Public libraries are the sole community centers left in America. The degree to which a branch of the local library is connected to the larger culture is a reflection of the degree to which the community itself is connected to the larger culture.
Interpretation
Public libraries serve as vital community hubs that reflect a community's connection to broader culture.
In this quote, Russell Banks emphasizes the importance of public libraries as the last remaining community centers in America. He suggests that the extent to which these libraries engage with the larger cultural landscape mirrors how connected the community is to that culture, highlighting the role of libraries in fostering cultural awareness and community engagement.
In practice
In a speech about community engagement, one might say, 'As Russell Banks stated, public libraries are the sole community centers left in America.'
They were gone and I missed them but even so I was very happy. For the rest of my life no matter where on this planet earth I went and no matter how scared or confused I got, I could wait until dark and look up into the night sky and see my three friends again and my heart would swell with love of them and make me strong and clearheaded.
I much prefer working with kids whose life could be completely upended by a reading of a book over a weekend. You give them a book to read - they go home and come back a changed person. And that is so much more interesting and exciting.
Motivations are too tangled and complex.
Lists of books we reread and books we can't finish tell more about us than about the relative worth of the books themselves.
Through writing, through that process, they realize that they become more intelligent, and more honest and more imaginative than they can be in any other part of their life.
Jacqueline Woodson's books are such a gift to parents and children for their poignant subtlety and lyricism and their willingness to let a reader dwell in the pangs of realization that we sometimes try to protect our children from.
What is a good definition? For the philosopher or the scientist, it is a definition which applies to all the objects to be defined, and applies only to them; it is that which satisfies the rules of logic. But in education it is not that; it is one that can be understood by the pupils.
Peace is what every human being is craving for, and it can be brought about by humanity through the child.
Children live in the same world we do. To kid ourselves that we can shelter them from it isn't just naive it's a vanity.
Never stand still. Only stand still enough to learn, and once you stop learning in that stance, move off. Always keep yourself engaged, in theater, in whatever job you can get. If you can't get an acting job, then go backstage. Or take tickets. But be around actors because that is where you will primarily learn.
Man's real genius and knowledge remains preserved in books
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.