Willamette WeekPPS Students Are Flocking to Their School Libraries
https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2025/10/15/pps-students-are-flocking-to-their-school-libraries/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Posted into News @news-wweek
Drusilla
M.S. Bellows, Jr.Excellent. 'When Portland Public Schools issued a new policy on cellphones last January, asking students to keep them 'off and away' for the duration of the school day, she heard grumblings from students who couldn’t bear the thought of parting with their screens.... And then something unexpected happened.
“'I could see that there were more kids coming in checking out books. There are always classes that come in…but this was kids just coming in on their own, and lots of kids who are not regular library patrons,' says Lieberman, who notes circulation rates at Lincoln are up 55% since the start of the school year."
https://www.wweek.com/news/schools/2025/10/15/pps-students-are-flocking-to-their-school-libraries/?utm_source=flipboard&utm_medium=activitypub
Bunny Jane's Humansona@msbellows @wweek @news-wweek
I have seen a teacher on Bsky posting about how when their school banned phones kids were upset at first, but after a few days were enjoying the freedom from being constantly texted by their parents.
Anyway let me just read that article.
"Ferrua’s current read is Graham Hancock’s Fingerprints of the Gods."
… oh no
@msbellows @wweek @news-wweek
Graham Hancock is a white supremacist psuedoscience grifter who spreads lies about actually cool archeological discoveries to get people to buy his books about how white people from atlantis are responsible for every cool thing ancient (and not so ancient) brown people did around the world. And he only has a show because his son Sean Hancock is an executive at Netflix.
But getting kids reading books has still gotta be a net positive.
@msbellows @wweek @news-wweek sometimes you just have to take the good with the bad and trust the kids and the librarians. Maybe that kid will be pointed to other archeology books, learn the truth, and leave Hancock behind like how many archeologists are inspired by Indiana Jones but eventually leave him behind.