The 'SLJ' Summit: A Call to Arms
Creating a common master plan for cultivating avid, lifelong learners
By Evan St. Lifer -- School Library Journal, 4/1/2005
Thousands of K–12 educators have never seen an effective school library or library media specialist. I liken effective school libraries to "lightning in a bottle": when they work, great things happen for learners. But a lot of educators haven't seen this dynamic phenomenon, and the documented evidence isn't compelling enough or hasn't been translated in a way that speaks clearly to educators' most critical concerns. And that's unfortunate.
Many librarians have created dynamic learning environments that stress the principles of information literacy and inquiry-based learning. They are cultivating better learners and more discerning researchers and problem solvers. Contrast this hopeful educational milieu with that of a blighted school, where the library is not an agency of learning but a warehouse of musty books that are tended to by a part-time caretaker who is erroneously referred to as a "librarian." Those two vastly different spaces—one devoid of learning, the other the center of it—are both called school libraries, creating ambiguity in the minds of countless educators about the value of library media centers.
But the underlying issue is not about obtaining a measure of long-overdue recognition for school libraries and librarians. It's about the learner. It's about recognizing the opportunities that students are being deprived of because librarians and other educators are not having the right conversations that lead to enriching students' learning experiences. Add to that an insidious epidemic spreading among our nation's children and teens—a lack of love of reading.
Until now, educators have operated primarily in mutually exclusive professional silos: administrators, curriculum coordinators, teachers, librarians, and reading specialists—each with their own separate culture, argot, and ethos. As a result, the gap between those children that are enlightened by books and those that are not has widened.
Reading proficiency and reading engagement are the dynamic duo that cultivates critical-thinking and problem-solving skills, which lead to lifelong learning and productive, meaningful lives. No educator can do this alone. In order to create a new generation of lifelong learners, we need to leave our professional silos behind and create a new culture of collaboration, one that leads to dynamic and effective synergies between educators of every stripe and strata.
It was with this objective in mind that School Library Journal jump-started a national conversation among education's various leaders, including federal and state educational policy makers. The 2005 SLJ Leadership Summit (see 'SLJ' Summit: Building Bridges, p. 16) was a slam-dunk success, primarily because so many educators with divergent perspectives recognized the need to create a common language with shared priorities and to obtain buy-in from all of education's stakeholders, including parents and local communities. To help you accomplish this mission, we're planning to release in June an online and print resource, the SLJ Leadership Summit Toolkit. The toolkit will outline the strategies and agendas created by the Summit's 200-plus participants.
We must make it our highest priority to move beyond professional territorialism and isolation. Every day thousands of unenlightened students soldier on, dragging with them a legacy of failure and sub-par achievement. They are deprived of richer learning experiences, because educators are not creating the necessary synergies to help students become better problem solvers and critical thinkers and more discerning users of information—let alone making them better readers.
Evan St. Lifer
Editor
estlifer@reedbusiness.com
