So, I was at the pediatrician’s office with my kids last week, when I had a conversation I find myself having more and more these days. In casual conversation, the doctor asked what I do for a living. Smiling, I answered, “I’m a middle school librarian.” Her response is one I hear often. “I would think that would be a dream job.”
Immediately I jump in, as I often do after this response, with, “Yes, it is an amazing field! I get to work with kids every day. I teach them lessons on finding authentic ‘actual-factual’ information, we use multimedia to teach all the curriculum areas, we help kids build incredible projects using many different types of presentation software, we blog about books we read, and so much more!”
Is this all true? Absolutely! Is it something I really needed to spill out all in a jumble to my daughters’ pediatrician? Probably not. I’ve realized this has become my rote response to this comment. I try to cut someone off before they follow up their awesome “dream job” comment with what I hear all too often… “It must be nice to be able to read all day.”
Never having had the time to read at school, this response irks me. Of course, I love to read and do it all the time on my own time, but there is never an opportunity to do it at work. Why I feel the need to stifle this response from people though, I don’t know. Can’t I just be happy with people thinking, like I do, that I have a dream job? Does anyone else feel they have to “justify” what we do with a qualitative response? Or am I the only crazy one…
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I agree with you Jen. So often I find myself explaining that I don't read all day, I don't have three months off in the summer to just do nothing, and I don't get off from work at 3:00 each day. I guess the reason I jump to explain is that I have been and continue to be so proud of being a part of the field of education, first as a teacher and now as a Library Information Specialist, that I want people to understand this. The field of Library Science has changed so much in the last few years that I am amazed at all the parts of my job. We are involved in technology, curriculum, testing, SOLs, research, lesson planning, etc. I find myself more aware of all the elements of a school program as a librarian than I ever was as a classroom teacher. I knew a great deal about English but now I know about science, math, history, art, etc. It truly is a dream job. Lucky me!
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