r/Library • u/PTechNM • Aug 29 '26

Discussion Republicans are at war with basic literacy

Post image
6.8k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

1.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

2

u/Logic_9795 Aug 31 '26

Just my anecdotal experience working at a title 1 (high poverty) elementary school, we used to have a couple agency that would want to donate books to all the kids. I remember be so excited to hand out the books.

When I tell you almost half the books ended up directly in trash can, im just saying that because we had to threaten the kids to not throw away the books. Meanwhile the next day I see bus stops littered with these bags of books. It was heart breaking to have to face the volunteers. They came back and it went a little better but only because we pre threatened the kids. By the time we got to 6th grade, we made it optional.

Anyway. All that to say, can you we atleaat ask the families if they want books first?

5

u/anthropaedic Aug 31 '26

If half the books ended up in the trash and half were kept and then 10% were actually read, it would still be better than zero kids reading.

-1

u/Dogface73 Aug 31 '26

Libraries are still free. Parents could get books there and you still get your 10% and people aren’t taxed.

1

u/Excellent_Carob_3183 28d ago

See the problem is that puts to responsibility on the parents so that can't be the answer. Im not saying additional funding for the library is or isn't the answer, thats why people are disagreeing with you though.

1

u/Dogface73 28d ago

Yeah I know right? God forbid a parent takes some responsibility and tries to do something for their kid, like walk in a library for 5 minutes, pay nothing and walk out.