Wang Lin, a children's reading promoter: Why are there no good books in the school library?

I have been to many primary schools, including some famous local schools, and I have seen well-maintained and even luxurious libraries at school, but there are often no good books in the libraries.

What is a good book that children like to read? It is difficult for me to give a specific answer. However, with the professional vision of studying children's books for many years, I can generally judge whether children like it or not by scanning the bookshelf. How can a book with a simple cover, rough illustrations and obscure words be called a good book? As long as you look at the book, how can you believe that the slogans such as "Children's Edition of World Famous Books", "Pupils' Favorite" and "Best Selection" are worthy of the name? And what qualifications do those "anti-corruption literature collections" and "educational innovation collections" have to stand on the bookshelves of primary school students? Yes, students have a wide range of reading interests and have different opinions on the judgment of good books, but we can't deny the difference between good books and poor books. Putting a bunch of books for children to choose from may not be as different as we thought.

Adults are the gatekeepers of children's culture. Good books and bad books cannot be based on children's preferences, but it does not mean that adults can choose for them without eyes. There are no good books in the library, just as people have no soul, even if they are opened, it is of little significance; There are no good books in the library, which isolates children's opportunities for self-learning and growth; There are no good books in the library, which is a double "murder" of children's time and interest. And a child who is not close to books loses the motivation of lifelong learning, because reading is the basis of learning. The seemingly simple book problem has a huge impact on children.

First, the mind is not focused. In the case that most school libraries become "decorations", it naturally doesn't matter whether there are good books or not, and the Regulations on the Management of Libraries (Rooms) in Primary and Secondary Schools revised by the Ministry of Education in 2003 often become a dead letter. In addition, the education in China often neglects the cultivation of students' language ability, as exemplified by the cancellation of most independent entrance examinations in six universities in Shanghai. From top to bottom, in the case that the Olympic Mathematics seems to be a "street mouse", the situation that Chinese is despised has not improved. Teachers dare not and have no time to let students travel in the library, because they have to lead students to deal with exam questions such as "filling in the blanks according to the original text". As for students, few people tell them how exciting and interesting reading is, and few people tell them that the library is a bigger classroom, and only let them "evaporate" their poor extracurricular time in TV and video games.

Second, insufficient funds. In the case of tight funds and the assessment index of the average book collection per student (I think the requirement of 15-50 is too high), the school has to find ways to "spend less money and buy more books". There are not many cheap and good things, but there will not be too many such opportunities. It is the law of value to spend energy to produce beautiful books at high prices. It is actually a greater waste to sacrifice quality too much to meet quantity. In the procurement of some education bureaus, it is not reliable for publishers to report their own bibliographies, because they are psychologically prepared to "discount" and simply report scrapped or overpriced books, otherwise they will use their brains on paper and printing. We adults pay attention to cost performance when buying our own things. Why is it so easy to forget this word when buying books for children?

Complicating matters is that lack of funds is sometimes just an excuse. I once made a bibliography, and about 20,000 yuan can match a library with about 2,500 excellent children's books. The key is to spend a lot of energy to choose. Compared with the school library, some charitable organizations (such as Chen Yixin Family Foundation) that do public libraries pay more attention to the choice of children's books, so it is reasonable to say that their funds are more tight.

Third, book selection is unprofessional. The child is ill and needs to see a professional doctor. When children are educated, they should find professional teachers to teach them; Choosing books suitable for children to read is also a very professional thing. From the collocation of layout and illustration to the appropriateness of theme and language, professionals who have been studying children's books for a long time need help. Although China is already a big country of children's books, with more than 10,000 kinds of children's books published every year, the proportion of good books that are really suitable for students to read is not high. What professionals have to do is to find gold from the sand. The school bibliography is sometimes provided by the winning book company, because of the discount, the proportion of good books is not high. In addition, schools also lack information channels to learn about good books, because China lacks professional children's book review magazines like American school libraries.

The library should be the intelligent center of the school and the place that students yearn for. But now, if you ask students their impressions of the school library, I believe the answer will not be very positive. But in recent years, with the government's attention to children's reading and the public's appeal for children's reading, more and more school libraries have good books. I also know that some principals have overcome various difficulties, distributed many excellent children's books to students, and tried to carry out reading classes in the library. We don't necessarily believe that a book can change a person, but we must believe in the power of a good book. (Children's reading promoter Wang Lin)