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Trips, where they can go anywhere in the world, without the cost of an airplane ticket! The only cost is the time that he or she spends with the student, in helping them to explore these avenues. The child soon learns that these field trips are especially good if they are a slow reader or are a visual learner. They come to understand that these trips will aid them as they become older, in planning vacations and are encouraged to find travel books in the 900 section of the library, through the Dewey Decimal System. Yes, the geography and history section is not just for doing homework!

If the Media Specialists encourage information literacy, and guide them so that the child is curious about things, "just because", then that child will ask to be taught where to find answers to his questions. This adult will be their safety net, to catch him as he starts to fall. These types of specialists do not just hand over information, but rather, show various resources, so that informed decisions can be made. It is the job of this underpaid human being to nurture a student's soul and to ignite the passion to learn and open up his eyes to the world around him. Isn't high level and critical thinking what our schools what them to experience anyway, as part of the learning process? When children question things they are thinking "outside the box", the first step to true learning.

Making children responsible citizens and knowledgeable adults that will know how to buy a card, pick out a family insurance plane, find a lawyer, learn how to do their taxes, or even measure a window shade is a librarian's goal, with the answers inside the four walls of the library. Yes, you can call them "life skills"! While some people choose to go to the various "ask" sites, nothing can replace the expertise of one who works in a library. It is there that the value of databases are taught, the mechanics of research are explored, and the personal touch of another's encouraging words, with his or her experience are manifested. Teaching that reliable sources are not the Internet-based sites that appear like they are on-line encyclopedias and fool the public. Again, as my mother taught me, "you can't believe everything that you read"!

Let the Library Media Specialists continue to fuel the passion that they attempt to create for those that have a "need to know". Any tidbits of information or trivia, even in the form of a game, helps children learn. This drive to answer curious questions can be quite contagious, but the children have to first "catch the bug" and "want" to learn more, and ask the questions, "just because, they NEED to know"! While we were not put here on earth to constantly entertain, all people learn when the drive is there and they are having fun. Let them to continue ignite that curiosity in a way that no on and off computer button can do, because we are there to listen, explore, encourage and to trigger a sense of curiosity within them!

Learn more about this author, Carol Natoli.
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