HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2012-05-03, Page 5THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, MAY 3, 2012. PAGE 5.
Acirculating library in a town is an
evergreen tree of diabolical knowledge!
It blossoms through the year.
– Richard Brinkley Sheridan
The first library I ever saw was less than 20
feet long and sat on four wheels.
It was a bus – a bookmobile, we called it.
We lived in the sticks with no municipal
buildings whatsoever, never mind a library. So
the elders spake and decreed that once a week,
for two hours at a time, the library would come
to us.
As I recall, you entered at the back door of
the bookmobile, browsed your way through
a narrow corridor surrounded by hundreds
of books and emerged, with your selections
duly noted and stamped, by the front door.
Seems almost Dickensian now, traipsing to a
book wagon at a crossroads to pick up your
weekly supply of reading material. Today, the
land is festooned with free and public libraries
that border on the palatial.
Heck, you don’t even have to put your shoes
on – you can order books on the Internet; even
download entire texts to your e-book or iPad.
I’m not the only one who’s noticed. Two
independent bookstores in my town have
closed this year.
Libraries are adjusting to the new reality as
well. Recently in the magazine The Walrus,
Michael Harris wrote of his visit to the brand
new City Centre Library in Surrey, B.C.
It’s surprising the word ‘library’ made it into
the name of the structure. The building
features a café, a recreation centre for kids, a
plethora of ‘interactive’ sculpture and furniture
– and oh, yeah – books too.
A ‘librarian’ at the centre explained to Harris
that “Our jobs are becoming more about
helping newcomers with their language skills,
or helping people access government
services….we’re kind of social workers,
actually”.
Harris even interviewed the architect of the
new multi-million-dollar City Centre Library.
He notes that in their conversation about the
architect’s motivation and vision for the
structure, ‘books’ were not mentioned once.
That’s the trouble with books – they refuse
to go faster. The opening chapter of Dickens’s
A Tale of Two Cities consists of one
magnificent cathedral of a sentence that runs
to 120 words. We live in a time that embraces
Twitter, a communications device that allows
only 140 characters.
Not surprising that our libraries – as book
repositories – are under siege. But we need to
be careful about that. Back in 642 Moslem
armies overran the city of Alexandria in Egypt
capturing, among other things, the most
famous and extensive library in the world.
The story goes that the victorious general
asked what was to be done with the books
therein. His superior, a Caliph named Omar,
replied:
“If the writings of the Greeks agree with the
Koran they are superfluous and need not be
preserved; if they disagree they are pernicious
and ought not to be preserved.”
The manuscripts – containing all the written
knowledge of the ancient world -- were
consigned to be used as fuel to heat the public
baths.
It is said that they kept the furnaces blazing
for six months.
Arthur
Black
Other Views Books in the Twitterverse
Scoring the game-winning goal in
overtime of game seven of an NHL
playoff series is something kids grow up
dreaming about. And once the puck (tennis ball
if we’re back playing road hockey) crossed the
goal line, the only emotion left to experience
was pure joy.
That was how I imagined it. Whether I was
bundled up in a snowsuit laying my friends out
with bodychecks into snowbanks or running up
and down Melman Street in the summer
months, often my friends and I would team up
to construct the prettiest game-winning goal
the world would ever see. There was often no
goalie, but in our minds the NHL’s best was
trying to stop us, but we were just too much for
him.
This wasn’t the case for Joel Ward of the
Washington Capitals, however, who scored a
beautiful goal to propel his team past the
favoured Boston Bruins on April 25 in
overtime. On the ice Ward’s team celebrated
with him, but moments later Ward was greeted
with an ugliness all too familiar to North
Americans.
Minutes after Ward scored, stunning the
crowd at Boston’s TD Garden the social
networking website Twitter was buzzing with
comments about Ward, whose parents
immigrated to Canada from Barbados before
he was born. Unfortunately, many of those
comments were from angry Bruins fans and
they began with the letter ‘N’.
A story carried by many of the major news
outlets in Ontario listed dozens of Twitter posts
calling Ward the n-word, alongside scores of
other negative stereotypes associated with
Ward’s culture.
As much as we like to think we’ve advanced,
all last Thursday morning showed was that so
many people out there are one bad turn away
from racism. It’s the same kind of behaviour
that propelled so many Vancouverites to
destroy their own city after losing to the Bruins
in last year’s game seven final.
This, however, is a whole different type of
turn. It reveals a deep-seeded ugliness that so
many of us hoped the people of the world had
evolved beyond.
One Twitter user apologized for his use of
the n-word, saying that he is “not a racist” just
that the comment was made in “the heat of the
moment”.
It’s disturbing to think that in the “heat of the
moment” any one person can regress so far. If
they’re capable of posting something so
disturbing in a public domain, what else might
they do if pushed?
Ward’s mother Cecilia is a nurse in
Scarborough and his father Randall suffered a
stroke at one of his son’s games, dying just
days later when Ward was only 14. Despite the
fact that Ward downplayed it to members of the
media, his mother said racism is nothing new
to her son as he’s journeyed through the world
of hockey.
“He’s used to that,” Cecilia told the Toronto
Star last week.
Racism is one of those things you would
hope no one would have to get used to,
especially in Canada, but the truth of the matter
is that it exists and unfortunately it doesn’t
seem to be going away.
