Blog #191: Read Across America Week
- Jeffrey Snyder
- Feb 28, 2022
- 3 min read
This week, schools across the nation are hosting what is known as Read Across America week. This is a week where students and teachers spend a little time each day reading a book of their choice to help understand that reading is just as important or more important than say being on your phone and watching television.
In fact, no one should be more exposed to reading than neurodiverse and other special education students. With the ratio of a neurodiverse diagnosis at 1 in 44, now more than ever, special education students have to be taught that there are others way of learning the life lessons we need to learn.
…
Theodore “Ted” Geisel aka Dr. Seuss (1904-1991)
You might be wondering what Read Across America is centered around because you see the Cat in the Hat’s, well, hat in some signs promoting RAA. That’s because this is the week where we mark the birthday of the one and only, Ted Geisel aka Dr. Seuss.
I’ve often considered Dr. Seuss to be the child’s version of shall we say, Moses from biblical lore. That’s because Dr. Seuss cared nothing more than to inspire and persuade children to open up their imaginations.
My family actually are big fans of Dr. Seuss and when we went out to San Diego in 2019 for my first engagement with Autism Tree Project Foundation, we were in La Jolla and visited a Dr. Seuss Museum and saw artwork and figurines that once were in his studio. After my first assignment with ATPF, my family actually became inspired to collect original drawings and artwork of Dr. Seuss’s work that hang in our house right to this very day.
Dr. Seuss was also a strongly dedicated man who considered his work as his life, sort of like me with “Going the Distance” and my fanfiction writing. He was so dedicated that when he died in 1991, he actually passed away in his studio, a few feet from the drawing board where he did his work.
In a way, I sort of connect myself with Dr. Seuss because we both are on the same level when it comes to taking pride in what we do. Dr. Seuss took great pride in using his work to express his views on life around him and I do the same thing with “Going the Distance.”
If you want to learn more about Dr. Seuss’ life and his works, be sure to check out this amazing documentary that features Jason Alexander (“Seinfeld”) reading some of Dr. Seuss’ stories.
…
Unfortunately, our generation today simply doesn’t give any care about reading a book when they could be watching online videos that hold no value whatsoever. Many of us in my generation and the past generation have actually learned and grown because of Dr. Seuss and we have taken what we learned into our respective careers.
It seems like today’s generation of children are seemingly ignoring Dr. Seuss probably because our society has actually gotten so bad that society is actually banning some of Dr. Seuss’ books, which is a dirty shame. I personally believe that by banning Dr. Seuss’ books is doing more harm than good for today’s generation of children.
Parents and Teachers need to preach the importance that Dr. Seuss’ books or any kind of books for that matter hold more value than any garbage television, video games and online videos put together. If you want to see what happens when something like television takes over our lives instead of reading, check out this episode from the Disney Channel series, “Adventures in Wonderland.”
In conclusion, forget what goes on in the world today and just transport yourself to a world that can only be found in a book. Still don’t believe me?
Then, listen to these guys:
…
Catch you all later!!
Comments