I seriously wonder about the next generation of students. Every day I deal with parents who are at the library doing the research for their children. Just today I had this lady who was here getting books on a project her son was supposed to be doing. Her 15 year old, sophomore in high school, son. Ugh
Her son was doing a paper on "How did WWI lead to WWII?" and I'm trying to explain to her that the best way to get information for her would be to look at specific things that her son has already studied that he knows lead to WWII. I found a bunch of books for her all over the library, wrote down the titles and the call numbers, and the locations and pointed them out to her. I also showed her how to access the online databases and walked her through all of that step by step.
She walked away looking like she knew what was going on. She was back within 10 minutes and apparently didn't listen to anything I had told her because I ended up walking around the library with her, pulling the books and the like.
What are these kids learning?! They for sure as hell not learning how to do research or how to use the library or even how to ask the lovely library people how to do something. NO! Their parents are coming in and doing it for them. I'm especially worried about kids today because even though there are these great projects (I think of them as great now as an adult when I don't have to do them but as a child I'd totally hate it) that force them to learn how to do scholarly research. They aren't actually doing the research. It's the parents. UGH!
In other news I am going to see Conan next Monday. And you are not. :)
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