Library Stuff led me to this article on what Library School doesn't teach you. Yes, it started off making me laugh and then it got serious as life often does...
I know every librarian, every teacher, every person has these same life lessons that ultimately come together to give us the reason we do what we do...and why the minutia that seems to overwhelm us almost to the breaking point truly D-O-E-S-N-O-T matter in the long run.
For me (on the short list)...
...the kid who came regularly to get book tape to hold his shoes together (and I will have to live with the fact that I did not put him in the car and take him some place to get new ones),
...the tall lanky AV (pre-PC days--yes, some of us worked in the Dark Ages) whiz kid who could fix anything for me as long as I had a hammer who first brought me his baby sister to meet and, later, his own child,
...the day the ESL kids and I bonded over The Polar Express and the chocolate bells that we all could hearing ringing...we could! Just ask them!
...the group of girls I convinced to read This Place Has No Atmosphere for their science fiction assignment by saying if I liked it, they would, and they did! and a special thanks to Paula Danzinger for writing it so all of us non-sci-fi readers could have a fun experience while completing our assignment. And to all the sci-fi followers who shared all their favorites with me so I could pass them on to others. You filled the empty spot in my genre wheel!
...the student assistant who had such art talent and made me the circus train for my desk out of construction paper that I kept until it crumbled because she had no money for Christmas presents and we had had such a wonderful time over some book about circus trains...I can't remember the book or much of the incident itself, but I remember the train...and I remember her.
...the all-too quiet student assistant that all of us should have paid more attention to remembering the old saying that still waters run deep, sometimes very, very darkly deep...there were no signs then and when there were, it was too late.
...and my students-- my assistants and my readers/researchers who are now my colleagues...I have been to their weddings, held their children, and one in particular spent many wonderful hours with her and HER students. They all taught me well.
...and who would have thought some of the surprises of this job have to do with my adult "students"...the people who for a variety of reasons allow me to share a bit of knowledge with them and together we take each other to a new place, a new adventure, a new...
...and ALL the kids who told me time and time again "that was the BEST book I ever read, give me another one!" It was magic, that's what it was, that is what it is...the right book at the right time for the right kid for the right reason that makes it all work...no formula, just magic.
gosh, I looked back once more at the original article and I'm not sure I followed it's list exactly...but for me, these are the things, no, the people that they did not teach me about in library school, but boy, o, boy am I glad I learned from them.
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