Students are shouting, eating, and on their phones snapchatting. The room is filled with students messing around and creating a ruckus for others who are trying to study. It’s hard to believe that this is our school library, a place intended to be a safe place where students can check out books and do their homework, but instead is used as a hangout spot. Silver Creek’s library is heavily disrespected and ignored, and students don’t see the library for what it is.
During my junior year, I spent most of my time in the library after school for the tutoring center. The staff would always encourage students to clean up after themselves, but to no avail, the library was left littered almost everyday where it reached a point where food was altogether banned. If we don’t have any respect for the facility itself, how can we expect students to see the library as a resource?
Before, the library was a place where anyone can go freely to read what they wanted for free and also have a safe environment. What happened? Of course school libraries are not going to replace the local ones, but their intentions are the same. I see that there are two parts of this issue. One, school libraries have very little funding, and two, the students are becoming more attached to technology which in turn is deterring them from reading.
During my junior year, I spent most of my time in the library after school for the tutoring center. The staff would always encourage students to clean up after themselves, but to no avail, the library was left littered almost everyday where it reached a point where food was altogether banned. If we don’t have any respect for the facility itself, how can we expect students to see the library as a resource?
Before, the library was a place where anyone can go freely to read what they wanted for free and also have a safe environment. What happened? Of course school libraries are not going to replace the local ones, but their intentions are the same. I see that there are two parts of this issue. One, school libraries have very little funding, and two, the students are becoming more attached to technology which in turn is deterring them from reading.
Most people don’t know the severity of how underfunded our library is. You’d expect the district to invest more money into books and reading, but how shocking is it that Silver Creek does not even have a full time librarian? Mr. Binh Tran only serves as our librarian 2-3 days of the week. To add onto that, 4 entire rows of books have been removed and have yet to be replenished by more recent ones. It’s shocking how little is being invested in books. Meanwhile, we are spending money on reconstruction and other things, but something considered so vital to education is ignored.
Ms. Chantal Chatman, our school principal, believes the library should always be safe place for students to read and study. Although, she does agree that technology does have its perks when it comes to helping students. But staring at a screen all day will never be the same as reading the book and digesting the information for yourself.
“I understand that today’s generation wants everything to be digitized, it’s definitely more accessible and appealing to them, but I also believe that having our library is essential. Students are forgetting about how much knowledge can come from reading,” said Chatman.
Ms. Jessica Stahlke, an English teacher at Silver Creek, admitted that she hated reading in high school, and believed it wasn’t necessary. But in college she had a change of heart.
“It took me a while to realize that reading actually added to my knowledge. I hated reading at first but in college, as I read more, I realized that my perspective broadened. My vocabulary became more developed and elegant and I was just understanding things a lot faster,” Stahlke said.
We must teach students the purpose of the library. The library doesn’t have to be drop dead silent, but it shouldn’t sound like the x-quad during lunch. If we gave the library more respect, perhaps the district would consider investing more in it to get us more resources. We need to shift the mindset of students to start respecting the library for what it is and should be.
Ms. Chantal Chatman, our school principal, believes the library should always be safe place for students to read and study. Although, she does agree that technology does have its perks when it comes to helping students. But staring at a screen all day will never be the same as reading the book and digesting the information for yourself.
“I understand that today’s generation wants everything to be digitized, it’s definitely more accessible and appealing to them, but I also believe that having our library is essential. Students are forgetting about how much knowledge can come from reading,” said Chatman.
Ms. Jessica Stahlke, an English teacher at Silver Creek, admitted that she hated reading in high school, and believed it wasn’t necessary. But in college she had a change of heart.
“It took me a while to realize that reading actually added to my knowledge. I hated reading at first but in college, as I read more, I realized that my perspective broadened. My vocabulary became more developed and elegant and I was just understanding things a lot faster,” Stahlke said.
We must teach students the purpose of the library. The library doesn’t have to be drop dead silent, but it shouldn’t sound like the x-quad during lunch. If we gave the library more respect, perhaps the district would consider investing more in it to get us more resources. We need to shift the mindset of students to start respecting the library for what it is and should be.