Letters to the Editor: published on Oct. 8

Internet does not make libraries obsolete

Dear Editor:
The Internet has not made modern libraries obsolete, as many people assume, but instead our statistics are soaring. The Internet has reinforced the library as the logical, most efficient place to go for information. In recent weeks as I have been speaking to various groups about the Marion County Library’s expansion project, it occurs to me that the most persuasive voices about the importance of our libraries comes from our patrons.
The letter below is one of many presented to us in support of Public Library Appreciation Day, 2008:
My Library is important to me because it is the place where I come to get tools to help with my personal development so that I can be a better employee on my 9 to 5, a better manager in my church media ministry, a better sister, a better daughter, a better Christian, and some day a well-equipped wife and mother. It is a place I come to read about topics that fascinate me: from Hurricane Katrina’s devastation of Louisiana to slavery and the making of America, from the history of the CIA to books on relationships and marriage, from John Grisham’s books on CD, in print, and on audio-tape, to books on nutrition and health. It is important to me because with all the books past and present that have been written it would be impossible to buy every single book on every single subject that interests me. It is important because many people have no other access to computers for research for college and school projects, job searching, resume faxing, Internet usage, etc., if it were not for the library. It is important because it’s where many adults and children alike fill their thirst for knowledge. It is important because it is vital in a community that is trying to make the transition from being a predominantly agricultural and manufacturing community to a community full of people equipped and poised to use their minds as well as they used their hands to crop tobacco, pick cotton, or pack candy at the candy plant. For these reasons and many more my library is important to me.
Passionate patrons know the economic value of libraries. And they know that libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.
Sincerely,
Salley B. Davidson, Director
Marion County Library

Writer is thankful for art teacher

Dear Editor,
… There are those whose reason for being was actually birthed inside of a classroom. For me, my voice and consciousness both drew first breath by the craft and passion of my seventh grade English teacher, a diminutive British lady named Mrs. Scott, who had manner of teaching that made her seem more like a kind of mid-wife to many of us were in that class. On the first day of school, she appeared at our classroom door and made her way down to the front of the room. Without so much as even sharing with us her name, with hands clasped securely behind her back, she began “I believe that language is currency and how you choose your words will more determine how you are perceived, than any place else you will ever go, anyone else you will ever meet, or anything else you will ever do.”
… I make these reflections about a teacher I have come across who, like Mrs. Scott, seems to cloak himself in a love of teaching in much the same way … a magician drapes his cape. His name is Scott Collins, and this pastor, husband, father, coach (and goodness knows what else,) teaches Art at Marion High School, in Marion, South Carolina.
“Gymnast, Trapeze, Track Star,” though these terms are probably more at home in the gym or on the field, they seem more aptly to befit the way of this otherwise gentle soul, as he nimbly works the aisles of his classroom, sprinkling seedlings of his knowledge, his understanding, his love of craft, over and around his students, releasing in them their own freedom to explore.
Collins does this by somehow finding personalized ways to captivate each student, irrespective of their level of art, validating their efforts in ways that would motivate them to find their own authentic expression which, as I think Mr. Collins himself would say, is among the truest forms of art.
I am hoping that each of these students leave Mr. Collins’ studio classroom with but a slightly heightened sense about what’s possible even in their very lives, by measure of their own hand, their own capability. In this new age of global competition, I do not think there could be a better tool than a belief in one’s self ~ absolutely key for competing against a pool of talent and for seizing upon array of opportunity, each so vastly different from, greater and more varied than what was possible even in our own time.
Thank you, Mr. Collins, for showing up to do what I believe you were put here to do, and for reminding us all, in your own, gentle way, that the name of the game remains to enlighten, and not simply to memorize.
Thank you sir for, as your students would put it … “How he do!”
Rick Morrison