why i hate working in the schools sometimes

Mean Librarians.

Today, I went to a school to visit with a kid. We meet in the library. We have a deal where we visit for most of the session and then we read aloud from Diary of a Wimpy Kid (which is amazing). Before our session started, he asked me if he could check out a book to take home and read. Of course I said yes and we wandered through the aisles together and he picked out a fairly large hardback book with a picture of a dragon on it. I believe it was one of the Eragon series. He brought it to the Mean Librarian and pushed the book back at him and then sneered at him, "Go back and pick out a book you CAN read."

My client was so embarrassed and upset. He insisted he could read it and she opened it up at random and made him read one of the sentences inside and when he had trouble with one of the NAMES, not words, she made him return to the stacks and pick something else.

By this time I was giving her an incredulous look, mixed with fury and she started back peddling and then tried to insist that he should look for another book about dragons that's not so advanced if that's what he was interested in. He just grabbed a book off the shelf and set it down in front of her. I could tell he had no interest in reading it.

Another potential book lover bites the dust.

We sat down and talked for awhile and then read our book. During the time when he was reading out loud, I could hear the Mean Librarian yelling at every kid who came in.

Here's a lovely exchange with a SECOND grader who was at the card catalog computer:
"William, what are you looking for?"
Three full seconds of silence from William.
"Excuse me, are there any other Williams in this library?"
William sadly shakes his head.
"Do you have some kind of hearing problem?"
Shakes his head again.
"Then why would you pretend like you can't hear me when I asked you a question?"
He shrugs, looks terrified.
"Get over here and pick out a book and go back to class."

Another with a girl who looked like she was in fourth grade who had just returned a book.
"Jennifer did you really read this whole book?"
"Yes."
"Well, I'm not counting it for your reading points because I don't believe you. I know you couldn't have finished it. Pick out something else from this shelf only and I'll let you check it out."

What a peach she is. She also did that awesomely, condescending thing where she had discussions with the teacher about how misbehaved the children were like the children weren't even there. Grrrrr.

Why do people think it's okay to speak to children that way? I understand it's not easy to deal with kids all day (God knows teachers complain about it 24/7), but that's what they signed on for! And in my opinion, librarians have NO excuse. They are in a big empty room surrounded by books most of the time!

Sadly, most kids don't even realize that they are being mistreated by this horrible woman because they are spoken to like this by most people in their lives. Have you ever walked down a hallway while classrooms are lined up, going to lunch? All they hear is what they're doing wrong; and you'd think teachers would have clued into the fact that if you ramble on enough, KIDS STOP LISTENING TO YOU. So, instead of yelling instructions at them all day like, "Face forward. Stop talking. Hands to yourself. Get in line. Don't look in their classroom. Hurry up," they'd start giving attention to the ones who ARE doing what they are supposed to because most kids would cut off their right arm for positive attention.

This whole rant has me seriously considering homeschooling my kid. Kidding.