Get Them in the Door

There's a rampant philosophy of sorts running around libraries these days concerning teens. Plan programming that's just for fun and once they're in the door they'll pick up some books and be back. The East Teen Center has been open for about a year and a half and I was afraid that the ETC was proving this mantra to be false. For the most part I see teens who come to the teen center to read and to study and then I see teens who come in to play video games. I don't often see the two cross these invisible lines. In fact, I was rather disheartened to see comments from the last ETC survey like, "get the geeks out of here" when asked how we could make the ETC better. I'm also not sure if that comment was calling the readers and studiers "geeks" or vice-versa :)

Yesterday proved this philosophy to be true. There is a young teen, we'll call him Mr. Teen. He has been coming to the ETC since the day we opened. He has played video games. He has gotten into trouble for cursing, throwing pies, bullying, talking back to the security guards (ballsy, this one...). I have sat down with Mr. Teen and Mr. Parent numerous times to discuss behavior issues. When Mr. Teen has complained about being bored in the ETC, I have suggested reading and he has laughed at me. But over the past year, Mr. Teen has settled down. He has learned his boundaries. He has also learned how to get around getting into trouble. "Oh Hell!" Me: "Mr. Teen! No Cursing!" Mr. Teen: "Oh Hail, Dr. Pepper! That's what I meant!" Mr. Teen has learned to trust me and the ETC staff and will stop by my office desk to say hello and chat for a bit.

In fact, the last teen PC sits right outside my office area and yesterday, he rolled his chair up to the carpet and asked me why a certain website was being blocked by our filter. I took a look at the website and it was one concerning Robert E. Lee. So, I explained how some websites are misleading and then directed him to scandoo. Then I noticed his homework worksheet and realized that Mr. Teen was DOING HIS HOMEWORK. I quickly directed him to the Biography Resource Center for even better resources. His response? "cool. thanks."

We're getting somewhere!

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