A friend, also retired from my school, organized a retirees breakfast, and seven of us showed up. That made it seem a bit more real. Imagine - being in a nice restaurant with old friends, and not a kid in sight on a school day! Of course, they asked me who was hired to replace me, and I had to say the classroom part was filled, but no librarian was hired, in fact, there did not seem to be any advertisement for the position. Now in most schools, teachers are hired who have the right qualifications, and in these days, are not just the right qualifications, they are highly qualified qualifications. The library position, which I held for thirty-seven years, and had had qualified librarians longer then that, was going to be empty.
I got a call from school a couple of days after school started. Nobody knew how to get the library up and running for the school year. Somehow, it seems that the only person who knew anything was the retired librarian. Hmmmmm. I agreed to go out for a few days to update the circulation book, give instructions to the para educator on procedures, and put the laminator back in working order. After thirteen and a half hours, I had done what I set out to do, and my service to my school was completed.
I have mixed feelings about what will happen, but it seems that worrying about it won't make any difference; as long as the prevailing attitude that a certificated librarian isn't necessary to manage a system, that the primary function is the basic check-in/check-out/shelve, the library will not grow. It won't be the first school library to die a slow death, nor will it be the last. In this age of data and test scores, reading for pleasure and enjoyment seem to forgotten. Just as subjects such as music and art have been put on the back burner, it seems reading for fun might, too. I know how much pressure there is to,have students score well on the mandated tests, and I had already seen a lack of interest in library and digital literacy lessons - check in/check out is what they wanted, for the most part. That is what the decision maker saw.
I finally feel retired. I like having unstructured time. I love not getting up in the dark. I don't miss pressure that seems to such a big part of education anymore. I miss being part of a community. I miss kids and staff, but I don't miss the meetings that made me want to run screaming from the building. I've come to realize I was getting tired of it all, and I made the right decision to retire.
Thirty-seven years is a long time to work in a place. I did a decent job. I know the best part of being a librarian was putting the right book in the hands of the right kid, and the best part of being a teacher was when a kid had that lightbulb moment and you could see when they got it. I've been very fortunate to have many moments where I knew I made the right decision to be a teacher-librarian. And now I know I made the right decision to retire.
