A new page, Public Option>Libraries, has been added to my Educational Rights notebook for My Idea Outlet. The contents can be found below.
If we truly want a public education system and don't want to start completely from scratch, it turns out that we actually have a starting point that we can use. It's not the schools. It's our libraries.
I have repeatedly insisted that the single most important thing we can do for children regarding education is to provide resources. This has long been the single biggest purpose of libraries. Originally, this was in the form of books. Since then, they have embraced computers with internet access.
With both books and the internet, we are talking about written documentation. This type of resource has value, but it's not enough. If we want to use libraries as our primary educational facilities, we will need to expand. To an extent, many libraries are already doing this. If we want them to replace our disastrous schooling system, we will need to see significant expansion.
If you look at my proposals for educational resource centers, this is very similar to what libraries can become. We could potentially eliminate fees since libraries are funded through taxes. We could also take funds usually designated for schools since I am looking at this as a replacement educational model.
The same kinds of resources I have suggested could be applied to a library system, although some types could require construction. For example, people could be provided with cooking ingredients to learn culinary skills. To get the most out of this, libraries would need to add public kitchens.
In this model, library systems (city libraries, county libraries) would be comparable to school districts. Individual libraries would be similar to individual schools. As this model progressed, you would likely see more libraries being built, and they would become more localized. This would make libraries more convenient and accessible on a community level.
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