Lately the Internet has been painted in somewhat of a poor
light. Studies have been released dealing with harassment of our
youth, and new legal questions seem to pop up every day.
Lately the Internet has been painted in somewhat of a poor light. Studies have been released dealing with harassment of our youth, and new legal questions seem to pop up every day.
So when a little something comes along on the Web that can actually help out a young person, and young people in San Benito County, it is cause for a sigh of relief.
Of course, whether anyone will take advantage of the offered service is another question. We simply hope that will be the case.
In this case we are talking about a grant received by the San Benito County Free Library that will allow students to log onto a Web site with homework questions that can be answered by a tutor. A live tutor. Someone who will ask questions and be able to converse with students in a small chat program.
“It’s a real live person on the other end there, who can provide personalized, one-on-one tutoring,” county interim Librarian Betty Mason said. “And as an educator I believe there is nothing like that individual attention.”
Because of this $6,000 grant, local students can log on and ask questions between 1pm and 10pm. San Benito is one of only 25 public libraries throughout the state that will offer the program. The local Friends of the Library program raised more than $2,000 in an attempt to help ensure students have access to the program.
A similar program has been available for several years, but this time students can hook up with a live tutor. To get there, they log on to www.sanbenito-fl.org and follow the homework link instructions.
In a sidelight, our local library also acquired $7,500 to upgrade the public computers. And Mason said the library will be getting five new PCs.
This is all great news. But it will be even better news if we learn, in a couple of months, that students are utilizing this source. With the common news of tight budgets and limited resources, it would help us all to know that a nice, useful little resource is being put to good use.
