Last Tuesday, the day before attending our annual Texas Library Association conference, I wrote about not knowing if I wanted to continue working in a school library. We had received word the previous week that we were losing our library assistants, and the state legislature was astoundingly moving forward with bills impeding intellectual freedoms. Feeling attacked by systems over my pay grade, I was considering jumping what felt like a sinking ship. I am, after all, eligible to retire.
But. (You knew that was coming, right?)
I went to the conference, my first in-person in three years. I was surrounded by like-minded professionals who believe in the right to read widely, promoting diversity in literature and safe spaces in libraries. Three-and-a-half days of peopling among my people, exhausting for this introvert but filling my librarian heart. Two days into the conference, we found out that some of the assistant positions were given back, and I was among the lucky few due to working on a Title I campus.
Yesterday, I signed my contract for next year. I paused before doing so, but I signed.
There was a pause because the restrictive legislation keeps moving forward. I've no doubt that certain groups, like "Moms for Liberty", are behind this. After listening to a "CBS Sunday Morning" segment on book banning, I looked up the group's website. The doublespeak is carefully crafted, but plain to see. Their idea of liberty is narrow, and doesn't seem to be paired with "and justice for all."
Why? Why are people so determined to restrict others' access to information and ideas?
Later that day, I was reading Kelly Barnhill's When Women Were Dragons (a book bursting with righteous social commentary). Chapter 21's ending caught my breath; I had to take a booksnap. Here is at least one answer to the why.
That mom group's definition of liberty is the kind of freedom Barnhill describes. The Giver by Lois Lowry is also about the same kind of freedom. What both books warn us, though, is that legislating a cover-up for what makes people uncomfortable and rocks the status quo does not make those situations go away. The cover is always blown; the universe arcs towards justice.
I'm okay with being uncomfortable. So let's go once more into the fray, shall we?
Even though the arc of your piece is predictable (which you allude to in your 2nd paragraph!), it is a strong explanation of your decision. The addition of the book page is a delight; it adds the whimsy of the truth fiction can tell. And I love how your final sentence alludes back to it- dragon slaying. Seeing the dragons, not a false freedom.
ReplyDeleteChris, what a process of trying to decide whether or not to go back into the fray. Thank you for sharing that booksnap. Wow. What fears abound in that kind of "freedom." I like what Stephen King says about banned books: "What I tell kids is, Don't get mad, get even. Don't spend time waving signs or carrying petitions around the neighborhood. Instead, run, don't walk, to the nearest nonschool library or to the local bookstore and get whatever it was that they banned. Read whatever they're trying to keep out of your eyes and your brain, because that's exactly what you need to know.”
ReplyDeleteHere's to at least one more year in the fray!
Chris, I'm glad you signed that contract. You school and students need you. I know it's not easy these days, but golly, with groups like the ill-named "Moms for Liberty," we need pros such as yourself holding the line in libraries. We have the so-called Freedom Foundation in Idaho but no chapters of Moms for Liberty. And I thought that segment on them was good.
ReplyDeleteI am always amazed by the fact that those who do not teach tell us how and what we should be teaching. They then turn around and blame us for not teaching and preparing their children for the world.
ReplyDeleteBrilliantly written, Chris! I especially love this line in regard to what makes people uncomfortable: "The cover is always blown; the universe arcs towards justice." I applaud your decision to return to the media center next year and I celebrate that your assistant can remain. The needs are great...and none greater than truths and real freedoms to read and discern for oneself.
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