Some schools use the library in a strange way.

A student who requires discipline is sent to the library with an assignment or a punishment. The librarian is asked to supervise the child.

This does solve an immediate problem for the school. The administration has removed the child from the classroom where he caused a problem. They have placed the child in a worthwhile, controlled, and supervised environment. It does look like the school has disciplined the child in a positive manner.

However, from an educational point of view, the school has done something bad. It has created a situation whereby the children perceive the library as a punishment room.

They no longer see the library as a resource for information, as a way of improving their knowledge or thinking skills, or as a way of helping them.

It's a punishment room.

Any value that the school might garner by the existence of the library is offset by the fact that it reflects a negative concept.

The information that they learn about in the library may remain or it may disappear. But their feelings about the library as a punishment will remain forever.

Obviously, there is no way of predicting whether an elementary school child will use the library when he reaches the age of 40.

However, it's a safe bet that these odds are reduced if the library had been used as a punishment room when he was young.

Yes, the library punishment room did solve a problem for the elementary school principal.

But isn't that principal supposed to educate the children?