Have you ever noticed how patchy our
familiarity with trends becomes as we grow older? Of course we are sentimentally attached to
our own era of music, books and film; that is our own generational culture. We remember that era in detail, probably claiming that the current trends are
rubbish and nowhere near as good as ‘when we were kids’!
If we have offspring we become quite well
versed in that particular generation’s culture too, at least until the children
become independent readers, thinkers and socialisers, then our knowledge goes
into a black hole again. This appalling
sense of being out of touch is very apparent when you attend the Trivia
evenings which seem so popular with fund raisers now and the vital question is
to identify a song or a book you have never even heard of.
If you eventually become a grandparent the
cycle begins again with a different set of trendy stories, songs, films and TV
programs. I was well versed in Noddy and
Big Ears, Enid Blyton and ‘Bill and Ben the Flowerpot Men’ from my own
childhood. I learned to appreciate the Brambly Hedge series, Hairy MacClary,
Bananas in Pyjamas and Narnia with my daughter and now have become an authority
on Fireman Sam, all the Nick Bland books and the characters in Lightning
McQueen and Despicable Me.
The point is, we all have these huge black
holes in our cultural retinues because for most of us, unless we are full time
students of youth culture, our busy lives don’t allow for more in depth or
continuous knowledge.
As I repeatedly tried to emphasise to the
trainee teachers in my lecture groups; one has to know and understand the
‘culture’ of the group of students with whom you are working if you truly want
to relate to, bond with and therefore teach and inspire them. Now we all know
that teachers are asked to do more and more within the curriculum every year,
not to mention all the time taken up with testing and reporting against a
million new criteria. So unless a
teacher is super human or can exist on very few hours sleep a day, when does
the dedicated teacher keep up with what quality reading material is available
for her/his pupils? Once upon a time, and I use the fairy tale cliché
deliberately, a classroom teacher could rely on the good old school librarian
whose job it was to survey, sample and stock the school library shelves with
the best and most appropriate current literature. The reality is that very few schools have the
services of a full time school librarian now.
Library aides are doing a fantastic job of filling that huge gap in
professional knowledge and expertise but very often those stalwarts are only
employed part time so once again time to keep up with the trends is difficult.
Even more so if you are a parent and want
to share and guide your child’s development. Parents need to keep up with the
latest and best quality trends in their child’s world. However, the reality is
that probably very few modern parents have the luxury of time to browse the
library or bookshop shelves researching the latest and best literature. How many of us abdicate the responsibility of
guiding what our children read to their teachers, we hope, and as for
viewing.... let’s hope the TV police keep things appropriate during peak kid’s
viewing times!!
Well what does this have to do with being a
member of CBCA?
If you are a teacher struggling to fit
everything in and still have a personal life, or a school librarian/aide or a responsible
parent wanting to give your children the best possible guidance and opportunity
to develop, then this is where CBCA can assist.
It is CBCA’s objective to review, evaluate,
advise and publicise information about quality children’s literature. CBCA doesn’t just organise the annual Book
of the Year Awards which showcase the very best of Australian children’s
literature.
In Tasmania CBCA publishes a newsletter
full of current information on publications, literary events, authors and
illustrators and associated literary topics.
For
example if you live in Hobart:-
What
are you doing for dinner on the Thursday 19th of September? Would you or your
children like to dine with Michael Gerard Bauer, author of Don’t
call me Ishmael, The Running Man, Dinosaur Knights and many other
books for young people, and hear him speak about his work? CBCA Tas
is hosting a dinner for Michael Gerard Bauer at Rydges
Hotel (Corner Lewis and Argyle Street in North Hobart) with room
for 25. The dinner will be 6.30 for 7
PM.
RSVP to Jessie Mahjouri jessiemahjouri@gmail.com asap.
Besides publishing the free ‘Books to Keep
Kids Reading’ booklet, CBCA Tas. has recently published a series of new pamphlets
giving parents invaluable advice about the what and how of using books with
children from babies to teenagers with IT and e books included.
CBCA National publishes ‘Reading Time’
which is full of reviews of current publications for children and young
adults. If you don’t have the time to
read and evaluate the books, let CBCA do it for you. CBCA is neither a
publishing house nor a book-seller therefore parents, librarians and teachers
can rely on the integrity of the information being given.
Through membership of CBCA, teachers and
librarians have access to special publications of classroom materials, posters
and promotional materials associated with the very best of the Book of the Year
winners and notables. CBCA not only
reads, reviews and recommends quality literature but also constructs lesson materials,
saving educators valuable time and effort.
Need I say more about how valuable CBCA
membership can be to parents, teachers, librarians and library aides. For more information go to the website www.cbcatas.org.au and see that for a very small annual
subscription you can fill in some of those black holes in your familiarity with
youth culture, at least the literary part.
Carol Fuller
PS. Teachers, encourage your Principal to sign up
your school as an institutional member.
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