Growing up, I understood some very important aspects of my life:
what team I was picked for kick-ball, what episode of Blossom we watched at the babysitter’s, and which book I read
before I went to bed. I feel very blessed to have lived such a privileged childhood
in which these were my biggest worries. I had two siblings (an antsy sister and
an athletic brother)—who followed me in school. While we are completely
different, we all understand the importance of the written word. That is, we
all love to explore the unseen. We love the development of the mind. We love
our imaginations. We love losing ourselves in another’s thoughts. Erin, Patrick and I love to read.
How amazing is that!? We grew up in a household where there
wasn’t a Nintendo or Playstation, or Xbox. We grew up where books were the
ordinary and DVDs were the extraordinary. We preferred our imagination to
someone else’s. And why did we grow up in a place where reading was an accepted
part of life? Because our mother, Mary Linda Burmester believed it so, that’s
why.
See, I credit my mom with nearly everything I’ve learned in
life. Not because she was there every single step of the way—throughout shitty algebra and the complicated chemistry
and the awful fifth-grade long division,
but because she stressed the importance of learning to read. I remember sitting on
her lap, leaning on her chest, and listening to her heart beat as she read my Junie B. Jones books. At the time I didn’t
understand the hilarity of Barbara Park, but I remember how my mom cracked up
reading her stories, and how because of my mother’s laughter, I too wanted to
hear more. Because of my mom, I’ve developed a love for reading that I otherwise
would not have. And I know she has affected other people in the same way.
You may be wondering why I’m saying all this, but the truth
is I feel I need to get something off my chest. My mom is an amazing woman who
has blessed more than just me with a love for reading. Since I was in grade
school, Mom has been a media specialist in the Davenport School District. She
has helped innumerable children discover the power of reading. She has taught
inner-city students how they can rise above what they have been given just by
picking up a book and teaching themselves something they would not learn in the
classroom. She has been an ambassador for books. And unfortunately, her
position as guardian of the knowledge may be compromised this spring. Mary
Linda, along with all other media specialists (aka librarians) in the Davenport
School District may be losing their jobs this spring due to budget cuts.
I understand that tough economic times force tough decisions.
However, I do not believe that cutting the position of media specialist in
every school in the Davenport School District will have a good impact on the
students of the Quad Cities. Who will teach people how to find a research book
using the Dewey Decimal System? Who will teach students the importance of
citing their sources when they write a paper? And most importantly, who will
echo a parent’s effort to teach a child to learn to read at an early age if
there is no one to read Skippy John Jones
to them in the school’s library every Thursday?
I may be going off on a tangent, but I believe the position
of librarian and media specialist should not be cut. I believe if it weren’t for
the efforts of men and women like my mother, M.Linda Burmester, we would be in
a much worse situation than we are today. So please, if you read this, pass
this on to someone who you think could benefit from what I have to say. We
cannot lose our librarians. They are ambassadors for the leather bound cover,
the smell of ink, and importance of the written word. Thank you.