As for Boston, a city with its own racially-
checkered past, an eruption like this can only
leave the rest of North America questioning
just how far the city and its fans have come in
recent decades. For Joel Ward, however, the
biggest moment of his career will forever be
linked to ugliness the likes of which fans of the
NHL have never seen.
Heat of the moment
Once upon a time I had to come face-to-
face with the fact that I was getting
older and that, all corny sayings aside,
things were far different when I was a growing
up.
Sure, we didn’t have the social networking
sites, anyone younger than 20 with a mobile
phone was probably either rich or had the
apron-strings still trailing behind them and
anyone older than 20 with a mobile phone
didn’t show it off since, you know, it was the
size and shape of a brick.
The above rules had only one exception:
Saved by the Bell’s Zack Morris. That,
however, is a column for another day.
Beyond the cell phones we also really loved
to be outside.
It used to be that we dreaded those rain days
when we were stuck in our classrooms playing
board games instead of outside testing just
how muddy we could get.
It was a different world and you don’t need
to look very far to be reminded of just how
different it is.
I, for example, found a story about a six-year
old near Indianapolis who was arrested for
kicking his principal and threatening to kill the
principal and secretary.
When asked why he had the student arrested
(and I can only imagine the rest of the question
from the reporter followed as “instead of doing
the reasonable, rational thing and taking away
his recess and calling his parents”) he said he
did it for the student’s own good.
“Putting him into the system can open up
avenues perhaps the parents don’t have,” he
said.
He basically said that institutionalization
and the bad element that can often be found
there was better environment for this 6-year-
old student than his home and school.
If he truly believes that, then he has failed as
a principal to foster a good environment.
Now, I’m hoping he’s the exception that
proves this rule, but I honestly believe that
from my time as a student, teachers and
principals generally try harder than that.
I was a disruptive kid. There’s no way
around admitting that I would talk out in class,
challenge my teachers and do everything I
possibly could to try and read books instead of
doing the work that was asked of me (I know,
I’m such a rebel).
I spent more than my fair share of time
sitting outside the classroom to “cool down”,
spent more than my fair share of time sitting
outside the principal’s office (and believe me
you, they usually didn’t consider me a pal)
and, much to my shame, spent some time
suspended in-school (once was debatable, the
other was ridiculous, but I’m not going to get
into that).
The summary of this is that I certainly
wasn’t a model student. I was bored because I
understood most of what we were taught the
first time and didn’t really need to spend an
entire period practising it, so I acted out. At
least that’s what my report cards said (until
they de-personalized them).
Thankfully, I had some amazing teachers
and administrators who never gave up on me
(or, if they did, they never let on).
It’s due to the hard work and determination
of those teachers that I am able to do a job I
love.
Students who proved challenging didn’t
have drugs thrown at them, they were coached
and they were punished when need be and
eventually they either learned what not to do or
they found themselves spending most of their
recesses (and in high school afternoons) sitting
and doing busy work until they begin to
appreciate the privileges they were abusing.
I went to the Brantford Campus of Wilfrid
Laurier University where they, through a joint
venture with Nippising University, offer
advanced training for those looking to become
teachers. Suffice to say, I have a lot of friends
in that field.
The stories they tell me often led me to
wonder where the breakdown has happened in
our society.
It seems that, as children become more and
more aggressive towards their educators,
educators find their hands tied as to what to do
and, eventually, you end up with principals
like this one near Indianapolis that throws in
the towel and forgets that some of the most
brilliant minds are often the hardest to mold.
I realize that teaching is a hard profession
(which is probably why that two-four month
vacation is necessary), but it seems to me that
the passion for that job is lacking in some
newer teachers. It also seems to me that these
teachers have no trouble finding a job (or else
these kinds of stories would not make it to the
news).
This isn’t an isolated incident, either.
Thinking back I can easily reference a
handful of times I’ve heard about teachers
crossing lines and doing things they should
not, like engaging their students in *ahem*
congress.
And no, I’m not talking about the fact that
some university professors risk disciplinary
action in getting involved with a student, I’m
talking about high, or worse, public, school
students being involved with their teachers.
I realize that the world we live in now either
recognizes or produces debauchery at a much
higher rate than it did for previous generations,
but what we have to realize is that, for the most
part, the deviance from the norm is beginning
with people who aren’t from Generation X, Y
or Z.
The problems seem to be centred around
individuals with age, responsibility and
positions of power.
Maybe it’s true what they say about power
corrupting people. Maybe, with positions
where you can make decisions about other
people’s lives and futures, there needs to be
some kind of time limit or forced retirement
placed on it.
And yes, I suppose I should be up front
about this, I do believe that the entire situation
that brought this story to my attention was a
the fault of the parents, teachers and principals
involved.
I have heard teachers talk about molding the
minds of their students when they succeed, but
they are usually strangely absent when it
comes time to deal with a failure.
It may not make me a popular guy when I
next have to sit down and talk to a teacher
about projects their students are doing, but I
think, when failings like this occur, you should
blame the parents first and foremost, but blame
needs to be spread beyond that.
I don’t know about most kids, but I spent
just as much time with my teachers as I did
with my parents on a daily basis and, as far as
I can see, for good or bad, they’re equally
responsible for the person I am.
Shawn
Loughlin
Shawn’s Sense
Denny
Scott
Denny’s Den
The fallout from molding minds