Lew A “Lincoln” Welge- Alachua District 4
1. Please share your thoughts related to the importance of the school library/media center and the role of a certified, trained librarian/media specialist in schools.
School Libraries/Media Centers, and Public Libraries are essential to the local and regional functioning of our civil society. Library personnel are Teachers of the first rank whose positive influence upon #WeThePeople is #NEARLY impossible to overstate.
2. Florida school libraries/media centers have always supported parents' rights to direct their students' education. How would you balance parental rights and student access to library materials, especially given that some books trigger different reactions among parents, all of whom deserve rights?
Accessibility is the key factor in balancing children’s curiosity with their parents’ responsibility to protect. As with our Movie Ratings System, Prepubescent, Elementary School children’s books’ should be G for “general” audience readership. At the Middle School level we can expect to allow adolescents access to certain materials with, WITH(!) “Parental Approval-Guidance.” And the same standard should be applied at the High School level for our young adults. Families whose sensibilities regarding appropriateness of content should be able to Opt In to a borrowing procedure where their written Parental Consent is required for their charges to be loaned popular, but, to some, controversial books by Judy Bloom or Judith Viorst or Mark Twain, et al. Such a system would strike a fair balance between students rights and their guardians responsibilities.
3. Students have access to reading material through captive classroom instruction, read-alouds and novel studies, as well as through self-selection in libraries where they choose their own book. How would you differentiate between the appropriateness of reading material in a captive classroom vs. self-selection in the school library?
School Board approved curricula in “captive (sic) classroom instruction” should be differentiated by level: Elementary, Middle & High. And “self-selection” at the Middle & High School grades should be regulated per the procedures mentioned in the previous question.
4. As written in Florida House Bill 1069, “Parents shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection. If the school board denies a parent the right to read passages due to content" deemed unsuitable as defined in the bill, the school district must discontinue use of the material. If a reader is denied, explain why you would interpret the law by supporting or opposing a fair and public review of the book, as outlined in each district's objection policy.
I’ll answer this awkward and legalistic question with one sentence: Allow any and all family members to access/read any and all material available in any and all “Public School” library media centers.
School Libraries/Media Centers, and Public Libraries are essential to the local and regional functioning of our civil society. Library personnel are Teachers of the first rank whose positive influence upon #WeThePeople is #NEARLY impossible to overstate.
2. Florida school libraries/media centers have always supported parents' rights to direct their students' education. How would you balance parental rights and student access to library materials, especially given that some books trigger different reactions among parents, all of whom deserve rights?
Accessibility is the key factor in balancing children’s curiosity with their parents’ responsibility to protect. As with our Movie Ratings System, Prepubescent, Elementary School children’s books’ should be G for “general” audience readership. At the Middle School level we can expect to allow adolescents access to certain materials with, WITH(!) “Parental Approval-Guidance.” And the same standard should be applied at the High School level for our young adults. Families whose sensibilities regarding appropriateness of content should be able to Opt In to a borrowing procedure where their written Parental Consent is required for their charges to be loaned popular, but, to some, controversial books by Judy Bloom or Judith Viorst or Mark Twain, et al. Such a system would strike a fair balance between students rights and their guardians responsibilities.
3. Students have access to reading material through captive classroom instruction, read-alouds and novel studies, as well as through self-selection in libraries where they choose their own book. How would you differentiate between the appropriateness of reading material in a captive classroom vs. self-selection in the school library?
School Board approved curricula in “captive (sic) classroom instruction” should be differentiated by level: Elementary, Middle & High. And “self-selection” at the Middle & High School grades should be regulated per the procedures mentioned in the previous question.
4. As written in Florida House Bill 1069, “Parents shall have the right to read passages from any material that is subject to an objection. If the school board denies a parent the right to read passages due to content" deemed unsuitable as defined in the bill, the school district must discontinue use of the material. If a reader is denied, explain why you would interpret the law by supporting or opposing a fair and public review of the book, as outlined in each district's objection policy.
I’ll answer this awkward and legalistic question with one sentence: Allow any and all family members to access/read any and all material available in any and all “Public School” library media centers.