One piece of the Living Libraries puzzle that we’ve been thinking deeply about is what happens when we leave. We’ve done our best to structure Living Libraries so that we’re giving teachers and schools a process: comprehension strategies, skills that are put in place that will change reading education but also math, science, history. It’s our aim at sustainability. We want to move on to more schools and teachers and kids, but it’s essential that what we have taught continues to teach and a be a part of a child’s education.
Schools evolve. Teachers move or retire. What happens when there is no longer room for a library? I was disappointed a few years ago when I visited the principal of the school closest to where we live, and the principal showed me that, since they had to repurpose the library space, all of the books we had donated were safely locked away in a closet. I thought, “how sad.” We never intended the books to be in pristine condition years later. These books were to be handled, read, used, over and over again, by the kids who this whole program was for.
So in the last few weeks Lucia, our education development director, has been visiting some of the schools we’ve worked with in the last 10 years, checking in with them, seeing how things are going and what challenges they’ve faced. And a few schools have had to repurpose the library space. One solution we’ve offered is something that we’ve had to put in place in order to work with a couple more schools recently. If there isn’t a dedicated space for a library, then let’s put a small library in each classroom. For the schools who had a library space, but had to give it up, we’re encouraging them to take the books out of storage and to put them into the classrooms and into the hands of kids.
Then we have a school like Nazareno, way on the outskirts of the city, back behind Arequipa’s airport. They were an example of a school committed to improving reading instruction for the sake of their students. They were all in, perhaps the best school we’ve ever worked with. And they had to turn their library into a classroom. So what did they do? They built a new one. They invited parents of the kids into the process, to help clean the place, to start laying the bricks, and just last week they inaugurated the new library. Brick by brick, they reaffirmed that the whole process makes a difference in the lives of kids. And if kids are learning to read, then the community will feel the change. That’s how the kingdom works: seeds of new creation are planted. Like yeast in a batch of dough they impact every part of life, wellbeing, and community.
We ask you to pray for Living Libraries as we continue to learn and grow. We have several schools asking us to work with them next year, and we’ll most likely need another person to work with full time in 2023. Pray that we’ll find the right person, with the same spirit of joy and craft in teaching. Pray that the seeds we plant will grow into justice, joy, and wellbeing, wherever it is that we get to work. We're also celebrating a return to school in person for our Living Libraries program! It's been a rough return after two years of being closed. Those two years were devastating to so many kids. Lucia and Nancy are seeing 3rd and 4th graders who can't read yet. 6th graders are at a 3rd grade level. There’s a lot of work to do.