The Loudon County Virginia school district has decided to distance their Read Across America Day activities from what has traditionally also been a celebration of world-famous children’s author Dr. Seuss’s birthday because of “racial undertones,” according to an article at The Daily Wire.
Theodor “Ted” Seuss Geisel, or Dr. Seuss to most of the word, was born on March 2, 1904. In 1998, the National Education Association designated the day as “Read Across America Day,” in an effort to young children excited about reading. The day was, for more than two decades, marked with activities that centered on the beloved children’s author.
The memo obtained by The Daily Wire, regarding the Loudon County school district’s decision, reads:
“Realizing that many schools continue to celebrate ‘Read Across America Day’ in partial recognition of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, it is important for us to be cognizant of research that may challenge our practice in this regard.”“As we become more culturally responsive and racially conscious, all building leaders should know that in recent years there has been research revealing radical undertones in the books written and the illustrations drawn by Dr. Seuss.”
The left-leaning group, Learning for Justice, citing a 2019 study of more then 50 books penned and illustrated by Dr. Seuss claims that “of the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are forty-five characters of color representing 2% of the total number of human characters.” Of the 45 characters, 43 exhibited behaviors and appearances that align with harmful and stereotypical Orientalist tropes. The remaining two human characters “are identified in the text as ‘African’ and both align with the theme of anti-Blackness.”
In 2020, the National Education Association rebranded Read Across America’s mission to “Celebrate a Nation of Diverse Readers.”
If Dr. Seuss could comment on the changes to his birthday celebration, he might say: “They say I’m old-fashioned, and live in the past, but sometimes I think progress progresses too fast!”
[Featured image via YouTube]
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