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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Sarah Stone, Teacher at Urban Assembly School for Leadership and Empowerment
2:44:02
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Sarah Stone, a teacher at Urban Assembly School for Leadership and Empowerment, testifies in support of Intro 1125-2024, emphasizing the importance of school libraries and librarians for students' digital literacy, research skills, and critical thinking abilities. She argues that access to libraries is crucial for students to imagine and create a better future.
- Highlights the lack of library access at her school and its impact on students
- Stresses the role of librarians in helping students navigate credible sources in the age of fake news and polarization
- Emphasizes the importance of libraries in providing resources for students beyond graduation and fostering imagination
Sarah Stone
2:44:02
Hello, my name is Sarah Stone and I have the privilege of teaching twelfth graders at the Urban Assembly School for Leadership and Empowerment, a title one DOE school located in City Council District 44, and Community School District 20.
2:44:17
Thank you to all the city council members who have responded to our students' advocacy emails and invitations to speak at our school.
2:44:24
In our twelfth grade participation in government course, students chose a civic action issue to focus on, and the lack of library access at our school resonated with many students and teachers, as you can tell.
2:44:34
I'm joining my students here today in support of bill one one two five.
2:44:38
Transparency in data is a first step towards ensuring that all New York City Public School Students have access to the comfort, imagination, resources, research opportunities, and learning experiences provided by school libraries staffed by a certified school librarian.
2:44:54
As a government teacher in the age of social media, fake news, increased polarization, and parallel web universes, digital literacy is obviously a critical skill for our students.
2:45:05
I often find they don't have the time or the resources to adequately build those critical skills.
2:45:10
Librarians can serve as resources to students and teachers alike in identifying and utilizing credible sources, which our students need to navigate our ever changing and often hostile world.
2:45:22
Libraries are an incredible hub of information, and librarians are an incredible resource to support students in building research and critical thinking skills, so necessary for their next steps beyond graduation.
2:45:33
In order to build young advocates able to not only navigate the world as it is, but to advocate and create a better future, students need access to libraries and school.
2:45:41
In order to create a more just and inclusive world, we first need to be able to imagine the world as it could be.
2:45:46
Books allow those, that imagination to grow.
2:45:49
Libraries provide windows of opportunity and imagination to students as they dream of the world they deserve to live in.
2:45:55
Every New York City Public School Student, especially these three right here, deserve access to a school library to expose them to the possibilities beyond our school brick walls, and to provide them with the twenty first century skills necessary to achieve those possibilities.
2:46:10
Thank you for supporting the passage of this bill.