There are two common issues with TMA writing. The first, referencing, has been dealt with here before. The second is "how the hell do I write an introduction/conclusion?"
Now, the introduction and conclusion of your TMA bookend it. They demonstrate that you know what you're going to write, and that you can summarise what you've written about at the end. And they are vital, because most essay TMAs take them into account in the marking scheme.
So, how do you write them?
Well, first off, you don't have to write the introduction when you start, and the conclusion when you finish. I often write the conclusion first, before I write anything else. I may well totally rewrite it before submission, but it focuses my mind on what the final result should be. Conversely, I often write the introduction last, when I know what I've written about. You don't have to write your essay in order at all - I'll often write a few sentences that I want to get in, but I'm not sure where, and then ease them in at the end. Or not, if they turn out to be unnecessary. The important thing is to START writing.
It's times like this that an essay plan helps. I SCORNED essay plans when I started my degree. "I don't need them, they're a waste of time", I thought. But with time, I've come to value them, both as a template, and as a working frame of reference. If you have a vague idea of what you're going to write about, and in what order, before you start, half your problems of arranging the content in your head and on the page are solved. If you can work out how much of your word count you need to give to each segment, then you have an idea of how long each part needs to be.
An introduction and conclusion should not take up more than 20% total of your word count. With a thousand word essay, try and get your introduction and conclusion at around 100 words each. Any more, and you're probably waffling.
So, introductions. I tend to be pretty explicit in my introductions about what I'm going to write, and allude to the TMA title. For example (and I'm making this up as I go along, so I really hope it's not actually a TMA title), if your title is "Discuss Cordelia's motivation and actions in Act One of King Lear", then you need to mention in your introduction that your essay is about Cordelia's motivation and actions in Act 1 of King Lear. This may sound REALLY OBVIOUS, but you don't need to be Shakespeare to write an introduction.
"In the play King Lear, Cordelia is a central character. She is the youngest daughter of the eponymous king, and in the first Act appears only once, and greatly displeases her father. This essay will examine her actions, and discuss the motivation behind them."
And that's it. In under 50 words, Cordelia is introduced, and the reason for writing the essay is explained.
Conclusions are equally simple. You have, hopefully, done what you said you were going to do in the introduction and written an essay discussing the motivation and actions of Cordelia in King Lear, or whatever your essay title was. Now, you need to sum up your findings and signal this is the end of the essay.
"To conclude, Cordelia's love for her father is unsullied by greed, and Lear is unable to accept the simplicity of it, as he is so used to abundant, false praise. In trying to be honest, Cordelia is disinherited by her father, but her honesty wins her the King of France as a husband."
And again, in 50ish words, the essay is rounded off neatly. All a conclusion does is state, briefly what you've written.
(I'm not an English Lit student, can you tell?)
So, don't fret about intros and conclusions. Fret instead about your essay argument, whether you're meeting the guidance (because if the guidance says read X, you better read X, and reference it, and quote from it if necessary), and whether or not you'll ever finish the horrible thing.
Good luck!
17 Nov 2014
9 Sept 2014
Limbo
Foundation year was hard work for Jimmy. The Early Years Foundation Stage framework suits 90% of children down to the ground. Freeform, learning through play, no desks, no books...it's all good. But not for Jim. Jim really struggled with the lack of structure, with the lack of routine, and with needing to share his time between activities. And because Jim struggled, the staff struggled to cope with him. It took six months for them to get the staff in place for him to attend full days. It was very difficult for me, because I was constantly told what he'd done wrong, what I should be doing with him, and felt to blame. It is difficult to accept a violent, difficult five year old's behaviour isn't solely because of the parents.
Summer holidays were also difficult for us all. The first couple of weeks were OK. We did structured learning every day at "Mummy school", which sounds massively pretentious but was just me trying to teach him to read. By giving it a name, a place and a time each day, he actually accepted it. Until the wedding. Our wedding somewhat knocked Jim off balance. He went to stay with his dad for ten days; the longest he's ever stayed with him, and he didn't settle back down afterwards. He didn't sleep, he didn't want to do anything except watch videos, he was violent to his brother, and to other visiting children. We took him out to Bewilderwood for the day (amazing place, thoroughly recommended for children) and he ran away, and threatened to cut a woman who came too close to him. He went feral at my brother's wedding, biting balloons and attacking children, until he wore out and asked to be taken home. He became increasingly 'locked in', and wild. His dad has been helping to put up a united front, regardless of whose house he's at, in terms of rules and reward. This mainly made Jim not want to be with either of us.
