Illiterate Librarian

Sounds like an oxymoron, right? I would have thought, but this is one situation where the Alabama education system's reputation proceeded itself.

I'm not trying to Bama bash. I can't, I am the product of an Alabama education myself. But I hung my head in shame for my home state when I was at the library on Friday looking for a particular book.

I've been reading the "Percy Jackson and the Olympians" books and I am up to book 4. (I realize they are a teen book, but they are a fast read and I have a thing for Mythology. I'm not afraid to admit it.) When I got to the library I couldn't find the book on the shelf. I wasn't even sure what the title was, I just knew the author and the placement of where it should be. When it wasn't there I took my 3 girls and their books up to the counter to see if the librarian could find it for me.

I explained that I didn't know the actual title, but I told her the author's name and spelling of it. She typed, then asked, "Is it "Battle of the L-A-B-?-?-?-N-T-H"." I inserted the question marks, because my girls started climbing on the security gate and I figured, "She's a librarian, I just know she is not spelling something out to me.". Just from the letters that I picked up on I guessed, "Labyrinth?". "Yeah...yeah, that looks right.", she responded.

Seriously? Come on Alabama! I try talking you up SOOO much whenever I'm talking to anyone about you. It's so hard to keep it up when things like this are happening. Don't be afraid to set that bar higher!

I seriously love my state and feel blessed to be an Alabamian. I'm just going to have to accept the fact that all of us can't be as edjumacated as I is.