Past President
Past President 2006- Marsha Lambert
The Power of Your Stories
During difficult financial times the stories we tell about our students and teachers successes and needs may be key to helping programs survive and grow. The values of a society are often reflected in stories people choose to tell. Qualities such as fairness, justice, humor, the redeeming power of love, and the expectation of an ending where everyone except the villain "lives happily ever after" are found in stories from all cultures. Sharing pictures whether verbal or visual may help decision makers understand how the school library media center plays a vital role in student learning. Describing the enthusiasm of a young child who stops you in the grocery store to talk about the book or story you shared with them, or the response of a teacher whose students are successfully gathering information not by "googling" but through the reference books and MeL databases you helped them discover and master may be as important as statistics. One on one human contact with students both gifted and at risk is hard to measure, but the stories that result can be invaluable.
Early in my career I collected what I called "heart warmers." In my planning book I would jot down notes of encounters with students, staff or parents which made the day more special. Quotes, cartoons, and titles worth sharing were also noted. In light of program cuts we may all need to share such shining moments to ensure that we are there another year to keep the light of learning and research burning brightly. I wish I had continued the habit and kept thirty years of heart warmers collected in one book. While we must acknowledge our difficulties and challenges in order to address them, I believe we must at all costs avoid being viewed as victims or whiners. The library media program is an incredibly powerful key to student success. When we speak up and tell our success stories we are not necessarily "blowing our own horn," we are actually standing up for the students and teachers served by our programs. Finding one person who blends the key to literature, research techniques for all formats, and who can team with teachers of all subject areas to design learning opportunities for individuals and classes, as well as providing information upon demand is a challenge-unless you happen to be a media specialist.
I have always loved the old Japanese story of a musician whose ship is captured by bloodthirsty pirates. As they prepare to kill all aboard the ship, the musician asks to play one last time. He pours the emotions of a lifetime about to be lost into his music. The pirates are so moved by the beauty of the music that those aboard the ship are spared. In order for our programs to survive we may need to search for and share our own moving stories, pictures, comments from student surveys and testimony from supportive staff parents and students.
"But it's not just learning things that's important. It's learning what to do with what you learn and learning why you learn things at all that matters."
-Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Marcia Lambert
MAME President 2006