He went back to school last Wednesday. It's already apparent that the structure of year 1 suits him a lot better, although his actual performance is pretty low. He's going to take a few weeks to settle back into going to school, and the ringing cries of "I HATE SCHOOL" are probably something we'll be dealing with for years. I'm trying to find a decent wrist restraint I can use on him during the school run, to stop him running off. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know. To some, the idea of physically restraining a child is repellent, but I have seen Jimmy stop in the middle of the road to pick up a toy, and be deaf and blind to the car blasting it's horn inches from his back.
What has got us through the last six weeks of occasional garment-rending despair is knowing that he's on the waiting list for an autism assessment, and once he has that, he can get referrals to occupational therapy etc, as well as more input with the school. The school, for what it's worth, are being far more useful this year, and have managed to get him almost full time one-on-one supervision.
Today, I rang the hospital to ask how much longer the waiting list is. And alas, the answer is that they've lost a lot of staff recently, can't get locums to cover, and simply don't know.
I've asked to speak directly to the neurodevelopment team, just for some advice. I'm fairly sure Jimmy's sleeping problems are due to melatonin deficiency. He's been in the same routine for OVER A YEAR, with no improvement in time it takes to fall asleep (min 60 mins, max 3 hours) or how frequently he wakes up. I'm also sure his sensory overload is much worse when he's tired, which is almost invariably because of his sleeping problems. And he is so violent. He bashed his brother over the head with a wheelbarrow, and jumped knees first at his neck. He also scratched my godson to ribbons. Violence and coercion have become his favoured social tools.
It makes me wonder where I can find the cope to keep dealing with him, when it feels like everything I'm doing is wrong. Everyone has an opinion on what would work with Jim, and all I want is a professional opinion, which is the one I cannot seem to get.
21 Aug 2014
Just Married
On 8th August, one of the wettest days of the year, me and my beloved Tom got married at Rutland Water.
It was perfect.
4 Aug 2014
World War One
One hundred years ago today, World War One started. I don't know of much personal history in WW1. My dad's granddad lost his leg after a shrapnel wound, and one of my mum's granddads lost his mind. My family were not high status officers, or medal recipients, as far as I'm aware. Unlike World War Two, which is still in living memory for many, WW1 never really has been in my lifetime. It's almost a ghost of a war, as all wars end up being.
Last year, I went to France for the first time. We stayed in Verdun, which saw a year long battle in 1916 between Germany and France. When driving to Verdun along the A roads, we saw hundreds of war graves. Thousands even. Not in huge, formal cemeteries, but in small ones, just by the side of the road. And every single one is immaculate. Someone still cuts the grass. People still visit the gravestones. Bodies are still dug up every single year, and nobody knows who they are. In that area of France, WW1 is not a distant memory: it's living history.
Nothing drove into me the sheer horror of WW1 like seeing those small, unforgotten, cemeteries. Nothing drove into me the numbers of men who died like seeing the lines of white headstones. No TV footage, no worn memorial in a town centre or church, no amount of paper poppies can hammer home the scale of death like seeing the graves of the men who died. The endless sea of white on green.
Wars are happening right now. Terrible wars, wars for land, resources, religion. Wars where children are ripped to pieces alongside adults. And we shake our heads at the destruction, watch programs on the horror, make infographics and pithy anti-war slogans, and write blogs about how awful it is. But how easily humanity forgets the slaughter, years down the line.
Some have condemned today's memorial services for celebrating the advent of World War One. But it's not a celebration. It's a commemoration of millions of lost lives, civilian as well as military. An acknowledgement of the millions more lives marred by war.
Just remember.
Last year, I went to France for the first time. We stayed in Verdun, which saw a year long battle in 1916 between Germany and France. When driving to Verdun along the A roads, we saw hundreds of war graves. Thousands even. Not in huge, formal cemeteries, but in small ones, just by the side of the road. And every single one is immaculate. Someone still cuts the grass. People still visit the gravestones. Bodies are still dug up every single year, and nobody knows who they are. In that area of France, WW1 is not a distant memory: it's living history.
Nothing drove into me the sheer horror of WW1 like seeing those small, unforgotten, cemeteries. Nothing drove into me the numbers of men who died like seeing the lines of white headstones. No TV footage, no worn memorial in a town centre or church, no amount of paper poppies can hammer home the scale of death like seeing the graves of the men who died. The endless sea of white on green.
