IN THE SPOTLIGHT
Celebrating Dr. Seuss – the man who taught so many the value of reading
Dr. Seuss was a great teacher. He taught the world it could be fun to read. He taught that poetry does not have to be dry and boring. He taught that using your imagination can lead to a good life.
March 2 was Dr. Seuss’ 119th birthday and was celebrated near and far by children and adults in a recognition of his contributions to learning and reading. In Boca Grande, that celebration has been going on all week. The students, teachers and staff of The Island School made each day of this week special, in honor of Dr. Seuss.
Monday: “Fox in Socks” — Wear silly or mismatched socks and shoes.
Tuesday: “Cat in the Hat” — Wear something that has “the Cat” or even your favorite hat.
Wednesday: “Wacky Wednesday” — Wear your clothes all out of Whack
Thursday: “Thing 1 & Thing 2” — Pick a partner, or two, or three & come dressed like twins
Friday: “Oh the Places You’ll Go” — Come dressed for your future career or celebrate your favorite college team.
Gretchen Hughes, Kindergarten teacher and a fanatical fan of the man, made Thursday — Seuss’ actual birthday — extra special. She told her students to wear a red shirt and khaki bottoms, “Mrs. Hughes has the rest!” She had costumes for each of them, as well as for herself.
The students were each dressed as “Things” from the Seuss classic, The Cat In The Hat. Thing 1 and Thing 2 are two small creatures with messy light blue hair, completely white skin, and red body suits. They are identical in appearance, except for the circular labels on the chest of their body suits, which are labeled with “Thing 1” and “Thing 2” to tell them apart. For Mrs. Hughes, however, she not only has Thing One and Thing 2, but Things 1 through 13!
Every day during Seuss Week, the students of all grades met in Farish Hall for a “read aloud” by a different staff member. “We are working on All Things Dr. Seuss this week,” she said. “And, of course, Kindergarten has all kinds of fun associated with learning more about Theodor Geisel,” which is the real name of Dr. Seuss.
She said the students’ grand finale of the week is something the whole community can observe or join. “We will end the week with our walking field trip to the library Friday,” she said.
The school is also participating in the 21-Day Reading Challenge. The challenge is to help students develop daily reading habits. All students are dedicating themselves to reading for 15 minutes every evening for 21 days. It is said that it takes 21 days to establish a habit, so the school is hoping the exercise will establish the habit of daily reading for their students.
At the end of the 21 days, every student who has participated faithfully will be part of an ice cream party. Special surprise awards will be issued, as well. Those who are not yet reading on their own can qualify as participants by being read to for a minimum of 15 minutes every day.
Theodor Geisel, Dr. Seuss’ real name, began his writing and illustrating career in college. He had gotten in trouble with his school officials and, as a punishment, was forbidden to write for the school publication. He wrote, anyway, but under his new pseudonym. Seuss was his mother’s maiden name and his own middle name. The “Dr.” was added to give the name extra stature. After college he wrote and drew professionally, for organizations, commercial businesses and publications, crafting political cartoons, business advertising, and such. As World War II heated up, he joined the military, using his skills and adding new one, such as animation.
Geisel was interested in writing for children before his military days, feeling that much of the material used to teach children to read was uninteresting and failed to capture children’s imagination or foster an interest in reading. He hoped to change children’s literature, and wrote And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, as an attempt to begin that process. He could not find a publisher, however.
In fact, more than 20 publishers rejected the book before Geisel ran into an old college classmate, who had just become juvenile editor at Vanguard Press. Vanguard agreed to publish the book, and the author was on his way to success. That was in 1937.
The world began changing in the 1940s and ’50s. People were realizing that reading was a vital part of the nation’s future security and success. Russia sent a rocket into space, television became a household fixture, and “Dick and Jane” was still the best the schools could do for young readers.
In 1954, Life Magazine published a report on illiteracy among school children. It concluded that children were not learning to read because their books were boring. William Spaulding was the director of the education division at the prestigious publishing house of Houghton Mifflin. He compiled a list of 348 words he believed were important for first-graders to recognize. Following the success of Mulberry Street, Spaulding asked Geisel to cut the list to 250 words and to write a book using only those words. This was the beginning of the Early Reader books
Spaulding challenged Geisel to “bring back a book children can’t put down.” Nine months later, Geisel completed The Cat in the Hat, using 236 of the words given to him. It retained the drawing style, verse rhythms, and all the imaginative power of Geisel’s earlier works but, because of its simplified vocabulary, it could be read by beginning readers.
The Cat in the Hat gave birth to the Beginning Reader book category, and it not only got children reading, thinking and laughing, but became a vital part of the educational landscape. Geisel’s style of writing and illustrating captivated both young and old.
Throughout his career he published more than 60 books under the pen name Dr. Seuss, including many of the most popular children’s books of all time. He sold more than 600 million copies of his books, and they were translated into more than 20 languages. Since 1998 the National Education Association (NEA) has designated Geisel’s birthday as National Read Across America Day, and others have extended it into a whole month of events for young and not so young readers.
Geisel’s writing and illustration styles are fun and fanciful, but actually disciplined. His poetry is consistent and metered in a way that is predictable, even if the words are sometimes made up. He was quoted as saying that, “The problem with writing a book in verse is, to be successful, it has to sound like you knocked it off on a rainy Friday afternoon. It has to sound easy. When you can do it, it helps tremendously because it’s a thing that forces kids to read on. You have this unconsummated feeling if you stop.”
He also said he does not start out to teach moral lessons, but that they almost always appear in his books. They almost always include a message about responsibility, care for others, and openness to unexpected delight. “I like nonsense; it wakes up the brain cells,” he said.
Theodor Geisel died in 1991, at the age of 87. He left the world with many thought-provoking statements. As his on-going gift to us as we mark his birthday, here are a few of them.
– “You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself in any direction you choose. You’re on your own, and you know what you know. And you are the guy who’ll decide where to go.” (Oh, The Places You’ll Go!)
– “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It’s not.”
(The Lorax)
See next week’s Boca Beacon for photographs from this past “Seuss Week.
