Letters

Readers skewer a proposal to drop teacher certification for librarians

I'm writing in response to Jimmy Allen's letter in the April 2003 issue (p. 15), regarding the need for school librarians to be teacher-certified. Obviously Mr. Allen is one of the masses who really have no understanding of the teaching profession or the complexities of being a school library media specialist.

Teaching is not, as many people incorrectly assume, a simple task. It requires skills and an aptitude that are possessed by only some people. Certainly anyone can provide students with bibliographic instruction, but it takes a special person to be able to TEACH. Teaching requires heart and patience as well as the ability to do a specific task.

I resent his comment that "everyone in the profession knows" that teacher certification isn't necessary. He clearly didn't include me and my professional colleagues in his poll. I would like to see Mr. Allen enter an elementary school and try to teach children a love of learning, a love of books, and an appreciation of what is really involved in researching a topic.

Only someone with the training of a teacher can do all of this and more. Only someone with the heart of a teacher will have the patience and the willingness to give these things to our young students and truly make them lifelong learners.
--Maxine R. Weisz Librarian/Technology Facilitator Burleigh Elementary School Brookfield, WI

I read Jimmy Allen's "Get the Laws Changed! " letter, and I disagree with him on many points. In my state, school counselors and vocational instructors, as well as librarians, are certified teachers. In fact, I believe counselors must have successfully taught in a classroom before they receive their counseling certification. While counselors and librarians do not do daily lesson plans, they do work with teachers extensively on planning the education of students. This happens daily at my high school with 70 teachers and 1400 students.

Classroom experience is a real plus. I started my career as a school librarian and went to the classroom for five years during the recession of the 1980s. After returning to the library, I found my classroom experience made me a better school librarian. I knew what teachers needed firsthand.

Teacher certification also includes a variety of classes beyond student teaching and teaching methods. An important component is child and adolescent psychology. In my 33 years in schools, I have seen many well-meaning professionals (not educators) who come to work at schools and fail because they don't have the slightest idea of how to interact with students with different interests and abilities. While nothing replaces experience, psychology classes are a great starting point.

Also a lack of certification will not prevent librarians from being pulled out for use as substitute teachers. The best defense against being used as a substitute is to have such a vital, busy library that the teachers will protest its closing.

I believe that having full certification gives students the best chance of having the best education possible. I do not want to change that law. I want more ALA-accredited programs available to certified teachers who wish to be librarians. Sandy Mathews-Barnes Librarian Flushing High School Flushing, MI

As a School Library Media Specialist of nearly 30 years, I feel the need to reply to Jimmy Allen's statement that school librarians do not need to be certified teachers. I'm afraid that Mr. Allen has little understanding of the role that we play in today's schools. To be successful in this job, we need our ALA-accredited master's degrees, but we also need the experience that the teacher certification process provides. Several years of actual classroom experience are also helpful in preparing for this demanding job.

Our jobs require that we be masters not just of teaching library skills, but also of every aspect of the school curriculum. School media specialists serve on curriculum and technology committees. We strive to be informed in all areas so that we can keep our teachers, administrators, and students up-to-date on the newest and the best in books, AV materials, technological advances, and education practices. The media center should be the showcase for information literacy, engaged learning, problem-based learning, and technology use in the everyday school. We are intimately involved in every aspect of the education process of the school, operating on flexible schedules that allow us to devote more time to individual classes, as necessary.

School library media specialists are proud of their ALA-accredited master's degrees. We are also proud of our teaching credentials. Don't ever tell us that we are not or should not be teachers. Yes, we have a shortage of school librarians, but the answer lies in finding ways to entice more certified teachers to obtain ALA-accredited master's degrees, not in lowering the standards for those of us who choose to do double duty as school library media specialists.
--Barbara Montgomery Media Center Specialist Liberty School Orland Park, IL

I was just reading your April Edition when I came across a letter from Jimmy Allen who suggested that just because you have a library degree from an ALA-accredited school you can run a school library. I really disagree. Not only do I disagree, his statements to support his position really anger me.

I am a school librarian with a degree from an ALA-accredited school and a teaching degree, which I believe is needed in a school setting. As a school librarian, you are not only running the library and developing the collection, you are teaching classes in research skills and other important parts of the library. I believe that if you are not taught how to teach you cannot do it. I am highly offended that he thinks that just because we are all librarians we can do each other's job. We can't—there are differences, and maybe public librarians should learn to work alongside their local school librarians to see the differences as well as the similarities. I believe we all should work together, but I do not believe that the teaching certification should be omitted to enable a person to be a school librarian.
--Kathleen Lynch Media Specialist Fords Middle School Fords, NJ

I am a certified Teacher/Librarian working in an elementary school. I totally disagree with Jimmy Allen's proposal for eliminating teacher certification as a requirement for school librarians.

