This is just pathetic and stupid near beyond belief even for FL. Libraries are closer to being a church to me than any building with a steeple I've ever been in.
Between what the Heritage Foundation revealed they think of women's sports, women being in the professions, Trump! incompetently warring with Iran . . . and all the damn rest of it . . . and this, I hope November is such a bloodbath for the GOP not a trace of MAGA remains nationally, and is reduced to reddest handful of states. I suppose a complete removal is too much to hope for.
"The circulation rates are less than in most schools—less than one checkout a day," <-- Go figure red school districts aren't places people read.
Fahrenheit 415 is here. The dumbing down of Amerikkka continues. Let FL, TX, and the other red states secede and be gone with them.
As it is, and very sadly, FL is a no-go state for me even though my elderly mother lives there (87 years old). I already know I will not go to her funeral. My three younger sisters will.
I grew up in Florida, but fortunately I don’t have any relatives there. I will never visit Florida again. Unfortunately I have a sister in Texas and a sister in Tennessee. I have lived in blue states ever since I left Florida and can’t imagine living in a red state.
I'm in Vermont. One of the truest blue of the blue which, for now, is my bubble and safe place. I haven't lived in a red state since I left the town I called 'Oh My Hell' (aka Omaha) in Nebraska in 1994.
Well, if they couldn't handle those three books ("The Handmaid’s Tale," "Slaughterhouse-Five," and "The Color Purple"), it's a safe bet they never got mine! 😏😞
The idea that school officials are proposing to get rid of libraries severely tests the limits of "I can't be shocked anymore."
The middle and high schools my kids went to in south Florida basically did not have functional libraries. They definitely didn’t have librarians and were rarely open for kids to check out books or study.
But thinking back to growing up in Utah, I remember my junior high library, but I cannot remember my high school library. By then I either went to public libraries or book stores ( I graduated in 1994, so well before Amazon).
I do understand though that for some kids this might be the only exposure to libraries or getting books to read for pleasure. Or for kids who need to find certain books school libraries may be there best chance to find the books they need with no parents involved.
It’s so sad that books, which seem to be one of the things most firmly protected by the first amendment have become such a battleground.
We had assignments in high school which intentionally leveraged the school library so that we learned how to research things properly. The librarians were thrilled because helping people with that sort of project is their idea of a great time. They live for it.
I checked out books from my middle school library all the time. The librarian noticed things I was interested in and would buy $0.25 and $0.50 paperbacks for me. Kids already struggle with reading whole books and this only exacerbates a worsening trend.
Not surprising in the slightest, honestly. They've been telling us who they are and what they want for long enough that nobody should be surprised by any heinous thing they do or say, at this point. I'm a 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 bit surprised, though, that they didn't suggest disposing of the to-be-closed-down library's contents in a bonfire.
Holy smokes! These people are real hicks, aren't they? And of course they've never heard of the internet. No way their "protected" teenagers could be getting to information these morons want to suppress, right?....(have they ever met a teenager?)....
“Beth Clark, asked why the district cannot sue publishers for “providing pornography to our children,””
This is an elite level of “Sometimes I question your commitment to Sparkle Motion” parochialism. If you only had to remember one amendment to the Constitution and couldn’t count higher than one…
I’m intentionally not sharing this with my librarian mother. She doesn’t need the aggravation.
This brings to mind Heather McGhee's excellent book, _The Sum of Us_. That book laid out the history of how a few petty bigots banded together to fill in their town's municipal swimming pool (not just one town ... several towns) rather than let Black people swim in it. This, as the saying goes, is why we can't have nice things. If the bigots can't have what they want, then NOBODY can have what they want. It's just gross.
Thank you for sharing. As someone who lives in FL (thankfully in St. Johns vs Clay), it has absolutely been awful. It is exhausting for those of us who have been fighting and fighting and just can't stop any of this. It's to the point where I just want to leave the state. I do fear for my friends and family, and I don't want my daughter limited because of everything. Now, of course, we've bought her the banned books to read, but still.
If we continue down this road of radical discrimination, especially of the written word, then Fahrenheit 451 will very much become a reality. They will come for the books in our homes.
When you allow anyone to challenge and remove books from school libraries, this is the predictable result. In Clay County, Florida, a conservative stronghold, so many books have been removed that officials are now considering closing school libraries altogether.
What happens to students? They lose access to knowledge, diverse perspectives, history, literature, and the experiences of people different from themselves. Instead of encouraging curiosity and critical thinking, this creates an environment where education is restricted and understanding of the wider world and the community's around them.
A community that limits what its students can read is not producing better-educated citizens—it is producing a generation with less understanding, fewer opportunities to learn, fewer perspectives to consider, and a much narrower view of the world. Libraries don't indoctrinate. They educate. Closing them is a failure of leadership, not a victory for education.
Can we keep the books and get rid of Florida instead?
TY Erin.
This is just pathetic and stupid near beyond belief even for FL. Libraries are closer to being a church to me than any building with a steeple I've ever been in.
Between what the Heritage Foundation revealed they think of women's sports, women being in the professions, Trump! incompetently warring with Iran . . . and all the damn rest of it . . . and this, I hope November is such a bloodbath for the GOP not a trace of MAGA remains nationally, and is reduced to reddest handful of states. I suppose a complete removal is too much to hope for.
