Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education. Show all posts
Saturday, May 19, 2012
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Thomas Friedman: "Today, average is officially over"
A discouraging, though not surprising, message from Thomas Friedman on the Opinion Pages of the New York Times.
Thanks, though, to the so-called Great Recession—which we still steadfastly refuse to call a depression, since the corporations, the banks and the investors are doing fine and the breadlines aren't in public—thanks to the Great Recession, we cannot deny the reality any more.
Of course, as first responders, public library staff have known the truth intimately from the time the bubble burst. We have been flooded with customers who have been faithful workers their whole lives yet who, now that they are unemployeed, cannot even apply for unemployment benefits, let alone jobs, if they are not Internet savvy.
Although this isn't why I went to library school, I'm now almost convinced that anything else public libraries do is secondary to helping these folks. I've written several different posts about our mandate to serve the digital refugees.
How do we do it? How do we convince our funders that such service is crucial to the public library's role in the community?
[See Note for some ways our library is addressing these questions.]
The second theme of Friedman's Op/Ed piece, addressing the chanages needed in American education, compounds the challenge:
We need to say:
Note: Jacksonville Public Library is addressing these questions through its strategic planning, which in turn guides its budgetary advocacy with City Council.
For example, our FY 2011-12 Balanced Scorecard includes this objective:
In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is officially over.We've actually known this was creeping up on us, but not wanted to admit it, at least since the early 1980s.
Being average just won’t earn you what it used to. It can’t when so many more employers have so much more access to so much more above average cheap foreign labor, cheap robotics, cheap software, cheap automation and cheap genius.
Therefore, everyone needs to find their extra — their unique value contribution that makes them stand out in whatever is their field of employment.
Average is over.
Thanks, though, to the so-called Great Recession—which we still steadfastly refuse to call a depression, since the corporations, the banks and the investors are doing fine and the breadlines aren't in public—thanks to the Great Recession, we cannot deny the reality any more.
From Libcom.org's 1930-1939: The unemployed workers’ movement
Of course, as first responders, public library staff have known the truth intimately from the time the bubble burst. We have been flooded with customers who have been faithful workers their whole lives yet who, now that they are unemployeed, cannot even apply for unemployment benefits, let alone jobs, if they are not Internet savvy.
Although this isn't why I went to library school, I'm now almost convinced that anything else public libraries do is secondary to helping these folks. I've written several different posts about our mandate to serve the digital refugees.
How do we do it? How do we convince our funders that such service is crucial to the public library's role in the community?
[See Note for some ways our library is addressing these questions.]
The second theme of Friedman's Op/Ed piece, addressing the chanages needed in American education, compounds the challenge:
There will always be change—new jobs, new products, new services. But the one thing we know for sure is that with each advance in globalization and the I.T. revolution, the best jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves above average.Do public libraries also have a mandate to support public education in this way? I don't know, but we surely need to advocate on behalf of public education.
Here are the latest unemployment rates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for Americans over 25 years old: those with less than a high school degree, 13.8 percent; those with a high school degree and no college, 8.7 percent; those with some college or associate degree, 7.7 percent; and those with bachelor’s degree or higher, 4.1 percent
In a world where average is officially over, there are many things we need to do to buttress employment, but nothing would be more important than passing some kind of G.I. Bill for the 21st century that ensures that every American has access to post-high school education.
We need to say:
"No 'business as usual' while our public cannot sustain themselves."
Note: Jacksonville Public Library is addressing these questions through its strategic planning, which in turn guides its budgetary advocacy with City Council.
For example, our FY 2011-12 Balanced Scorecard includes this objective:
"We will provide tools to help customers with social service and job seeking needs."Here are some relevant links on the Jacksonville Public Library website:
Tactics to help achieve this objective:
1. We will provide online resources aimed at meeting these needs.The benefit of the programs will be demonstrated by the percentage of WorkSource participants who find work and by evaluations of JPL-provided programs completed by participants.
Measure: Number of visits to new social service database (Right Service) and new Careers & Jobs website.
2. We will provide programs and classes aimed at meeting these needs.
Measure: Number of attendees of relevant programs and classes that have demonstrated benefit. These opportunities may be sponsored by JPL or by partners, such as WorkSource.
- Career & Job Resources
- Unemployment Benefits Help
- WorkSource/Jacksonville Public Library Partnership
- Computer Classes in Libraries
- Florida Project Compass Workforce Recovery
- E-Government in Florida Public Libraries
- Right Service
- WorkSource
Saturday, December 3, 2011
"Why does a library cost more than a bomber?"
Remember the classic bumper sticker:
Wouldn't it be great if schools had money
and the Pentagon had to hold bake sales?
The title of this blog post is a somewhat fanciful paraphrase of the following chart, created originally by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and republished by the blog Shakesville and the New York Times Economix column.
The gist of that 2007 PCRM story was that
Three percent!!!
I've never understood why education is not a top national security priority.
Oh, well....
See also the National Priorities Project: Bringing the Federal Budget Home.
and the Pentagon had to hold bake sales?