Many of us have rigid class schedules, as opposed to flexible schedules, or a combination of both. In either case, we are writing lesson plans, managing classes, and disciplining students. All of these skills are better handled if we have a teaching background. Contrary to Mr. Allen's belief, the school library is a classroom.

I have had the pleasure of working with an intern this year who is not teacher-certified, and she is overwhelmed with the responsibilities that are required of the school librarian. She has had to learn from scratch how to develop lesson plans, handle classes, and discipline children. If she had come into the internship with some teaching experience, she would have been more comfortable in the school library environment.

Currently, our SUNY [State University of New York] Albany interns are required to complete only 150 hours of internship. This requirement will double next year, so the interns will have more experience in the classroom. This change may have come about because there are many teacher/librarians who have had interns who did not have teaching degrees. These interns went to their new jobs in school libraries and found that creating lesson plans, disciplining students, and managing the classroom were areas they were really struggling in. How do I know this? For the last two years, I have been involved in mentoring new school librarians in our library system. At our meetings, these were the areas in which they were hungry to gain information.

Yes, America's children are worth it and teacher/librarians make the difference.
--Deborah Lyman Teacher/librarian Genet Elementary School East Greenbush, NY

I chuckled when I read Jimmy Allen's letter in which he proclaimed that "everyone" knows that it doesn't take a teaching certificate to provide bibliographic instruction in a school library. My truth is that I rarely teach bibliographic instruction at my high school of 4,300 students. But every day I practice classroom-management skills, tutor students in various subjects, collaborate with teachers, and provide lessons and grades for the 25 students who take my Library Media class for credit. Because I spend nearly eight hours a day with students—no off time for school librarians—I'm glad I was prepared by taking teacher credential courses. And because I must collaborate with teachers and school administrators, I need to speak and understand their language, not just the language of librarianship.

One of the most important differences between school librarianship and public librarianship is the implementation of goals and vision. At schools, the goal is instruction demonstrated by good performance on standardized tests. Consequently, librarians are viewed as "support" staff. We support the goal of teaching. That sometimes results in closing the library, or using it as a space for luncheons or tests.

Occasionally I work in a public library where I don't have to act in loco parentis on behalf of library patrons. I get to do some interesting reference work, instead of showing students the same resources year after year for assignments that never change. It's a whole different world.

Obtaining a teaching certificate takes about a year beyond the MLS, about the same as any other specialization in academic librarianship where a master's degree in a particular discipline is often required.

With regard to his comment about school counselors, in my experience in both Washington and California schools, counselors have been trained classroom teachers, too. I won't be writing any letters to change the law.
--Alice O'Grady Library Media Teacher Wilson Classical High School Long Beach, CA

I disagree with the review of Alicia Terry Henderson's Call Me Black Call Me Beautiful (Royal Regal, 2002; March 2003, p. 193). The book answered a child's simple question about his skin color and was not meant as an exploration of his culture or heritage. Just as the adopted girl in Marjorie Ann Waybill's Chinese Eyes questions the teasing by her classmates and her Caucasian mother tells her that her eye shape makes her beautiful, the mother in Call Me Black assures her son that he and his white friend are "both absolutely beautiful." Both stories also point out the similarities between all children. Rather than "unrealistic advice and overly simplistic ending" as the reviewer asserts, I feel the honest treatment was a satisfying answer to an innocent question a young child might ask about his/her "difference." Paired with Jacqueline Woodson's The Other Side, about a white girl and a black girl who live on separate sides of a fence and are cautioned not to play with each other, Call Me Black would make an interesting stimulus for a discussion.
--Ellen Rubin Librarian Elisabeth Morrow School Englewood, NJ

I stand by my assessment that this is a well-intentioned effort gone awry in its mission to provide an understanding of racial differences and to encourage racial pride for young children. Richard is sad and confused when a schoolmate calls him "black." He matter-of-factly concludes by looking at his arm that his skin is indeed brown. His mother's explanation: "Black and white are just colors to describe a family of people" is simplistic. Enlightening Richard about his ancestral origins would have shown him how ancestry relates to skin color. Equally important, the book does not provide any images that would make Richard feel comfortable in his skin. Telling him to explain that "despite your different skin colors, you both have friendly hearts, eyes, hands and feet, and you are both absolutely beautiful," is unrealistic. The entire tone of the text is condescending.
--Ajoke' T. I. Kokodoko Children's Librarian Oakland Public Library Oakland, CA

In "Laptop Lessons" (TechKnowledge , March 2003, pp. 30–31), the names of two Henrico County (VA) school district librarians, Wendy Sellors and Nancy Petravage, were spelled incorrectly.

The article "Ohio Sets School Library Standards " (News, April 2003, p. 18) contained an incorrect Web address for Ohio's state standards.

The correct address is www.ode.state.oh.us/Curriculum-Assessment/school_library.