Separation of School and State

ChuckB says:

Home schoolers & Libraries

I was once an alternate delegate from a small public library to the state regional meeting for our library service district in Texas. At that time I had a pony tail, so if one were to make assumptions about my politics from my appearance, they would likely have been wrong.

At one point in the proceedings, when I was sitting next to two librarians I didn’t know, the subject of home-schooling was raised. The first librarian reacted with disdain, the clear implication of her response being that home-schoolers were typically a backward lot, doubtless because so many of them are deeply religious. That raised my hackles immediately, as many fine families in my church home-school their kids. ‘Typical leftish library bigotry’, I thought. But then the other librarian corrected her: home-schoolers tend to be strong supporters of public libraries. Of course, the second librarian corrected me somewhat as well, without realizing it.

I think it makes sense for public libraries to cultivate support from home schoolers. While many of them doubtless take strong issue with some of the materials on library shelves, they are also typically so deeply inolved with their children’s education that these materials may pose less threat to them than to many other parents. They are also likely to be grateful for a large, well-maintained repository of educational materials that they don’t have to purchase and store, especially when you consider that through their taxes they are paying for a public education from which they derive no direct benefit. They may see a chance to benefit from other tax expenditures, namely from those that go to public libraries.

In any case, I would think that professional librarianship entails working with people whose opinions on some matters (even on some core matters) are different from your own.