We’re about two weeks into the summer and already I’ve heard from my adolescent-aged children the maddening cries of “I’m bored!” Even worse, my oldest follows the lament with, “Can I go to the mall?” It’s tempting, if only to get him out of my hair — but not worth the potential problems that can arise from dropping a bored and penniless boy off at NorthPark.
But I recently learned about another spot where teens can hang — the Teen Center at the library. Sure, they won’t go for it at first, but it sounds like it could be a sufficiently entertaining alternative.
Recently, AT&T granted $500,000 in funds to open 20 Teen Centers in Dallas libraries. Keely Coughlan who is overseeing development of the Audelia Library teen center, which opened yesterday, told me that the Skillman Southwestern Library was one of the first five in the city to have a teen center. It’s success, she says, likely had something to do with the recent funds for more.
The library teen centers provide laptop rentals and comfy contemporary areas for teens to work, read comics and young adult novels and probably peruse You Tube. Libraries are supposed to be quiet places, right? So I asked her how they control the teens’ noise levels, to which she laughed and said, “Oh, our library isn’t quiet.” It’s apparently not like that around libraries anymore.
Hmm. I think the kiddos just might like this.
