Talking to the librarian

[ailbhe]

Well, when I arrived, there was a man at the counter talking about sex education and how it causes teenage pregnancies and how "it's not a mechanics problem, it's a moral problem," and things. And the librarian seemed to be agreeing with him that there was far too much sex education and not enough reading and writing.

And the librarian came over to talk to me about it. And I pointed out that in other countries, children don't go to school until they are seven and have much more sex education than they do here and end up not pregnant and well-educated at 18. I suggested that a large part of the problem was related to the fact that anyone who is good at or enjoys being in school is in serious social trouble. The assistant librarian - the one who's so helpful about requesting Home Education books for me, nudge nudge - agreed with me.

The real librarian said that she thought it was "a cultural issue." I agreed - "Oh yes," I said, "as long as it's trendier to smash up bus-stops than to read a book, there's going to be tihs problem." She disagreed with me. "Oh no," she said, "I meant people coming here without, you know, the language, and their mothers don't change their language, so they can't help them wth their homework. They come in here all the time, you know."

If that's who she means, then, she means brown people. Grr.

She also thought that children shouldn't be taught French because it detracted from their learning English and Sums (Sums are like Maths but for children, I think). She didn't like the Swedish solution at all.

She also believes it used to be better long ago, and that it's terrible that there were adults in the adult literacy classes who couldn't read, even though they were obviously intelligent.

It was a most bizarre conversation. However, I have now sold fifteen copies of before baby walks so I only need to sell two more to buy it an ISBN. Then it'll be listed by Amazon. Ha!

(We brought Linnea to the doctor and I'm doing all the right things. We also asked at another pharmacist for the vaginal dilators and they phoned up and the customer has to order them direct, so I have to get Rob to do that because I'm shaking and crying just thinking about it. I have yet to say "vaginal dilator" out loud.)

Comments

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Things were MUCH better long ago when the literacy rate as a whole was substantially lower and there WEREN'T literacy classes for adults, so they just stayed ignorant. Where the heck is she coming up with this? I mean, I know it's a stereotype that librarians are not "hip and with it" but for crying out loud, READ A BOOK -- The British Empire encompassed bzillions of non-white Britains for centuries up until just before our births, and she thinks things are worse NOW? I mean hello, here in America we're a whole NATION of immigrants, each wave more economically assaulted than the last, and every culture more diverse from the melting pot just to weird out the natives and give new root to old dormant nightmares.

[ahruman.livejournal.com]

…but what would they be doing in adult literacy classes if they could read?

This reminds me vaguely of an immigrant[1] friend of my parents who at one point commented that there are so many cripples in Sweden. There aren’t, of course. What there’s lots of is wheelchairs, letting your average paraplegic get out and about and have more active occupations than begging in the streets. But hey, having the cripples stuck at home or in alleys (where they’re less likely to be chased away) is clearly neater.

[1] For reference, my father’s an immigrant. Technically, so am I, and I certainly was when I lived elsewhere.

Immigrants, taking our jobs and stealing our women

[ailbhe]

I'm an immigrant, and *doesn't* it just break people's brains when I remind them of it mid-rant...

[barakta]

That librarian is outrageous. While she (and or any of her colleagues) might personally find the children of families who don't speak English frustrating, that is her issue not anyone else's. If these children are demanding/needing/taking more time than she or her colleagues can reasonably be expected to provide then she should make appropriate suggestions to management. For example requests for more staffing to provide for an obvious need that these children have; or options for the families to learn english within the library; or after school clubs etc etc). She should not be bitching in public to other patrons in a patently racist manner.

As someone who's worked briefly as a librarian I could not imagine saying such things to a patron and not getting a bollocking for it (from my colleagues or an official complaint). While it may not be worth a complaint, it is almost certainly against the equal opps policy that the library as an extension of the council have.

I was lucky, my colleagues were very non judgemental as a rule. They tried to be understanding of people who were difficult to understand, and where appropriate alert me to patrons who I might find potentially difficult. There was only one occasion where there was a bit of 'chatter' in the staffroom about a patron where I felt unhappy about the language used. I pulled them up on it as they were describing "a man in a dress" and how they didn't know what to call "he/she/it".

They very quickly got the "you mean lady who might possibly be male to female trans - but it's actually none of your business" snark from me. A short explanation of probable appropriate pronouns and a bit of curious questioning and they realised a lot more than they had and had a little more respect and compassion. They grokked and realised no matter how over the top this lady dressed, or how she did/didn't 'pass' she deserved to be treated with same respect as anyone else. I don't think they were rude/nasty to this patron, but they may have stuttered over pronouns and been very awkward.

There's ignorance and there's more deliberate prejudiced beliefs. I know which I'd rather deal with...

Re: Talking to the librarian

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

i dislike ignorant librarians. it's unfathomable to me how one can be surrounded by books on a daily basis, and yet be so clueless -- that shows a particularly strong flaw in one's character, i think.

anyway. does it count towards the ISBN goal if one orders a copy of your book for download?

Re: Talking to the librarian

[ailbhe]

Yeah, but you *are* aware that the text is all available for free over at lnc, yeah?

Re: Talking to the librarian

[pir-anha.livejournal.com]

yes, i am, but i want to support your budding authoring, and acquisition of an ISBN! i think it's all very exciting!

besides which your poems are cool, and i say that as somebody who hardly groks any poetry aside from dorothy parker.

Re: Immigrants, taking our jobs and stealing our women

[micheinnz.livejournal.com]

Yay, go you!

[radegund.livejournal.com]

*the red rage*

That is all.

Re: Immigrants, taking our jobs and stealing our women

[kelvix.livejournal.com]

Very happy to be married to an immigrant, who's got a job in this country. Will be attempting to get dual nationality as soon as possible.

[(Anonymous)]

I think I have yet to say "vaginal dilator" out loud and I've used them. I call it "you know, the white thing". I got them from my sex therapist.

[feetnotes.livejournal.com]

(i dunno if it's still germane, but)
they used to come in a choice of stainless steel or, if you were lucky & had a woman "gynae" (or a thoughtful male), plastic; either way, but especially if steel, they need warming first!