Wars are happening right now. Terrible wars, wars for land, resources, religion. Wars where children are ripped to pieces alongside adults. And we shake our heads at the destruction, watch programs on the horror, make infographics and pithy anti-war slogans, and write blogs about how awful it is. But how easily humanity forgets the slaughter, years down the line.
Some have condemned today's memorial services for celebrating the advent of World War One. But it's not a celebration. It's a commemoration of millions of lost lives, civilian as well as military. An acknowledgement of the millions more lives marred by war.
Just remember.
20 Jul 2014
Understanding autism
Autism is difficult to understand. It is difficult for someone with normal brain function to fathom that someone's brain can be wired wrong, and yet still work. The brain is unfathomable to many, and the idea that neurological connections can go wrong but still create a working person is even more abstruse. Therefore, the idea that someone who looks normal, but has a messed up brain is difficult to swallow. The invisibility of autism is the root of most people's issue with it.
And HOW people take issue with it! There are plenty of folk who believe it is caused solely by bad parenting, linking it up with ADHD because it starts with the same letter and seems to affect children more than adults. There are plenty of folk who simply don't believe it exists, and that it's an excuse, a label to gain children special treatment. The idea that the only type of autism is the Rain Man stereotype is endemic.
The idea that autism occurs on a spectrum fuels the assumption that it cannot be real. The fact that most medical conditions exist on a spectrum passes most people by. Cancer manifestations can range from immediately deadly to an inconvenience. Even something as humdrum as hypertension occurs on a spectrum ranging from barely elevated to life threatening.
Then there is the debate of the causes of autism. The current best theory is that it is genetic. Some argue it is passed down the paternal line, but that may be because there is a higher percentage of male autists than female. However, other theories include the (somehow immortal, though wholly discredited) immunisation cause, and a variety of Daily Mail-esque causes related to maternal intake of Substance X in pregnancy. So, if you have a family member with autism, it can be difficult to accept there may be a genetic link. I don't know whether this guilt-denial is the same in other genetic conditions, like the breast cancer gene, or whether it's restricted to birth-onset neurological problems.
There is as much difference between autistic children as in any children. I personally know six autistic children other than my son Jimmy, and every single one presents differently. My son and godson are similar ages, both with ASD diagnoses and are completely different. The other autistic child in Jimmy's class is totally different again. The common threads of diagnosis are difficulty with social communication, difficulty with social interaction, and difficulty with social imagination. For Jimmy, this means that he struggles with normal conversation, turn taking, sharing, friends, playing, concentrating on things that don't directly interest him, and engages in risky behaviour because he simply cannot fathom danger. He won't look at you when you're talking to him most of the time, and very rarely makes eye contact. His emotional palette is very limited, and he doesn't recognise emotions in other people. He cannot grasp what other people think, or what behaviour is unacceptable. His lack of concentration holds him back at school, although his intelligence and ability to understand quite complicated concepts is exceptional. He has a small collection of people that he actually treats as people, and everyone else might as well be a plank of wood for all he cares. Some autistic children have a mix up in their wiring that means they process faces/people as objects, and that is very much Jimmy's thing. He also has some pronounced sensory problems, mainly with sound and proprioception (although autistic children can struggle with any combination, or all of their senses) and his main way of dealing with the resulting overload is to fight, to scream, or simply to withdraw. Jimmy falls on the aspergers end of the spectrum, which basically means his language problems are limited. Many autistic children either never speak, or take years to learn. Jimmy copies language all the time, but he is able to speak fluently and spontaneously. When he is mid-meltdown, he loses proper language, and become single-word-repetitive. Today, it was the happy word of diarrhoea, bellowed repeatedly, for some time. I'm sorry, neighbours. His social level is far lower than his brother's, and his brother is twenty five months younger.
There is a link between autism and ability to manufacture melatonin, which means many autistic children cannot fall asleep and stay asleep. Alas, this is very much Jimmy's thing as well.
This is just what he does: any other autistic child may do something completely different.
If you took each of his odd behaviours as a single entity, they could be explained away. Every child does something a bit odd that falls on the spectrum. But the collection of behaviours together is what leads you to the diagnosis of autism. It's not a diagnosis paediatricians make lightly, because in making it you are saying "this child will have social problems for the rest of their life". It is admitting the child is disabled. The idea that you can simply present your misbehaving child to a paediatrician, get an autism diagnosis and then live without guilt, or need for discipline for the rest of your child's education is a total misconception, but very popular in people who don't want to know more.
