Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Gaming in libraries - the dumbing down of a nation?

So, here I sit at SVC awaiting a late trainer. A perfect time to update the Lynnwood MySpace blog! Ok. Done with that. Hmm. Ok, time to catch up on the listservs I've largely been ignoring. YALSA-L...what?!

Dave Gibson, in the American Chronicle:

"Unfortunately, it appears that this country's librarians have decided to do their part in the dumbing-down of America. What has happened to this country?...All of the librarians I have known were in love with the written word and truly enjoyed opening the door to their world to young people. Perhaps, today's crop of young librarians would be better served answering their calling as arcade attendants and movie theatre managers."

So, comrades, do you feel like you are dumbing down young people?

heh. Happy people are dissing the hater all over the internet. Check it out.

-Jackie

2 comments:

Librarianguish said...

"Generations of Americans who valued education and insisted that their children understand not only the importance but the enjoyment of the written word, have given way to barely functioning illiterates who spend hour after hour trying to get to the next level of Guitar Hero."


Hmmmm...so he personally knows these "barely functioning illiterates?"

He apparently hasn't been in a public library for quite a while, if he thinks they're anything like the quiet places he remembers from his youth. And you'd be hard pressed to convince me that the majority of teens were reveling in the literary classics back then, either.

Dawn said...

Eli talked about this in his training. 100 years ago it was paperbacks (Penny Dreadfuls) that were ruining our youth. Then it was jazz, rock n' roll, etc...etc...

I think what is happening is that these folks calling others "barely functioning illiterates" are frightened by their own growing cultural illiteracy as they become more and more out of touch. Or the things they have placed value on and invested time in becoming knowledgable about become less prized by society, which takes away some of the power they got from it.