The title of this blog post is a somewhat fanciful paraphrase of the following chart, created originally by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) and republished by the blog Shakesville and the New York Times Economix column.
The gist of that 2007 PCRM story was that
The Farm Bill...governs what children are fed in schools and what food assistance programs can distribute to recipients.I don't have the software to create a similar pyramid for Defense vs. Education, but how about this chart, Where Do Our Federal Tax Dollars Go?, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities?
The bill provides billions of dollars in subsidies...to huge agribusinesses producing feed crops, such as corn and soy, which are then fed to animals. By funding these crops, the government supports the production of meat and dairy products—the same products that contribute to our growing rates of obesity and chronic disease.
Fruit and vegetable farmers, on the other hand, receive less than 1 percent of government subsidies.
Three percent!!!
I've never understood why education is not a top national security priority.
Oh, well....
See also the National Priorities Project: Bringing the Federal Budget Home.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Now that we've celebrated, I have to ask....
...why did we have to go through the argument over state library funding again this year?
Last year, library supporters in Florida were put through the same torment when the legislature in Tallahassee threatened to cancel the $21.2 million state funding for public libraries. It took two months and over 60,000 messages from constituents to persuade the legislators to restore those funds—at midnight on April 26, 2010.
And state funding was threatened in 2009 as well.
Why do Floridians allow their legislators to even consider library funding cuts?
For that matter, why in the world do we allow them to consider education cuts of any sort?
Gov. Rick Scott wants to cut Florida education funding by 15%, $3.3 billion.
In my darkest moments, I've begun to suspect an incidious, subliminal motive on the part of voters here and throughout the nation.
After all, how many Americans actually enjoyed going to school? Show of hands? How many really loved going to the library to do...homework? Just us weirdos, nerds and teacher's pets—or "elitists," as the resentful faux-populists choose to call us.
American anti-intellectualism goes all the way back to colonial times, when only the wealthy aristocrats could afford to educate their kids (their sons, that is). My nightmare is that many citizens have made the unconscious decision to blame teachers and librarians for all the country's problems—just to get back at us.
Let's hope this is just my "aging hippy paranoia" showing.
However, here's another scary story. A coffeehouse acquaintance who teaches second grade recently told me that, during a parent-teacher conference, the parent said very indignantly, "My child doesn't have TIME to do homework!"
No amount of holding teachers and schools accountable for the performance of students can ever overcome this obstacle.
Where are the parents?
In an earlier post, I gave a précis of George Stewart's dystopian novel, Earth Abides. The crux of that story was that post-apocalypse parents could not be convinced to continue teaching their children reading, writing, math or science.
Are we there yet?
Surely not, for tens of thousands have rallied each year to save public libraries.
However, we are wasting our advocacy capital when we wait for politicians to do their dirty work and then rally our allies to try to undo it.
We absolutely must get out into our communities to show them, where they live, the real value of education, of libraries, of social services—of all those publicly funded agencies which do for people what no for-profit entity can do as well: nurture and preserve their families.
We can't wait for the politicians and the new aristocracy to see it our way. We serve the public.
Last year, library supporters in Florida were put through the same torment when the legislature in Tallahassee threatened to cancel the $21.2 million state funding for public libraries. It took two months and over 60,000 messages from constituents to persuade the legislators to restore those funds—at midnight on April 26, 2010.
And state funding was threatened in 2009 as well.
Why do Floridians allow their legislators to even consider library funding cuts?
For that matter, why in the world do we allow them to consider education cuts of any sort?Gov. Rick Scott wants to cut Florida education funding by 15%, $3.3 billion.
In my darkest moments, I've begun to suspect an incidious, subliminal motive on the part of voters here and throughout the nation.
After all, how many Americans actually enjoyed going to school? Show of hands? How many really loved going to the library to do...homework? Just us weirdos, nerds and teacher's pets—or "elitists," as the resentful faux-populists choose to call us.
American anti-intellectualism goes all the way back to colonial times, when only the wealthy aristocrats could afford to educate their kids (their sons, that is). My nightmare is that many citizens have made the unconscious decision to blame teachers and librarians for all the country's problems—just to get back at us.
Let's hope this is just my "aging hippy paranoia" showing.
However, here's another scary story. A coffeehouse acquaintance who teaches second grade recently told me that, during a parent-teacher conference, the parent said very indignantly, "My child doesn't have TIME to do homework!"
No amount of holding teachers and schools accountable for the performance of students can ever overcome this obstacle.
Where are the parents?
In an earlier post, I gave a précis of George Stewart's dystopian novel, Earth Abides. The crux of that story was that post-apocalypse parents could not be convinced to continue teaching their children reading, writing, math or science.
Are we there yet?Surely not, for tens of thousands have rallied each year to save public libraries.
However, we are wasting our advocacy capital when we wait for politicians to do their dirty work and then rally our allies to try to undo it.
We absolutely must get out into our communities to show them, where they live, the real value of education, of libraries, of social services—of all those publicly funded agencies which do for people what no for-profit entity can do as well: nurture and preserve their families.
We can't wait for the politicians and the new aristocracy to see it our way. We serve the public.
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