I was relieved when Jimmy was diagnosed. Not because I want him to be autistic, but because it meant there was a reason for the way he was behaving. I have felt since he was a baby that there is something wrong with him, and I finally got validation for those feelings after almost five years of being sidelined and ignored. But the reality is that he is significantly disabled by being autistic, and I have to be his advocate in everything. This is another thing that is generally overlooked by the Autism Is Not A Thing brigade - it is really hard work to be the resident parent of an autistic child.
There are lots of meetings where you're told what your child has been doing wrong, and it's your job to try and guess what insignificant thing has been the trigger, so you can avoid it again. There are meetings where you sit with clinicians and are told "this is what he's doing that isn't normal", and meetings where you sit with your child's headteacher because they want to exclude him for behaviour he can't control. There are meetings where you have to essentially put yourself in their shoes, and then walk around an area so you can spot things that might set them off, and then work out avoidance techniques, because there is no way the child has the self-awareness to do it themselves. I spent an hour and a half at Jimmy's school last week, looking at his new classroom, meeting his new teacher, meeting his new SENCo and trying to explain him, and even that wasn't time enough to give them all the information that might help. Then there's the strain on your personal life, the lack of time spent with your partner because your child needs almost constant supervision until he eventually goes to sleep around 9pm. The lack of spontaneous days out, when every potential venue has to be scouted for likely triggers. The general isolation of not being able to go out and see friends or family without weighing up the likely cost in terms of his sensory overload, because there's always a payoff in the evening, with the extended bedtime and the screaming. The worries about major events like weddings, wondering if he's going to be so uncontrollable that he'll ruin it. Trying to balance out his needs with the needs of his neurotypical brother without doing either of them a disservice. It's difficult sometimes to find the positives, especially after a bad week.
It's a constant, steep learning curve. So forgive me if I get annoyed when people tell me there's nothing wrong with my child, he just has a 'few problems' because the reality is somewhat harder, and more complex than that. It is a difficult condition to get your head round, and it is a complicated condition with many variables and an unclear aetiology, but finding out about it can only benefit you if you've got autistic people in your life.
If you'd like to know more about autism from a more objective point of view, I recommend the National Autistic Society's full and informative website.
And HOW people take issue with it! There are plenty of folk who believe it is caused solely by bad parenting, linking it up with ADHD because it starts with the same letter and seems to affect children more than adults. There are plenty of folk who simply don't believe it exists, and that it's an excuse, a label to gain children special treatment. The idea that the only type of autism is the Rain Man stereotype is endemic.
The idea that autism occurs on a spectrum fuels the assumption that it cannot be real. The fact that most medical conditions exist on a spectrum passes most people by. Cancer manifestations can range from immediately deadly to an inconvenience. Even something as humdrum as hypertension occurs on a spectrum ranging from barely elevated to life threatening.
Then there is the debate of the causes of autism. The current best theory is that it is genetic. Some argue it is passed down the paternal line, but that may be because there is a higher percentage of male autists than female. However, other theories include the (somehow immortal, though wholly discredited) immunisation cause, and a variety of Daily Mail-esque causes related to maternal intake of Substance X in pregnancy. So, if you have a family member with autism, it can be difficult to accept there may be a genetic link. I don't know whether this guilt-denial is the same in other genetic conditions, like the breast cancer gene, or whether it's restricted to birth-onset neurological problems.
There is as much difference between autistic children as in any children. I personally know six autistic children other than my son Jimmy, and every single one presents differently. My son and godson are similar ages, both with ASD diagnoses and are completely different. The other autistic child in Jimmy's class is totally different again. The common threads of diagnosis are difficulty with social communication, difficulty with social interaction, and difficulty with social imagination. For Jimmy, this means that he struggles with normal conversation, turn taking, sharing, friends, playing, concentrating on things that don't directly interest him, and engages in risky behaviour because he simply cannot fathom danger. He won't look at you when you're talking to him most of the time, and very rarely makes eye contact. His emotional palette is very limited, and he doesn't recognise emotions in other people. He cannot grasp what other people think, or what behaviour is unacceptable. His lack of concentration holds him back at school, although his intelligence and ability to understand quite complicated concepts is exceptional. He has a small collection of people that he actually treats as people, and everyone else might as well be a plank of wood for all he cares. Some autistic children have a mix up in their wiring that means they process faces/people as objects, and that is very much Jimmy's thing. He also has some pronounced sensory problems, mainly with sound and proprioception (although autistic children can struggle with any combination, or all of their senses) and his main way of dealing with the resulting overload is to fight, to scream, or simply to withdraw. Jimmy falls on the aspergers end of the spectrum, which basically means his language problems are limited. Many autistic children either never speak, or take years to learn. Jimmy copies language all the time, but he is able to speak fluently and spontaneously. When he is mid-meltdown, he loses proper language, and become single-word-repetitive. Today, it was the happy word of diarrhoea, bellowed repeatedly, for some time. I'm sorry, neighbours. His social level is far lower than his brother's, and his brother is twenty five months younger.
