Vandalia program shines light on child literacy

It was Theodore Seuss Geisel, also known as Dr. Seuss, who said, “You’re never too old, never too wacky, never too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”

So when it came to planning the activities at Vandalia Elementary School for the famous American writer and cartoonist’s birthday Monday, Samantha Bernard took a new approach this year and invited members of the community, including the Porterville Chamber of Commerce, to read to some classrooms.

Bernard is the reading specialist at Vandalia.

Seuss would have turned 105 Monday. His birthday became a national holiday in 1998, seven years after his demise, and is observed as a day to promote literacy.

As the day was being celebrated throughout the nation as the National Education Association holiday, Read Across America, the children at Vandalia received visits from people in the community. Eight chamber members and four special guest readers made the rounds to read to the children. Some of them were teachers at the elementary school.

One of their guests, special education teacher Robert Speck, attracted a rife crowd of enthusiastic children as he made his way around the campus reading books in classrooms, costumed as The Cat in The Hat and riding a red tricycle.

“This is weird,” Speck said after a crowd of cheering students cornered him during their recess. “I don’t think I was meant to be a celebrity.”

The excitement carried into the classrooms when Speck and the other guests made their reading stops.

One of the guest readers, Chamber of Commerce Chief Executive Officer Donnette Silva Carter, said the enjoyment was felt on both ends. Bernard’s idea of having them read to the students “encourages the business community to become more involved with the schools,” she said.

“It also gives the children an opportunity to hear readers they don’t normally hear,” Carter said. “It’s exciting. It mixes up their day, and it’s fun for us to get to do something different in our day.”

Later in the day, Bernard had free books distributed to each child on campus. Whereas in previous years Bernard has coordinated an assembly for the whole campus to attend on Read Across America Day, she said she had a couple of reasons for changing the way the school would celebrate it this year.

One, the day fell this year on a benchmark testing week, she said. So an assembly would have taken about a 45-minute chunk away from the children’s necessary instruction time.

Two, because, when she came across the above quote by Seuss, she decided “to get more of our community involved to promote reading for all ages.”

“I think when children see that adults are reading, it makes them more excited,” she said. “I thought, bring in adults to show that you’re never too old to have fun with reading.”

Dr. Seuss, she said, is famous for his ability to have fun with his literature.

“And reading is important,” she said, “so I think that when adults get excited, the kids get excited.”

That was certainly the case for Alvina Sue, who said her second-grade class responded positively to a visit from their special guest reader, Antonia Ecung, the dean of academic affairs at Porterville College.

“The children were enthusiastic,” she said. “They enjoyed having a visitor, hearing someone different read.”

“They enjoyed meeting someone from the community,” she said. “I feel this was so beneficial for them, not only for celebrating Dr. Seuss’ birthday, but to meet someone in the community to read to them.”

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