Teacher librarians are kicking goals for their school communities during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Unfortunately, most schools don't have...
...Here’s the bitter pill: most schools don’t have us.
Every year, when I read about falling literacy outcomes, falling trust due to fake news and falling mental health of teachers and students, I feel so frustrated because I know what can help reverse those trends. Now, with the Grattan Institute’s COVID Catch-up report recommending urgent intervention to help disadvantaged students catch up after the lockdown, I’m thinking about the long-term answer to the achievement gap which already existed at “about 10 times larger” than what grew during the COVID-19 lockdown.
Sure, there’s no magic pill to completely fix all those things in a blink, but there is a living, breathing, walking, talking ‘Room of Requirement’ that can (and should!) be available in every school. As we’ve seen during COVID-19, it’s the school library people, not the place, that matter most. All students need school libraries run by a teacher librarian and qualified library staff....