There is a link between autism and ability to manufacture melatonin, which means many autistic children cannot fall asleep and stay asleep. Alas, this is very much Jimmy's thing as well.
This is just what he does: any other autistic child may do something completely different.
If you took each of his odd behaviours as a single entity, they could be explained away. Every child does something a bit odd that falls on the spectrum. But the collection of behaviours together is what leads you to the diagnosis of autism. It's not a diagnosis paediatricians make lightly, because in making it you are saying "this child will have social problems for the rest of their life". It is admitting the child is disabled. The idea that you can simply present your misbehaving child to a paediatrician, get an autism diagnosis and then live without guilt, or need for discipline for the rest of your child's education is a total misconception, but very popular in people who don't want to know more.
I was relieved when Jimmy was diagnosed. Not because I want him to be autistic, but because it meant there was a reason for the way he was behaving. I have felt since he was a baby that there is something wrong with him, and I finally got validation for those feelings after almost five years of being sidelined and ignored. But the reality is that he is significantly disabled by being autistic, and I have to be his advocate in everything. This is another thing that is generally overlooked by the Autism Is Not A Thing brigade - it is really hard work to be the resident parent of an autistic child.
There are lots of meetings where you're told what your child has been doing wrong, and it's your job to try and guess what insignificant thing has been the trigger, so you can avoid it again. There are meetings where you sit with clinicians and are told "this is what he's doing that isn't normal", and meetings where you sit with your child's headteacher because they want to exclude him for behaviour he can't control. There are meetings where you have to essentially put yourself in their shoes, and then walk around an area so you can spot things that might set them off, and then work out avoidance techniques, because there is no way the child has the self-awareness to do it themselves. I spent an hour and a half at Jimmy's school last week, looking at his new classroom, meeting his new teacher, meeting his new SENCo and trying to explain him, and even that wasn't time enough to give them all the information that might help. Then there's the strain on your personal life, the lack of time spent with your partner because your child needs almost constant supervision until he eventually goes to sleep around 9pm. The lack of spontaneous days out, when every potential venue has to be scouted for likely triggers. The general isolation of not being able to go out and see friends or family without weighing up the likely cost in terms of his sensory overload, because there's always a payoff in the evening, with the extended bedtime and the screaming. The worries about major events like weddings, wondering if he's going to be so uncontrollable that he'll ruin it. Trying to balance out his needs with the needs of his neurotypical brother without doing either of them a disservice. It's difficult sometimes to find the positives, especially after a bad week.
It's a constant, steep learning curve. So forgive me if I get annoyed when people tell me there's nothing wrong with my child, he just has a 'few problems' because the reality is somewhat harder, and more complex than that. It is a difficult condition to get your head round, and it is a complicated condition with many variables and an unclear aetiology, but finding out about it can only benefit you if you've got autistic people in your life.
If you'd like to know more about autism from a more objective point of view, I recommend the National Autistic Society's full and informative website.
10 Jul 2014
Results
So, about six weeks ago, I sat some exams. And today, 8 days early, I got the results.
Hem hem.
For SK277 Human Biology, I got a PASS TWO.
And for A218 History of Medicine, I got...wait for it...
I'm still BUZZING over that. I sat that exam in such a woozy haze of infection, I honestly thought I'd be lucky to scrape a pass.
So, I've finished level 2 completely now. I got a first, 2:1 and 2:1, so hopefully I might get an alright degree classification when I get that far.
For my next trick, I'm doing two modules together again. One is a 30 credit level one called SDK125: Introducing Health Science, A Case Study Approach. This is a free choice module, that I'm doing partly because I need that many credits, and partly because health practice is where I'm from and I'm looking forward to doing more of that sort of work.
My BIG module is K311: Promoting Public Health: Skills, Perspectives and Practice. That's a 60 credit level 3, with an EMA at the end. I really didn't want to do two exams together again. When I was working, I did a lot of public health type work. Not specifically in that domain, but general health surveillance, and trying to encourage people to come for health checks, and vaccinations, and finding out why people didn't come in. Public health is something I have an increasing interest in, and I'm really excited to learn more. Although I suspect I will end up ruing the day I thought it was a good idea.
