Siting in the library, this morning I was feeling a bit overwhelmed. I had stacks of books to check in that had been returned. That meant not only did I have to manually pull their library card from the file of books that had been checked out but I also had to return them to the shelf.
That was a task this old arthritic boy was not looking forward to. With the impending snowstorm, I looking forward to being housebound tomorrow, Kind of a depressing prognosis. Needless to say my mood was not cheery.
Then when I was about ready to leave this morning, four or five little girls from Room 310 crowded up in front of my desk bubbling with excitement. They had finished lunch and wanted to spend the rest of their lunch period shelving books. They scurried about the library full of enthusiasm returning recently read books back to the shelves where they can be checked out by some other curious student.
To tell you the truth, I can't guarantee they put all the books in the right places. They were old enough they knew the difference between fiction and nonfiction and they seemed to have a rudimentary grasp of the Dewey Decimal system. Everything being in its proper place is not the most important thing here.
What is important here is the enthusiasm these young girls had for learning and knowledge represented by those library books and the childhood reverence with which those girls treated these books. It was heartwarming, a welcome juxtaposition to the piles of snow outside.
Thinking of this experience just further raises my ire over the fact that the administration didn't think that the libraries weren't a priority in our school budget. We have five failing schools in Lynn. Reading is where education begins and no place promotes it like libraries. Those young students who helped me out this morning understood that and they don't have advanced degrees.
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