The pictures tell the story better than Rebel Girl can.
To be told that the school district doesn't have enough money to keep your child's school open - and then to open the dumpster and see the equivalent of a small library discarded makes one wonder about management policies, oversight and, frankly, competence.
The books in the dumpsters added, say, insult to injury.
There is, one parent quipped, just one short step between throwing away usable books and burning them. Ouch.
Rebel Girl is often pleased to point out irony. The difference in usage, for instance, between the words oversight and oversight. One means accountablity and the other means error. But we here in the canyons have had enough irony, nearly losing our whole canyon and then our school. So, no, irony is not helpful today, not on a day spent rescuing books from god help us, a school! It's not so comforting or even helpful, not when it can't seem to find a place to mean anything. Sigh. Back to sorting. At least these lovely volumes will find new homes. They're destined for an after-school tutoring program in Santa Ana.
Now where is that copy of Fahrenheit 451?
(To check out the whole sad story, visit Save Silverado Elementary School and scroll around.)
MEANWHILE:
Saddleback schools' $20 million in cuts include buses, sports (Yesterday's OC Reg)
7 comments:
Good grief.
Green Eggs and Ham!? Man, if I came across that book, even now, I would take it home with me.
There is certainly such a thing as a bad book, or a book worth throwing away, but Green Eggs and Ham is not one of them.
What a sad, sad, thing to see. How could a school throw away such a collection of books? Is this really what has become of our educational system -- that we would hire people who hold such disregard for BOOKS?
Well-said, 5:33. This is f***ing criminal, or should be. Thank you for rescuing the books, Rebel Girl. This is a story that belongs in the L.A. Times, the OC Weekly, and in much shouting from rooftops. Absolutely stunning stupidity, incompetence, and (absence of) values.
--MAH
For crying out loud--what were they thinking! Good thing you were there to rescue those books for the kids.
How anyone could bring themselves to put those in the DUMPSTER!! As a small child, I would sometimes sit on the floor whilst reading. I was taught never to place or leave a book on the floor. "Books do not go on the floor." I still remember how my grandfather handled books - reverently. One of my most treasured possessions is a book that he gave to my grandmother before they were married - Friendship and Love, by Ralph Waldo Emerson. The books my children have outgrown are on my shelves, waiting for my (some day)grandchildren to discover.
I cannot believe the district couldn't even be bothered to donate these books.
ES
I'm always fascinated by the actual person who does the deed--was it a library employee? Did he/she feel any conflict over doing it, or was it a "who gives a shit" sort of thing?
Sort of like the person who runs the bulldozer when a stand of trees is mowed down for a Del Taco. How do those folks do these jobs?
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