BUT FIRST I'm getting married on 8th August, so I'll be someone's wife again by then. Eeek.
Hem hem.
For SK277 Human Biology, I got a PASS TWO.
And for A218 History of Medicine, I got...wait for it...
A DISTINCTION
I'm still BUZZING over that. I sat that exam in such a woozy haze of infection, I honestly thought I'd be lucky to scrape a pass.
So, I've finished level 2 completely now. I got a first, 2:1 and 2:1, so hopefully I might get an alright degree classification when I get that far.
For my next trick, I'm doing two modules together again. One is a 30 credit level one called SDK125: Introducing Health Science, A Case Study Approach. This is a free choice module, that I'm doing partly because I need that many credits, and partly because health practice is where I'm from and I'm looking forward to doing more of that sort of work.
My BIG module is K311: Promoting Public Health: Skills, Perspectives and Practice. That's a 60 credit level 3, with an EMA at the end. I really didn't want to do two exams together again. When I was working, I did a lot of public health type work. Not specifically in that domain, but general health surveillance, and trying to encourage people to come for health checks, and vaccinations, and finding out why people didn't come in. Public health is something I have an increasing interest in, and I'm really excited to learn more. Although I suspect I will end up ruing the day I thought it was a good idea.
BUT FIRST I'm getting married on 8th August, so I'll be someone's wife again by then. Eeek.
8 Jul 2014
The Library As A Lifeline
My love of books is no secret. I learned to read when I was 2, and never stopped. I remember in year 4 being made to read the first line of every reading book they had to try and find something I couldn't easily read, and stopping at a year 6 book. I read every children's book in the house, and then moved on to my mum's books. I read the backs of cereal packets eating breakfast, and shampoo bottles in the bath. The idea of nothing to read still distresses me. I'm currently on bedrest with concussion and am not allowed to read much. I am so fed up.
We had very little spare money when I was growing up. I have six siblings, and with the mortgage and bills, we cost more than my parents earned. There was no spare cash for books. I used the school library constantly once I started high school. When I left, I began using the town library every week. I would go with my sister in her pushchair and fill the bottom of the pushchair with books.
I had a difficult few years in my mid teens. I was bullied, lonely, poor and bored. I babysat my sister as a job during the week and spent the money I got on visiting my boyfriend at weekends. My friends were still in sixth form. I didn't really belong anywhere. The books I got from the library were travel books; reading them sent me somewhere that wasn't a dead-end Lincolnshire town, where I was miserable.
And that is the value of libraries that is too often ignored by politicians and councillors trying to make cuts where privileged people won't notice. A book is a mental passport away from a situation. A book can provide the education needed to liberate oneself from inescapable difficulty. It can be a source of hope. Just the simple act of leaving the house to return books and fetch more can be a catalyst for independence.
I grew up in Lincolnshire and the way the library system is being systematically dismantled upsets me terribly. A library is far more than a simple repository of books. It can be a lifeline, and source of great pleasure for those who are less fortunate. The internet and Kindle have not removed the need for community libraries, and those who need them most are often the ones most excluded from the ebook revolution.
Save Lincolnshire libraries.
@savelincslibraries
We had very little spare money when I was growing up. I have six siblings, and with the mortgage and bills, we cost more than my parents earned. There was no spare cash for books. I used the school library constantly once I started high school. When I left, I began using the town library every week. I would go with my sister in her pushchair and fill the bottom of the pushchair with books.
I had a difficult few years in my mid teens. I was bullied, lonely, poor and bored. I babysat my sister as a job during the week and spent the money I got on visiting my boyfriend at weekends. My friends were still in sixth form. I didn't really belong anywhere. The books I got from the library were travel books; reading them sent me somewhere that wasn't a dead-end Lincolnshire town, where I was miserable.
And that is the value of libraries that is too often ignored by politicians and councillors trying to make cuts where privileged people won't notice. A book is a mental passport away from a situation. A book can provide the education needed to liberate oneself from inescapable difficulty. It can be a source of hope. Just the simple act of leaving the house to return books and fetch more can be a catalyst for independence.
I grew up in Lincolnshire and the way the library system is being systematically dismantled upsets me terribly. A library is far more than a simple repository of books. It can be a lifeline, and source of great pleasure for those who are less fortunate. The internet and Kindle have not removed the need for community libraries, and those who need them most are often the ones most excluded from the ebook revolution.
Save Lincolnshire libraries.
@savelincslibraries
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)