Happy Ninja Christmas

In early December #2 son's school had a card fundraiser. Perfect timing! As I filled in the form he said, "Don't be disappointed Mum but we're not allowed to draw anything to do with Christmas."

Another casualty to over-political correctness. I respect that many families don't celebrate Christmas. Sometimes its cultural issue and sometimes it's a religious one. In fact most people I know simply celebrate the values Christmas reminds them of- family, goodwill to others and community spirit - rather than the birth of Christ. To me christmas is a spiritual period but I would never force that view on others.

Similarly I think it is wrong to deny the majority children, who celebrate the many variations of the Australlian Christmas, the joy of drawing the icons of the holiday period - the tree, the reindeer, Santa, bells and even the nativity if they want to. Parents who find this inappropriate for their child must already have strategies they use when the child is confronted as early as November by the plethora of Christmas items in the media, stores and general conversation. A little tactful diplomacy could surely see this extended to the classroom.

But ultimately I decided not to make a fuss and to take my lead from #2 son. He wasn't worried. It was fun to make any card. So we have a wonderful, colourful picture with a ninja bang in the middle and a Christmas message inside:

From me to you, from mine to yours, have a happy ninja Christmas.

We Really Do Need School Libraries and Teacher Librarians

I love libraries and am an active advocate of the role they play in schools.Yesterday I received an email about Australian schools who had or were in the processing of removing books from their libraries. Some have even dispensed with the library completely, replacing it with a book-less (not even an eBook!)technology area.

Now I'm not anti-technology in any shape or form. I work in IT. I had the Internet connected  at home before it was commonly accessible for recreational use. I have an Ipad I use to read e-Books. I can envisage a time when the school library will be predominantly on-line and electronic, when hard copy books are no longer the norm. But I don't think we're close to doing that equitably yet and certainly not in our country's underfunded school libraries.

What worried me most about the books being removed was the lack of a replacement 'literature or story' and 'professional expertise'. The books weren't replaced by eReaders and eBooks. There space was simply reassigned - to more high tech resources and a VCE centre. Some non-fiction books were redistributed into classrooms with no cataloging or borrowing process in place. A teacher librarian wasn't considered necessary.

A number of libraries have already removed most of their non-fiction. While on-line resources are wonderful for research, they are not  'fiction-friendly'. I am concerned that there are rumblings of fiction being removed along with the non-fiction. How will a child learn to love reading if a library contains mostly eBooks and not enough eReaders for books to be borrowed and read at leisure?  Lots of families don't have eReaders.  Fiction needs to be portable. Kids need to be able to take a story home, to sit reading it in the playground, or a quiet time in class. Not only read it when they are in the library.

How can a school library even think of surviving without a teacher librarian to make it more effective? It doesn't matter what form non-fiction information is in, it still requires a professional to manage it and teach students the best way to maximise information and its usage. How will a child learn to love reading if there is no librarian to guide them and help them select books? I have met many wonderful , dedicated classroom teachers who have a limited knowledge of children's fiction outside the texts they teach. They don't have the time to research new releases or develop knowledge of a wide range of titles. That's the role of the teacher-librarian.

On the plus side I heard a story of a NZ school who replaced the library with a cyber cafe but have since reversed the decision and put their library back again. That's what I like to hear!

Places I Like to Go... Cath Crowley's Blog

I love the way Cath Crowley strings words together. Graffiti Moon was one of my favourite books for 2011. I was guilty of sharing it around with lots of friends and gloating 'I called it' when it won so many awards. My personal reading criteria for a great book is an enthralling story and beautiful words. I like other mixes too, but that one's my favourite. And it describes Graffiti Moon perfectly.

I dropped into the Cath's blog today and found this ...

In that nothing night

The stars caught the bus

To the other side of town

To go to the pub

The moon followed

Like moons do

....

Head over to Cath's blog to read the rest of the poem.

Halloween 2011

I love Halloween but I know many of my friends feel differently. I've heard all the arguments (it's unAustralian (this particularly puzzles me as Santa Claus and Easter eggs are allowed), a pagan practice, greedy kids etc etc). I am not phased by the arguments because everyone is entitled to their own view. Now that's Australian!

For me, Halloween is a celebration of community. The children in our street and their friends dress up and connect with their neighbours. If it wasn't for Halloween some of the big generation gaps in our street would never be crossed by conversation. It's supervised - lots of parents and advertised - neighbours choose if they want to be involved by displaying a sign. Our street is very steep and very few kids go to all the houses. Once there's a few lollies in the bag, it's more of social occasion.

For me Halloween began one magical night in Tennesee when all the children in the mall were wearing costumes. When #1 son saw the old holiday slides, he wanted to go trick or treating. We explained that no-one did in Asutralia (this was 10 years ago). But every year he asked and eventually I relented and arranged a visit to my immediate neighbours. For the next week my phone was ringing with people asking why we didn't call on them.

The next year we letterbox dropped some 'street rules' about lollies, quantities and the start time. Neighbours who didn't want to participate would simply not display the 'Trick or Treaters Welcome Here' sign on their mailbox and doorknockers would respect that. When lollies ran out or dinners was in progress, the sign could be removed. There was a high proportion of older people in our street and I was certain they wouldn't want to be interrupted but they were the biggest supporters. They loved those trick or treats and I love the fact that my children eventually met all their neighbours.

Nowadays it's a well-anticipated annual event - by kids and adults alike. My other half builds a haunted house and sometimes there are 60 kids queued to go through. This year things were a little different as we had a lot of illness in the family and just didn't have the time. But good fun was still had by all and I'm looking forward to next year.