In the spirit of hoisting
comments, I’m elevating what I thought was the comment of the week
last week and sharing it here. I’m going to try to remember doing this
on a regular basis, preferably on Mondays and/or Tuesday…I’m tough at
keeping traditions but this one is worth doing. So I won’t forget, I’m
adding a new category (which is tough on Thingamablog since I have to
upload the ENTIRE blog) called "CommentHoisted"
Carolyn Foote, librarian
for a Texas public school, writes in this comment:
Miguel, As I was reading your post I was thinking of a story I heard
Gary Paulsen, the author of Hatchet, tell. He basically had no family
life and was raising himself. The library was a place for him to stay
warm, and even though he had no address, the librarian gave him a card
and encouraged him to read.Libraries can be many things to
different people, clearly….but I think they are a place where
humans can interact with ideas and with other humans, with nourishment
and nurturing that maybe they can’t find elsewhere, and they are
entryways into all sorts of ideas. Would it be that all library
policies supported this kind of vision!
Carolyn’s post made
me curious about Gary Paulsen, helped me to see him in a different
way. I always have been attracted to books and stories where the main
character is out on his own, lost in the wilderness. I’ve read many of
these stories and the attraction is still there with me. The attraction
began with "The Summer I Was Lost" and has continued through many a
tale. I’ve always imagined myself lost in the wilderness, finding a way
to survive. It’s not a bad way to approach learning to survive and grow.
Sometimes, though, you have to consider putting down roots and moving
beyond surviving, beyond trying to get back to civilization.
But, back to Gary’s life:
After a librarian gave him a book to read — along with his own library
card — he was hooked. He began spending hours alone in the basement of
his apartment building, reading one book after another. Running away
from home at the age of 14 and traveling with a carnival, Paulsen
acquired a taste for adventure.
Taste for adventure, nurturing places, they all go together. As Carolyn
writes here…
…helping our students explore their vision is a way of giving them an
anchor–a thing to tie back to–as their own unexpected pathways unfold.
Because ultimately, we want our students to be confident, happy and
fulfilled.
