was getting a disapproving look from the librarian.
S.F.
LoL.
DS was conversing about the Little House books with his preschool teacher. She "identified" him at the open-house.
What is WRONG with so many "educators" these days???
That was't very nice, and I don't care. Restricting a child's book choices is just plain mean. Not to mention that they're shutting bright low-SES kids out of books at their level (wealthier people can just go buy them)!
