Correction: The individual in the photo, above, is not Olive Oil, as I suggested in an earlier tweet. Popeye was kind enough to send me a recent photograph of the real Olive Oil and I agree, she is far better looking than Lez Sombrero, the librarian at Cambridgeport School and the true subject of the photo, above. I am not about to argue with a man who can do what Popeye can on ten ounces of spinach.

First Lady Melania Trump sent ten books to one school library in each of the 57 states (my mistake, we are back down to 50 since January 20). The receiving librarian in Cambridgeport, Massachusetts not only rejected the books, sending them back, but included a letter, dripping with typical liberal arrogance and insult upon insult.

Following are a few excerpts from the librarian’s reply letter to Melania, published in The Horny Librarian Book….

Our beautiful and diverse student body is made up of children from all over the world; from different socioeconomic statuses; with a spectrum of gender expressions and identities.

Not kidding! Her precious tykes represent “a spectrum of gender expressions and identities.” Lunchtime in the cafeteria must look like the bar scene from Star Wars, with a menagerie of young freaks coexisting, if not altogether peacefully.

In the following paragraph, she bitches about her pay in one sentence, then toots her own horn the next, boasting of a graduate degree in Library Science, only one rung down the education ladder from a journeyman’s certificate in plumbing repair.

My school and my library are indeed award-winning. I work in a district that has plenty of resources, which contributes directly to “excellence.” Cambridge, Massachusetts, is an amazing city with robust social programming, a responsive city government, free all-day kindergarten, and well-paid teachers (relatively speaking — many of us can’t afford to live in the city in which we teach). (clearly bitching about her pay) My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science (tooting her own horn). Multiple studies show that schools with professionally staffed libraries improve student performance. The American Association of School Librarians has a great infographic on these findings. Many schools around the state and country can’t compete.

So far, her whinefest has been little more than a disconnected collection of partisan liberal Democrat talking points aimed at furthering the destructive progressive agenda. Next thing you know, she will be citing “white supremacy” as the cause for the world’s problems.

Yearly per-pupil spending in Cambridge is well over $20,000 …. This offers our Title I school and the district a lot of privilege and room for programming and pedagogy to foster “high standards of excellence.” Even so, we still struggle to close the achievement gap, retain teachers of color, and dismantle the systemic white supremacy in our institution. (BINGO!)

And, then, believe it or not, she claims that Dr. Suess is a racist. Just WOW!

Another fact that many people are unaware of is that Dr. Seuss’s illustrations are steeped in racist propaganda, caricatures, and harmful stereotypes.

She closes with even more expected liberal arrogance, slamming the First Lady and President Trump.

I’m attaching a list of ten books (it’s the librarian in me) that I hope will offer you a window into the lives of the many children affected by the policies of your husband’s administration.

https://twitter.com/Patreeit/status/913557606672736256

From Boston Magazine

A librarian in Cambridge has some strong words for First Lady Melania Trump, who sent bundles of children’s books to libraries around the country this month: No thanks.

Cambridgeport Elementary School librarian Liz Phipps Soeiro, in a lengthy open letter to the wife of President Donald Trump, said she was thankful for the gesture, and notes that it “must have been expensive” to ship them all that way. The White House notes that, to celebrate National Read a Book Day, it worked “with the Department of Education to identify schools with programs that have achieved high standards of excellence,” then shipped ten copies of works by Dr. Seuss to one school in each of the 50 states.

But all thanks aside, Soeiro writes, her school doesn’t want them. “[W]e will not be keeping the titles for our collection,” she wrote.

 

Why?

For starters, Soeiro says in her open letter, her school’s excellence has a lot to do with the fact that it’s made investments in public education, including in its library. “My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science,” she said. “Multiple studies show that schools with professionally staffed libraries improve student performance.”

Not all schools are as lucky, she notes. “School libraries around the country are being shuttered.” Soeiro also questioned the method Trump used to pick Cambridge for the honor—one that focused on high-performance metrics gleaned from test scores—and suggested she focus more attention on improving underfunded schools, slipping in a dig at the Trump administration’s Secretary of Education, who has limited experience with public education and is an advocate for charter schools. “Why not go out of your way to gift books to underfunded and underprivileged communities that continue to be marginalized and maligned by policies put in place by Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos?”

Soeiro also shared some less-than-positive opinions about Dr. Seuss, whose work she calls “a bit of a cliché,” and “a tired and worn ambassador for children’s literature.” Instead, she recommended a list of ten books which she said better represented the lives of students from diverse backgrounds. “You and your husband have a direct impact on these children’s lives,” she wrote. “Please make time to learn about and value them.”

Cambridge Public Schools has since responded, sending this statement to CBS: “In this instance, the employee was not authorized to accept or reject donated books on behalf of the school or school district. We have counseled the employee on all relevant policies, including the policy against public resources being used for political purposes.”