When I was visiting a library in Halifax this summer, I overheard a German family discussing some videos that the pre-teen children were choosing. The parents were looking over the case of a video somehow related to Shakespeare – I’m guessing it might have been that version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo Dicaprio.“Is this really educative?” asked the mother. (She said “educative” rather than “educational.”)
The father took the case. “I don’t think they have anything to do with Shakespeare these days,” he observed.
They proceeded to discuss the item in terms of morality, quality, entertainment and educational value.
Listening to the conversation, I realized two things; one is that this is probably a good thing; the other is how rare this kind of care is among parents these days. In the whole week I spent in that library, this was the only family in which the parents were actively engaged in the values of their children’s choice of material. Everything about it would be foreign to so many people; encouraging kids to go to the library, going with them as a family, reviewing and discussing the material they choose, caring, talking to them about it, knowing something about it …
For me, it was as though the conversation was from another world. Where I live in Mexico, libraries are few and far between, and the few that exist are way underused. It would be a miracle that parents even encourage their kids to go to a library, let alone care what their kids are doing there. When my wife and I arrived to Canada, she was simply overjoyed to have a good library right in the community, within walking distance. While I think there’s a better culture for visiting the library, but I suspect it’s much more for entertainment than for learning. I also suspect that few parents actually supervise and discuss the educational, moral and quality value of what their kids choose.
With only a 3-year-old, I it’s not much of a task to review the content of the books yet. That’s coming in a few years. I suspect one day we’ll be that odd family in the library who actually cares about all of that stuff.
