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Message board > Libraries Tempting Students!! How????With Coffee!!!
Libraries Tempting Students!! How????With Coffee!!!
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Nebal
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Libraries Tempting Students!! How????With Coffee!!!
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Hello dear teachers,
Yesterday I was chit-chatting with one of my collegues. She sent me the following.
Have a look!!
High school libraries luring students with coffee
Shops mark a departure from when officials prohibited food, drinks, talking
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Kwesi Utley, right, serves customers Oct. 17 in the library coffeehouse at Centennial High School in Franklin, Tenn. Such cafes are becoming popular in schools around the country, and some officials say they promote use of libraries and increased studying.
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Even before the bell rings each morning, students at Centennial High School are lined up to get into the library. But they aren �t necessarily looking for books.
They are waiting for a morning cup of joe at the Cougar Cafe, a coffee shop run by students.
Coffeehouses are springing up in high school libraries around the country, marking a big departure from the days when librarians sternly prohibited food, drinks and talking.
Some health advocates wonder whether high school students really need any more caffeine, or the calories in that caramel mochaccino.
But school officials say these coffee shops are promoting reading and studying by attracting teenagers who might not otherwise hang out in a library.
"Once they have them in there, they have their eyes and hopefully have their minds for a little bit," said Doug Johnson, a school library consultant from Minnesota.
Do you think this way might work with u and your students??
Do you think this is the last possible way teachers and libraries can resort to, so that our students love reading and feel quite interested???
Need you, brainy collegues!!!! Come on!!
Nebal
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20 Aug 2009
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anitarobi
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Looking at that pic, I can �t quite imagine that atmosphere in a library! I have a huge question mark hovering over my head right now, thinking �hm, what else will they come up with?!?
Frankly, I �ve always thought somehow that reading is highly connected to self-respect. I don �t really know why, just feels like that. But then again, I �m still one of those people who hate reading books and texts from the screen. I always loved reading books from the library, even liked the notes some people left on the sides (don �t get at me now, I know some people hate that, but as long as it �s about the book itself, I found them interesting)... Sorry, Nebal, wandering oof the subject now!
No, I don �t think we should lure kids to libraries with coffee! Lure them to libraries with stories - a good story, told in the company of others with passion in your eyes - that �s what sends people to libraries! But, you see, to be able to do that, you have to be face to face with a person, and chatrooms don �t give you that. (Not many people have the ability to convey their passion in a written text.) |
20 Aug 2009
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Nebal
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Anita, you �re absolutely right!!!!
I give this idea thumbs down!!!! It doesn �t solve the problem from its roots. if you stop giving them coffee, would they rummage through books??? I don �t think so. We �re involving them in caffeine addiction, not reading.
Caffeine is well known to be a stimulant and we are all aware that it can have strong effects on people, offering it to students, even for purchase, on a high-school campus is a bad idea.
Students, as Anita suggested, should learn how to love reading and to choose their own type.
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20 Aug 2009
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goodnesses
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I don �t think we can call what we see on this pic a library. So, let �s call a cat a cat. This is no more and no less than a cafeteria. Nothing to do with a library.
As Anita said, either the youth go to the library for the sake of books and studies or they don �t go at all.
How can one read, revise, do research in one word concentrate in such a brouhahaha.
Instead of these commercial tricks (because only one person is definitely beneficial in such cases; the manager), why don �t officials look at the real problems that cause the young people reject more and more things like this, like reading and enjoying to go to libraries at school or out of school?
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20 Aug 2009
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freedom4life
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Oh my.. ..another example of the wrong people in the right places; making silly decisions like that. When is all this horror going to end?
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20 Aug 2009
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anitarobi
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QUOTE: How can one read, revise, do research in one word concentrate in such a brouhahaha
I couldn �t have said it better, goodnesses! The problem is not only within schools, but within families - I have more and more sts each year whose parents don �t read books and don �t go to the theatre! So you tell the kids that books are great, and if they get the opposite message at home - �it �s a waste of time �, the problem definitely goes deeper than that! |
20 Aug 2009
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goodnesses
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And this kind of things happens only in countries, and they aren �t few and even among the most developed, where only the very concerned people, the teachers and the the students, are not associated in the decision making process.
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20 Aug 2009
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sarahgriffin
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Actually, I don �t see the problem with this at all.
For one, its not forcing the students to drink coffees, I �m sure that a selection of decaffinated coffees and herbal teas are available too. Actually I can clearly see them in the picture.
Although the school officials say that this is encouraging people to come in and read more - they are not saying that this was the reason behind the decision in the first place.
And to be honest - I don �t think this has increased the number of people using libraries, it has just made them a more comfortable place for those who enjoy a coffee/tea with their studies.
I spent 5 years in college, and I NEVER studied in the library because I couldn �t have my cup of HERBAL TEA - I don �t drink caffeine. So I studied in the restaurants, etc... which was very hard to be honest. Its not that I needed the tea, but in order to put in that much hard work, time and effort, I think the student deserves to be comfortable, and if that means coffee in hand, so be it.
To be perfectly honest - I am surprised that teachers are so shocked about the effects a cup of COFFEE would have on students, when one considers all the other things that go hand in hand with college life, eg: drugs, smoking, alcohol, sex!!
I know there are alot of teachers who have very young students, and thats fair enough - but look at the picture, read the article, these are young adults, not children....
I really fail to see a problem with this, except maybe books becomming destroyed due to spills.
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20 Aug 2009
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anitarobi
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I never studied in libraries either. I liked to pick my books in peace and go home and study alone. And it �s not about the cup of coffee, or tea, or whatever. It �s about the purpose of things, the way of living, the respect for a place... I guess I see your point, but I just think too much indulging has never been effective - it just messes things up and jumbles people �s priorities. There �s place and time for everything.... |
20 Aug 2009
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goodnesses
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The problem is not in the coffee or the tea. The problem is the environment for studying either for children or young adults and even adults. Not being able to study or read without you cup of tea is your own problem. A library is not a place where we have just to read the papers sipping a cup of tea and go. It is place where we can spend several hours if not a whole day. Would one spend many hours with his books and note books all over the place in a restaurant or a caf�. Maybe you could do it. I don´t think it is the case for all people.
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20 Aug 2009
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sarahgriffin
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First thing: I know that needing my cup of tea to study is my own problem, that is why for five years I went to the restaurants to study. I didn �t complain or even consider trying to get my own way. I know now, and knew then that it was my own problem.
About spending 5-6 hours in a restaurant with your books?? Exactly!! They wouldn �t do it, you �re right. But I don �t see how allowing them to sip quietly on a cup of coffee is going to disrupt the whole atmosphere of a library.
Its still a place of study.
Its still a place of silence.
The exact same habits would continue
People can still study individually at their desks for as many hours as they want
EXCEPT..... they will have a coffee at their desk.
In fact. This would SAVE YOU TIME, as you wouldn �t have to leave the library to grab a cup after 4 hours.
Do you not agree that exams etc... are stressful enough without students having to (In the case of my college) worry about leaving their desks to get a snack in case their desk wasn �t free when they got back? Eating? That would be a bit OTT, but a coffe/tea? How is it any different to the already permitted bottle of water??
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20 Aug 2009
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