Washtucna celebrates Dr. Seuss's birthday

WASHTUCNA — Tigercats celebrated Dr. Seuss's 117th birthday in good old-fashioned style with Principal Michael Amend appearing as the Cat in the Hat to read to elementary students.

The Cat chose "Yertle the Turtle" to read to the third- through fifth-graders, and beginning readers in kindergarten through second-grade got to hear — you guessed it — "The Cat in the Hat." The Cat read the ABC book for the pre-kindergarten class.

Students filled in the missing words every time Amend left a well-known sentence unfinished.

Dr. Seuss's birthday is a nationwide reading celebration taking place annually on March 2, with libraries, schools and community centers participating to bring kids and books together.

"Dr. Seuss did really deep and profound concepts that adults need to make sure we don't forget," Amend said, "He did it in ways that kids can understand, and out of the boxed ways. I know he has come under fire for some of the books. But 'Yertle the Turtle' is all about a turtle who thinks he wants more than his place, so he stacks himself on top of all the other turtles so he can see more. And he is basically just disrespectful to all the other turtles. He tells the turtle on the bottom he doesn't have anything to say, and is basically worthless. Then the turtle on the bottom burps, and the whole pile falls and Yertle is stuck in the mud. Now he can't see anything anymore, because he didn't take care of other people. It's a leadership lesson, and our leaders need to make sure they learn them to. You need to take care of everybody."

Washtucna is celebrating reading all month; with students reading pages for rewards and taking an accelerated reading test afterward to ensure they are understanding what they are reading. Amend said 300 pages gets the reader a shirt, and students can earn drinks from JavaBloom based on different ages of readers and the number of pages read.

"We're getting parents involved with it too, and it's been fun," Amend said. "It's been a long-standing tradition here, started by Janet Camp. She had a passion for teaching kids, and reading, so they started doing a themed month for reading and making a big deal out of it for kids."

This month's theme is "Camp out with a good book." A tent surrounded by camp chairs set up in the hallway has a book called "Night Sky" inside.

"We're talking about constellations this week, so they're doing some reading on that," Amend said. "They're going to be doing s'mores on Thursday. We have a new bus driver who is going to come and man a fire pit outside, and the kids will go out in groups of two so they stay socially distanced."

Celebrating Seuss's birthday in an unexpected and non-traditional manner this year was Dr. Seuss Enterprises, which chose the day to announce they would be banning six of Seuss's books. "If I Ran the Zoo," "And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street," "McElliot's Pool," "On Beyond Zebra!," "Scrambled Eggs Super!" and "The Cat's Quizzer" all succumbed to cancel culture.

"Today, on Dr. Seuss's birthday, Dr. Seuss Enterprises celebrates reading and also our mission of supporting all children and families with messages of hope, inspiration, inclusion and friendship," the March 2 announcement read. "We are committed to action. To that end, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, working with a panel of experts, including educators, reviewed our catalog of titles and made the decision last year to cease publication and licensing of (these) titles. These books portray people in ways that are hurtful and wrong."

The announcement went on to proclaim ceasing sales of the books is part of a broader plan "to ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprise's catalog represents and supports all communities and families."

Meanwhile, Washtucna school started a "Culture Club" to find more things to celebrate about American culture.

Amend said the school was celebrating national FFA week with lots of activities, including the kids doing trivia quizzes as they get checked in with temperatures taken during the morning. Amend said the FFA's annual community breakfast, done March 3 is a way to show thanks for all the community support, and was set up as a "grab and go" this year. Amend said FFA students sent out 100 invitations for the event. Washtucna has 14 students in grades 9-12 in FFA.

"It's a good portion of our student body, and they have been putting on a good recruiting effort for the eighth-grade class coming in," Amend said, adding FFA advisor La Rena Draper has "done an outstanding job of just trying to stay plugged in and do things in light of all the restrictions."