Official Report of
DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
(Hansard)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2007
Afternoon Sitting
Volume 22, Number 12
DEBATES OF THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY
(Hansard)
MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2007
Afternoon Sitting
Volume 22, Number 12
D. Cubberley: On Friday I had the opportunity to join over 700 people at the Speaking of Kids Conference at Killarney Secondary. The place was bursting and the buzz infectious as we waited to hear from Henry Winkler — a.k.a. the Fonz — about his unhappy days growing up with dyslexia.
Winkler, now a co-author of best-selling children's books, handled the topic of struggling kids with wit and self-deprecation but pointedly reminded us, with the defiance of one long baited as dumb, that every child has talents that can be released.
Winkler's plea for the arts as a vehicle for learning was deeply moving. But the high point of my day actually came in conversation with a young teacher-librarian keen to express his enthusiasm for kids' learning potential. A self-described techie who teaches distance education courses, Aaron Mueller's true passion is the library, which he was eager to show me.
Being pro-D day, the place was strangely still, without the animation of kids excitedly searching in the cornucopia of choices around them. What an impressive library. How sad that Aaron cannot be a full-time teacher-librarian, his true passion.
Why, I ask provocatively, do we need physical libraries at all? Why not just have kids go on line?
"Because," he said, without missing a beat, "the library is the hub of learning, the place where kids come to discover new books and resources, to seek guidance on where to look and what to find. I wish you could experience it with the kids here," he said with pride. "I love every minute I get to spend connecting kids to learning."
Today is National School Library Day, a time to honour the role libraries play on the road to literacy and lifelong learning, to honour those whose calling it is to engage young readers. It's also a time to ask whether, for the sake of literacy and the love of reading, we can't do more to put a physical library with a skilled librarian within reach of every child in B.C. — not a 0.2 or 0.4 librarian, not a clerk to handle the book returns, but a living, breathing, full-time teacher-librarian.
