Jeff Norton assina o artigo abaixo no qual reflete, de forma brilhante, o papel da biblioteca. Os sublinhados são meus:
School is a tough place. The social
hierarchy of any schoolyard is complex, unforgiving, and ever changing. Kids
need a safe space to explore who they are, be themselves, and discover that
they’re not alone. School libraries are the safe harbour in the storm
of adolescence.
It’s too easy to suggest that school libraries
are a relic of the analogue world. Books are a small, but important part
of the value that school libraries offer. But the safe space that libraries
create, a place of study, reflection, and exploration, is the true gift of
school libraries.
To think about school libraries only as
repository of books is to think of churches as storage units for stained glass.
The school library is the one place on school property where anyone can
seek refuge. It’s a welcoming, comforting place to escape the bullying
(physical, but more often emotional), daily social upheaval, and cliques of the
school years.
The school library is a type of demilitarized
zone in the war for daily schoolyard survival. It’s the one place where
students who are serious about intellectual exploration can feel accepted and
unashamed about wanting to excel. It’s the one place where loners, geeks, and
misfits can escape to through fiction or fuel their interests with non-fiction.
Why do we need to protect these people? Look
at the world’s most valuable companies and take note of who’s in charge. It’s
the kids who took shelter in the library, the geeks and nerds, who are
re-programming our future. The books are important, of course. They are
the ultimate tools in self-guided learning, but they are only part of the mix
that makes school libraries an essential place to shelter and protect our most
promising youth.
School libraries are not just a bunch of rooms
filled with books; they are a national network of incubators for future
economic potential. The geeks, nerds, and keeners (those were the words in
my school days, insert your own here) in high school are our future
entrepreneurs, coders, and leaders. Perhaps their budget should come not from
the Department of Education, but from Trade & Industry. These are the
places where future world-changers ground themselves, recharging their
intellectual curiosity and emotional fortitude to survive another day in the
relentless melee of the schoolyard.
Let’s re-frame the discussion on school
libraries and treat them for what they are, the very, very, very early start-up
incubators for Great Britain’s imagination and initiative – we only need
to take one look at our recent economic performance to accept that we need
these incubators more than ever.
Jeff Norton is a London based writer-director
and the author of the METAWARS saga from
Orchard Books.
[via the literary plataform]
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