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I live in the UK, have done my entire life, and have also been an intermitted user of libraries throughout my life - often at points when I couldn't afford the
by djaychela 7y ago
I live in the UK, have done my entire life, and have also been an intermitted user of libraries throughout my life - often at points when I couldn't afford the books I wanted to buy (particularly when I was a student).
I love books. I always have done, and most of my Christmas presents this year have been books (only 3, but you get the point). They are so incredibly important for opening up the vistas of thought and imagination that are available to you, that I don't think it can be overstated. And the UK government has been on a course of destroying libraries and a wide range of other cultural and societal infrastructure that it can't be overstated how scary this is.
Gove was responsible for stripping out a great deal of the syllabus in the UK - support for 'meaningless' subjects such as music, and music technology which I used to teach until the funding was removed from schools and it fell by the wayside for most schools as it was too expensive to keep going once equipment needed to be replaced. He is a man who feels he is an expert in every area, despite being anything but. Others in the government seem to be much the same, not seeing the point in anything they can't personally profit from.
Many of the subjects that are now struggling aren't public interest, and I wasn't too surprised. But this will destroy any chance that a generation will have to have access to the many-faceted wonders that a library can provide. The UK is sleep-walking into a desolate, dystopian future where knowledge is derided in favour of three-word soundbites and self-interest. The BBC will fall foul of the government once Brexit is out of the way, with all that brings.
I'm 48, and I can't remember any other time where I've actually despaired about the future for my (step) kids, and where I've felt that the government really is out of control. The way that the last election went was a damning indictment of the (pathetic) opposition in this country, and Johnson and his cronies (such as Gove) now have carte blanche to do as they please. By the time they are finished, so much structural damage will have been done to this country's institutions I think it will be next to impossible to repair what's been done, even if there is the political will to do anything about it.
- krona 7y agoI like libraries, in principle. However, I'm concerned about literacy rates. Access to libraries and literacy are not related. Examine the Pisa rankings, for instance. Furthermore, why is it that literacy rates in Scotland are falling, but rising in England? Access to a library does not make you interested in reading.
- teh_klev 7y ago> why is it that literacy rates in Scotland are falling This accusation has been doing the rounds in the Scottish press for a while and was debunked: https://theferret.scot/one-in-five-children-dont-leave-primary-school-functionally-illiterate/ https://theferret.scot/one-in-five-children-dont-leave-prima...
- justin66 7y ago> Access to libraries and literacy are not related. I can't speak to the UK but in the US this is demonstrably not true. Libraries are the typical entry point for people who want to take advantage of the programs designed to encourage literacy in children outside of school, and perhaps more importantly the adult literacy programs of a more remedial nature. > Access to a library does not make you interested in reading. It sure as hell provides fuel for the fire, provided there is even a small spark.
- sandworm101 7y ago>> I'm 48, and I can't remember any other time where I've actually despaired about the future for my (step) kids, and where I've felt that the government really is out of control. That is said by every generation. Every generation going back hundreds of years. In the 1950s, the glory time for today's elderly, comic books we the craze. A hundred years before that doctors would regularly tell people not to read as it could cause illness, especially in women. Some thought chess angered the blood. But they all drank and took opium with abandon. Today doctors tell kids to reduce screen time, while loading them up with ADHD meds. Nothing changes. The definition of "old" is when you start lecturing on how young people were so much better in your generation. It's just nostalgia. Old people forget the evils of the past and see new evils everywhere in the present.
- djaychela 7y agoI know this - I've spent plenty of time studying the phenomenon, and I'm careful not to use terms like 'snowflake', etc. I don't think 'things were better in my generation', but I do think we now have the UK's Donald Trump in charge, and without any worthwhile opposition to keep them in check. Do you think that a country without libraries and state education in 'non-academic' subjects like music, drama and art is a good idea?
- incompleteness 7y agoEverything changes, yet nothing is new under the sun.
- outoftheabyss 7y agoI'm 25 and from the UK, I'm incredibly optimistic about the future of our country. Having listened to the doom-mongering from select circles for the last 9 years, I now find it to be quite amusing. Since 2010 and with 2016 thrown in there for good measure, it seems that said people are going through multiple stages of despair, as each stage passes, the claims become more and more absurd. I usually predict that people will grow out of it, but in your case, there isn't much time.
- djaychela 7y agoI would suggest that spending some time in any state-run education establishment will temper your enthusiasm for the course that we're going in.
- incompleteness 7y agoIf you have the means to build libraries and universities there's a world of things you can hardly do worse.
- dang 7y agoYour last sentence crosses into personal attack. None of that here please. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html