"The circulation rates are less than in most schools—less than one checkout a day," <-- Go figure red school districts aren't places people read.
Fahrenheit 415 is here. The dumbing down of Amerikkka continues. Let FL, TX, and the other red states secede and be gone with them.
As it is, and very sadly, FL is a no-go state for me even though my elderly mother lives there (87 years old). I already know I will not go to her funeral. My three younger sisters will.
I grew up in Florida, but fortunately I don’t have any relatives there. I will never visit Florida again. Unfortunately I have a sister in Texas and a sister in Tennessee. I have lived in blue states ever since I left Florida and can’t imagine living in a red state.
I'm in Vermont. One of the truest blue of the blue which, for now, is my bubble and safe place. I haven't lived in a red state since I left the town I called 'Oh My Hell' (aka Omaha) in Nebraska in 1994.
They've been coming for libraries this whole time.
If knowledge is power, what is lack of knowledge? And, intentionally inflicting ignorance?
Well, if they couldn't handle those three books ("The Handmaid’s Tale," "Slaughterhouse-Five," and "The Color Purple"), it's a safe bet they never got mine! 😏😞
The idea that school officials are proposing to get rid of libraries severely tests the limits of "I can't be shocked anymore."
The middle and high schools my kids went to in south Florida basically did not have functional libraries. They definitely didn’t have librarians and were rarely open for kids to check out books or study.
But thinking back to growing up in Utah, I remember my junior high library, but I cannot remember my high school library. By then I either went to public libraries or book stores ( I graduated in 1994, so well before Amazon).
I do understand though that for some kids this might be the only exposure to libraries or getting books to read for pleasure. Or for kids who need to find certain books school libraries may be there best chance to find the books they need with no parents involved.
It’s so sad that books, which seem to be one of the things most firmly protected by the first amendment have become such a battleground.
We had assignments in high school which intentionally leveraged the school library so that we learned how to research things properly. The librarians were thrilled because helping people with that sort of project is their idea of a great time. They live for it.
I checked out books from my middle school library all the time. The librarian noticed things I was interested in and would buy $0.25 and $0.50 paperbacks for me. Kids already struggle with reading whole books and this only exacerbates a worsening trend.
"𝘐 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘳𝘪𝘥 𝘰𝘧 𝘭𝘪𝘣𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘴 𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘶𝘴𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘣𝘰𝘰𝘬𝘴 𝘪𝘴𝘯'𝘵 𝘦𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘦𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩."
Well that is certainly... a take.
Not surprising in the slightest, honestly. They've been telling us who they are and what they want for long enough that nobody should be surprised by any heinous thing they do or say, at this point. I'm a 𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘭𝘦 bit surprised, though, that they didn't suggest disposing of the to-be-closed-down library's contents in a bonfire.
Holy smokes! These people are real hicks, aren't they? And of course they've never heard of the internet. No way their "protected" teenagers could be getting to information these morons want to suppress, right?....(have they ever met a teenager?)....
“The options on the table are kind of nuclear options like close the library, take all the fiction books out, just leave the non-fiction...."
First they came for the books, now they're coming for the libraries, than they'll come for the schools - which was the actual goal all along.
And just wondering: If they removed the fiction, leaving the non-fiction, would there still be a Bible there? I suspect the answer would be revealing.
“Beth Clark, asked why the district cannot sue publishers for “providing pornography to our children,””
This is an elite level of “Sometimes I question your commitment to Sparkle Motion” parochialism. If you only had to remember one amendment to the Constitution and couldn’t count higher than one…
I’m intentionally not sharing this with my librarian mother. She doesn’t need the aggravation.
And the ignorance is overwhelming. And getting worse.
This brings to mind Heather McGhee's excellent book, _The Sum of Us_. That book laid out the history of how a few petty bigots banded together to fill in their town's municipal swimming pool (not just one town ... several towns) rather than let Black people swim in it. This, as the saying goes, is why we can't have nice things. If the bigots can't have what they want, then NOBODY can have what they want. It's just gross.
Thank you for sharing. As someone who lives in FL (thankfully in St. Johns vs Clay), it has absolutely been awful. It is exhausting for those of us who have been fighting and fighting and just can't stop any of this. It's to the point where I just want to leave the state. I do fear for my friends and family, and I don't want my daughter limited because of everything. Now, of course, we've bought her the banned books to read, but still.
If we continue down this road of radical discrimination, especially of the written word, then Fahrenheit 451 will very much become a reality. They will come for the books in our homes.
Let's cut off our nose to spite our face. Really Florida,
When you allow anyone to challenge and remove books from school libraries, this is the predictable result. In Clay County, Florida, a conservative stronghold, so many books have been removed that officials are now considering closing school libraries altogether.
What happens to students? They lose access to knowledge, diverse perspectives, history, literature, and the experiences of people different from themselves. Instead of encouraging curiosity and critical thinking, this creates an environment where education is restricted and understanding of the wider world and the community's around them.
A community that limits what its students can read is not producing better-educated citizens—it is producing a generation with less understanding, fewer opportunities to learn, fewer perspectives to consider, and a much narrower view of the world. Libraries don't indoctrinate. They educate. Closing them is a failure of leadership, not a victory for education.