From Home, Stage 6. Late Adulthood – The Artisan in the Wild Orchard, Livelihood and Communities

I simultaneously entered two of the noblest human lineages when I became a librarian and an educator in one job I hadn’t known existed, the dual-credentialed Teacher Librarian. 

The library was the perfect place to utilize the energy accumulated  from 26 years of training at ZCLA. Instead of the role of Zen Master, a door that apparently finally slammed shut, the door that opened was the role of inner city magnet high school Teacher Librarian. It allowed the energy to “enter the world with bliss bestowing hands”. The dance class with Jo Cobbett also greatly supported this major expansion of capacity and vitality.

In his book Nature and the Human Soul Bill Plotkin exactly describes the deep soul dimension of  how I felt transitioning from ZCLA (the Wellspring) to DMHS (the Wild Orchard).

In early adulthood (the Wellspring), we apprentice in a specific form of soulwork and learn the art of bringing our particular gift into the world. Induction confirms the mastery of our early-adult soulwork. During the second half of adulthood (the Wild Orchard), we learn to embody our soul in ever more creative, abundant, and generative ways — through forms of our own creation.

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After finishing the first 3 Library Media Teacher credential courses at Cal State Long Beach while teaching third grade at West Vernon Elementary, I was hired as the LMT at Downtown Magnets High School. The hiring interview was almost giddy it was so positive. I had been taking a Tony Robbins self-study course and had over-the-top  confidence focused like a laser beam. I especially liked that DMHS and the LA Public Library had a unique partnership to develop innovative programs together.

My whole 9 year career as a school librarian took place there, from ages 58 to 67. From August 2002 to June 2011 I ran my own library at DMHS, an extraordinary inner city public school. I had a vast array of extremely gratifying experiences. One of the dimensions was 9 years of ever-deepening friendships with multiple colleagues and great relationships with a lot of wonderful young students.

The most thoroughly satisfying 9 years of my life.

To cap it all off, the retirement party thrown by the faculty at Taix Restaurant was the most incredible sustained celebration of one’s life that a person could  ever hope to experience.

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In 2014 an ex-student of mine, working on a Masters in Library and Information Science, sent me this message:

Hey Mr. Levin,
I’m doing a project on School Libraries/Media Centers for my LIS 7005 (Foundations) class and I was wondering if you could answer some questions for me to help me along. 

Filling out SandraRosa’s questionnaire was an opportunity to very concisely summarize my experience as a school librarian.

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What I brought into the library

I hit the ground running partly because of the courses I had taken and inspired by the visionary book Information Power.

This is the Research Website I built.

This is the PowerPoint for the Introduction to Research I was presenting to classes.

UTLA and school leadership positions

How it ended at DMHS