This morning, Joe, my fellow blogger and co-worker asked me if I was "trying to have one of those blogs that everyone reads" because of the previous entry in which I asked for links to favorite journals. 

Joe's question was interesting.  No, honestly, I don't need to be too popular.  I don't have time to talk to a lot of people.  I don't think I want to.  I really am a wallflower, however I do like it when people leave comments in response to what I share.  More readers means more comments (because I really don't get that many.)

So far, no one has sent me a link that's new to me, but they have sent some really good ones.     

Joe just joined my branch. (Congratulations, by the way, Joe, on becoming a real person.) ((Real people: regular full-time employees with benefits.)) 

Joe started as a page about six years ago.   He's paid his library dues.  Now he's a number II.  LOL (That's a jab because I know he'll read this.)

There was no school today and there will be no school tomorrow.  Naturally, we were just about over-run by the kids. It made the day drag because you can't get enough done when you have to keep stopping to ask kids not to run, talk loudly, eat and drink, or hit each other.

I think that if we were brilliant and rich, we'd build separate kid places and let them trash the place and yell and holler and whatever else they want to do, thereby freeing up the library computers for actual study, communication and old-fashioned READING.

The thing is that we do not want to keep the kids out.  They need and deserve resources and a place to be.  Legally, we don't have to allow them in under the age of 16 without supervision.  But someday these kids will have jobs and money and if they have bad experience now, they might not join Friends Groups when they retire.  They might go elsewhere to keep themselves jacked up on entertainment and to socialize.  If they are sitting in the library, they aren't usually committing crimes or putting themselves in harm's way.

My problem isthat unlike most of my co-workers, I am not a former school teacher.  I have no children.  I'm used to quiet and I'm old school when it comes to respecting your elders.  The crux is that you have to respect the kids.  My problem is that there are confines of how you can speak to them.  When I deal with members of my family, it's on an earthier level that they respond to.

Different age kids respond to different things.  Most kids who are under a certain age will stop if you say, "Excuse me, I need you to stop running, please."  Then there are older kids and you need to be apologetic.  "I'm sorry but we need to keep this card catalog free for people who need to look up books."  Now we get to the ones who need consequences for their actions.  "If we find you viewing porn again, you will lose your library privilege for the day."

Me, I want to communicate with them like I talk to my teenage brother.  "Hey Bub, what the heck are you doing?  Do you think that's a good idea?"  If I can't get his attention, I tickle him.  If he looks upset or tired, I rub his back or stroke his hair before I even say anything.

There isn't time enough to spend with these kids to develop closer relationships so you know them well enough to really communicate. You can't touch them.  And to speak to them on the street level could get you into trouble.

I started this entry last night.  Today is Friday. Two more days of being mobbed by kids... pray for me.

 

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