Anita Cellucci is the Teacher Librarian at Westborough High School
Advocacy means different things to different people. It can depend on the school community, the culture of the school itself, or the issues that are at the forefront. Brene Brown, author of Daring Greatly, begins her book with a discussion of what it means to dare greatly. She quotes Theodore Roosevelt’s speech, “Citizenship in a Republic,” sometimes referred to as “The Man in the Arena.” She goes on to discuss how we can spend our days trying to perfect ourselves or we can walk into the arena now and do what we can with the gifts we have. I find this quote to be a perfect analogy to think about as we reflect on our libraries and the differences between them.
As the Library Commission continues the important work to discover the state of our school libraries in Massachusetts, we are continuing conversations about what is happening in our libraries and what we know about the difference in quality as well as the difference in equitable resources available to create these programs. When we are in good situations, it is easy to forget about the other situations that exist. It is also easy to pass judgement on the quality of instruction, the level of collaboration and the number of innovative programs that are produced in the other spaces. It is harder to put ourselves into the shoes of the educators who are working in schools - without the understanding and support of administrators, the finances to support student innovation and the staff to allow for collaboration.
Today I challenge us all to dare greatly together - to remember that if we are in the arena, and we are doing our best to stay in the arena, that this too matters and our understanding of each other is necessary in order to move our profession and libraries forward.
As the Library Commission continues the important work to discover the state of our school libraries in Massachusetts, we are continuing conversations about what is happening in our libraries and what we know about the difference in quality as well as the difference in equitable resources available to create these programs. When we are in good situations, it is easy to forget about the other situations that exist. It is also easy to pass judgement on the quality of instruction, the level of collaboration and the number of innovative programs that are produced in the other spaces. It is harder to put ourselves into the shoes of the educators who are working in schools - without the understanding and support of administrators, the finances to support student innovation and the staff to allow for collaboration.
Today I challenge us all to dare greatly together - to remember that if we are in the arena, and we are doing our best to stay in the arena, that this too matters and our understanding of each other is necessary in order to move our profession and libraries forward.