[Houston Press] Lamar High School Replaces Library with Coffee Shop

Completely agree. If you can get kids to "hang out" at school rather than somewhere else, what's the harm?

Seriously, public libraries are VASTLY superior to school libraries unless you're at a University.

 

What a travesty.




Maybe I'm just jealous. I mean,how many times did a class president promise change and off campus lunch and other great ideas, only to get some lame 007 themed prom in return.

And don't get me started with e-books.I hate the concept. How can it replace the texture and smell of opening a library book.
But if you can get all the hotties to hang out at the library then it's not that bad of an idea(18 year old time traveling me making this statement)

 

I used to go to the library all the time and nap. How can you possibly nap with all that coffee around?

The idea of going to an all ebook format is understandable.
Its only a matter of time before the kids are issued tablets, a low end I pad is around $400.00, an algebra 1 textbook is what 50 to 100 dollars?
You give each kid a tablet when the get to high school and 4 years later they turn it in, or hell by that time its out of date, just sell it to them for 100.00 or something.

 

I dunno. I think it would be quite some time before that happens at Lamar HS. Besides, knowing McSwine, he probably did it for a more selfish reason.

I don't know how a school could fall so far in just one year after I graduated. I applaud the principal for that. Even the orchestra went south.

 

They could have given me the books instead of throwing them away.

 

At first glance I was kind of shocked, but now that I think about it, in college and grad school I've never used the library in the traditional sense where I checked out books or did research by manually looking through books except for one class. I've only been in the library to print stuff out or to just read my research on the computers or my laptop.

 

I never used the library in high school. In college, I spent a lot of time in the library BUT rarely ever looked up books in there. Research in this day and age is done on the internet. Why waste your time running around the library when almost everything you need can be found online, especially considering when schools spend lots of money to give all their students access to databases like JSTOR, EBCSCO, etc.


I'm kinda repulsed by the idea of not having a library, but the more I think about it, its more nostalgic than useful. I think the people who are outraged are probably the people who haven't been to school in this era and are thinking about how much time they spent in the library (before the internet). Just because kids aren't using books in the library doesn't mean they aren't reading and researching. And the coffee shop gives kids a safer (hopefully) place to go...

 

Not saying I agree with taking out a Library, but I do all my research on e-brary at my campus. Save the trees!

 

I don't see a problem with this. WTF uses paper books anymore? I have a bachelors and a juris doctor. I didn't use a hard copy book once in my research in law school.

 

They also put a bank on the second floor.