Monday marks\u00a0the start of National Reading Month\u00a0\u2013 with celebrations across the nation planned for “Read Across America Day” on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The day will look a little different this year, with many U.S. students learning virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But the\u00a0National Education Association\u00a0has planned a variety of virtual events \u2013 not just in March, but all year \u2013\u00a0to mark the occasion.<\/p>\n
That’s not the only difference: The NEA has pivoted\u00a0from popular children’s author Dr. Seuss to a focus on diverse children’s books, a decision that has generated controversy on social media.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While President Joe Biden\u00a0noted in his “Read Across America Day”\u00a0presidential proclamation that \u201cfor many Americans, the path to literacy begins with story time in their school classroom\u201d \u2013 and that the day was an important recommitment to the goal of national reading comprehension \u2013 he differed from Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama in leaving out Dr. Seuss’s name.<\/p>\n
Here’s what to know about the annual reading celebration, and the recent controversy surrounding it:\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Launched in 1998 by the\u00a0NEA, “Read Across America Day” was created as a way to encourage children to read. It later developed\u00a0into a year-round program, with special celebrations in March.<\/p>\n
“This year-round program focuses on motivating children and teens to read through events, partnerships, and reading resources that are about everyone, for everyone,” the NEA website for the program says.<\/p>\n
Since its conception, the annual reading day has been held on or near March 2, which is Dr. Seuss’s birthday. This year, it will be held on his 117th birthday.\u00a0 And for many Americans, \u201cRead Across America Day\u201d is celebrated alongside his birthday.<\/p>\n
Until 2018, when its contract ended, the NEA had partnered with Dr. Seuss Enterprises.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the reasons we partnered with Seuss 20 years ago in 1997 was to kick-start this program,\u201d NEA spokesperson Steven Grant told the School Library Journal in 2017. \u201cThat was the strategy up front, so kids would see Dr. Seuss\u2019s Cat in the Hat and spark some attention.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
50 Black YA authors you should read,\u00a0<\/strong>from Angie Thomas to Walter Dean Myers<\/span><\/p>\n Over the past few years, however, the day’s focus has shifted from the author due to both a\u00a0heightened attention toward inclusivity in children’s literature and a confrontation with the racist undertones in Seuss’s body of work.\u00a0<\/p>\n A 2019 study from the Conscious Kid’s Library and the University of California, San Diego researchers studied\u00a050 children\u2019s books and over 2,200 characters created over decades by the children’s author.<\/p>\n What it found: That \u201cof the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are forty-five characters of color representing 2% of the total number of human characters.\u201d And of that fraction, 43 have Orientalist depictions and two align with the theme of anti-Blackness, the study found.<\/p>\n “Notably, every character of color is male. Males of color are only presented in subservient, exotified, or dehumanized roles,” the study authors,\u00a0Katie Ishizuka and Ram\u00f3n Stephens, wrote. “This also remains true in their relation to white characters. Most startling is the complete invisibility and absence of women and girls of color across Seuss’ entire children\u2019s book collection.”<\/p>\n Nearly 100 Confederate statues removed in 2020,<\/strong>but hundreds remain, new SPLC data shows<\/span><\/p>\n In the last week, false reports surfaced that\u00a0Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia had banned the books of Dr. Seuss.<\/p>\n The school district quickly released a statement to clarify, writing that given the 2019 study and the district’s “focus on equity and culturally responsive instruction” that it released guidance to schools “during the past couple of years”\u00a0to not connect Read Across America Day exclusively with Dr. Seuss\u2019 birthday. His books, however, are still available to readers in district libraries.<\/p>\n Read Across America has had the same guidance since 2017.<\/p>\n \u201cIt’s not about reading or not reading certain books, it\u2019s about raising awareness around the social and systemic bias that such books promote,\u201d Stephens said in 2017. \u201cDr. Seuss and whiteness is a reflection of the overwhelming silence in literacy regarding matters of race, especially with both young people and white people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The NEA has a list\u00a0of recommended reading for the year, which caters to a diversity of readers, on its website.<\/p>\n The March recommendations: \u00a0“Tiara\u2019s Hat Parade” by Kelly Starling Lyons; “Each Tiny Spark”\u00a0by Pablo Cartaya; and\u00a0“They Called Us Enemy” by George Takei, Justin Eisinger and\u00a0Steven Scott.<\/p>\nWhy has Dr. Seuss become controversial?<\/h2>\n
Are schools really banning Dr. Seuss books?<\/h2>\n
What books promoting diversity are recommended by NEA?<\/h2>\n