By Allen Hamrick
One of the most anticipated events for schools across the country is Dr. Seuss week, held this year from March 2nd to March 6th. This encompasses Read Across America week that began on the birthday of the famous children’s book author Dr. Seuss.
The week has been full of action in schools here, there and everywhere. People from all walks of life donated their time to read to students in the elementary schools. This movement not only enriches the lives of the youth but also the reader as they bring to life the written word where faraway adventures that only exist in dreams become a reality.
Readers are encouraged to show youth that reading is not only educational but has benefits that outweigh any boredom or mundaneness. Reading formulates a person into an improved thinker, an enhanced visionary, an imaginative writer and a resourceful mind. A person’s vocabulary produces more than just conjunctions, verbs and nouns but puts it all together into meaning and purpose.
Where else can a person sail the seven seas with pirates, battle monsters from another galaxy or understand the world through a bear’s eyes? Where else can you learn the history of the world and live a life through the eyes of characters from wagon trains of the old west to the pyramids and ancient civilizations that have been all but lost to time? Places that now exist only in written pages of books as old as thousands of years to much more recent times.
The fact is that there is no one, no matter who you are, that hasn’t been moved by the distant horizon. All have unexplained realistic dreams and thoughts that plague our souls searching and wishing for a different life. Books offer people a way out, a chance to be and a chance to jump into a world of wonder and answer the probabilities of the question, “What if.” In past history, the only people who had the chance to read were the rich and educated, and the skill was limited to very few people.
As the years progressed, poets, dreamers, creative minds and ordinary folks learned to read and write, and the world has become what it is today. Theodor Seuss Geisel, also known by his pen name Dr. Seuss, wrote many children’s books that were typically wrote as creative as possible to stir young minds into the belief that anything is possible from the absurd to common nature. Read Across America week provides opportunity to sit under a tree and read a book, something all people can enjoy regardless of age.
There is a story for everyone to read whether your genre is history, romance, adventure, Sci-Fi, horror, war, etc. There is a book for everything and about any topic. For our youth, Read Across America is a vital week that instills positive habits by stimulating the mind. Some of the CCHS football team traveled to Big Otter Elementary this past week to get into some reading time with the students.
They were well received by the school and did a great job reading. Afterward, the coaches had some pep talk conversation with the kids followed by a presentation of state awards to the three athletes who made the All State team: Noah Collins 1st team All State, Jacoby Nichols 1st team All State and Joel Elliott 2nd Team All State Honorable Mention.
Other readers included Ayden Brown, Jaxon Brown, Blake Coleman, and James Grose who were all WV AA Honorable Mention. It was a good week for the students around the county, and as Dr Seuss said as he rode out of sight, “The more you read, the more you know, the more places you’ll go.”
