This 'n' that

So it's been a busy couple of weeks, but if you asked me what I'd done, I probably wouldn't be able to tell you.

Ever have that experience?

Tonight we have our last School Librarians of the Southern Tier meeting for the year. Should be fun; tonight's session is kind of like a "show and tell" for librarians. People share projects, tips, things like that, and it's always good to see what everyone else is doing. Gives you lots of ideas for the upcoming school year!

Now, if only we could remember them over the summer...

My frustration from the last post is gone; YouTube is back. Apparently there were several people who complained to the right ears; I was not one, though, because by the time I'd cooled down enough to feel I could voice my opinion rationally and actually had time to go find our technology administrator, enough other people had beat me to the punch. I'm sure there are other things still blocked that probably shouldn't be, but for now, at least, I'm much calmer and happier.

Frustration

Okay, so this morning I went to look at a trailer for a documentary about librarians that's posted on YouTube and found that YouTube is now BLOCKED. Not only blocked, but blocked without any administrative override.

Frustrated is not really the proper word to describe what I'm feeling.

Sure, there's stuff on YouTube that's not educationally appropriate. There's stuff on the entire Web that's not educationally appropriate. But getting rid of everything just because you might run into something is just wrong. It's the old "throw the baby out with the bathwater" thing, and it doesn't do the kids any favors in the long run. Everyone's telling us we need to teach kids to think critically, but how does filtering do that? It teaches them they don't have to think; we're doing it for them. They don't have to decide if something is appropriate, valuable, or worth seeing because the filter - or those who are choosing which sites to filter - decides that.

If you don't want your kids to drown you don't fill in the pool - you teach them to swim. What's wrong with that?

Let me add "disgusted" to "frustrated."

There. I said it. In public and everything. Now maybe I'll feel better...