Reading to dream

I can’t stop reading. 

I read in the car, I read while I’m watching TV and I read on the headland while I’m waiting for the whales. When I’m not reading, I’m talking about books, the characters, the plot twists, what I like and what I don’t like.

It makes sense that I ended up studying to be a Teacher Librarian, I mean, that’s all I need to do isn’t it – read!

My journey to this point of time was not preordained. I was a journalist because I wanted to tell the stories of people who inspired me. I became an author because I needed to tell the stories about my passion. I became an English and History teacher to share how people and their words have changed the world. And now I have become a teacher librarian because it seems my world has coalesced to give students the tools and encouragement to become lifelong learners with a delight of reading.

But how do I do this when so many of my students ‘hate’ reading? And they might hate reading, but nobody hates stories, stories are what makes us human after all.

Vicki Newton’s article, Teacher Librarians: Literally Irreplaceable (2011 PETAA) has grounded me that the role of a teacher-librarian is so much more than stories and reading.

It is about managing time, budgets and collections, developing diversity, acceptance and client-based collections, liaising with the syllabus, the staff and the ever changing landscape of the digital age. It is about creating excitement through events and teaching experiences and creating opportunities through executive and parent interactions. 

Is it too much? 

Yeah. Nah. It can’t be too much because the students I have in front of me need to find all the hope, inspiration and dreams that come from reading. And the students that do bring joy into their own life – and mine too. Some students read fishing guides, others read graphic novels five at a time while the very rare senior student attempts Pride and Prejudice.

But most read nothing at all. Nothing. And that is scary. Renaissance Readers estimate that reading 15 minutes a day makes all the difference to students. They perform better in English and comprehension topics, but, surprisingly, they also perform better in Maths and Science examinations, even when the questions are symbol based.

Reading, not socio-economic factors, not the school system and not even the teacher, but reading is the biggest indicator of student success in their examinations. Examinations is one thing, but it is also creates and opens opportunities in their adult life, if for no other reason that it acts as a defence against self-congratulated ignorance. 

But more than that, reading allows these students to dream, escape their anxiety and enter into a new place.

And while all the other roles of my life are important – the resourcing, the management and the liaison, there is nothing more important than encouraging these students to read. Is it too hard? Yeah. Is it unachievable? Nah. I just have to find new ways to make it happen. 

Sometimes I dream stories, I dream of characters, words, imagery and plots. I dream  of beaches and whales and the stories that splash their way to the surface.  

The stories take me to a new place, a new world, a better world.

All because I read.

I hope I can ‘open the gate’ to have my students enter their world of reading and dreaming too.

Linda Gleeson

14 July, 2023