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Seuss Celebration Makes for ‘Different-er’ Day

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SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

When she decided to get serious about reading, second-grade teacher Krista Dunlap slipped into her fuzzy “Cat In The Hat” slippers and her black-and-white cat suit, complete with a long looping tail.

Dunlap set out Tuesday to show her students at Saticoy Elementary School in east Ventura that reading can be both fun and fundamental.

“It’s just one more way to get kids excited about books,” said Dunlap, taking part in the second annual Read Across America, a nationwide literacy campaign timed to correspond with what would have been the 95th birthday of the late Theodor Geisel, better known as Dr. Seuss.

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“They all wanted to read today,” she said, “and it’s pretty rare when every single child wants to pick up a book.”

Thousands of schoolchildren across Ventura County joined the nationwide celebration of the written word sponsored by the National Education Assn. More than 1 million adults were expected to read to nearly 20 million schoolchildren Tuesday as part of a growing effort to battle illiteracy.

Locally, educators said the movement is picking up steam as elected leaders across the state and the nation home in on the need to boost education basics.

“It’s saying that reading is fun, reading is exciting; reading is actually more exciting than watching a movie,” said Charles Weis, superintendent of the Ventura County schools system. “That’s what we’re trying to sell.”

They tried to sell it in the most whimsical way, reading fanciful stories about an elephant named Horton, a parade on Mulberry Street and a school named Diffendoofer, where the teachers are “different-er” from the rest.

At some schools, students and teachers showed up in pajamas or nightgowns and slippers, lugging their favorite Dr. Seuss offerings. And it wasn’t only the younger set that took part.

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At Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, seniors in Janice Somple’s fifth-period British literature class stretched out on the floor--wearing pajamas, eating doughnuts and hugging stuffed animals--as Conejo Valley schools Supt. Jerry Gross read childhood favorites from Dr. Seuss and A.A. Milne’s “Winnie the Pooh.”

Sporting a red-and-white-striped stovepipe hat--the kind made famous by the fiendish feline in “Cat In The Hat”--Gross sat cross-legged on the carpet with students fanned out around him.

“It is exciting to get back down on the floor and read to the kids,” he said afterward. “I was really thinking about when my mom read to us, how simple that was, but how important.”

Although Taylor Walls, 18, said that the event isn’t likely to turn him into an avid reader, he enjoyed listening to the children’s stories.

“It’s a lot more interesting than normal class,” he said.

But Natalie Cowart, 18, had been looking forward to a day devoted to reading aloud. Cowart said she is a ravenous reader and believes the nationwide literacy campaign does make a difference for youngsters.

“I knew it would bring out some of the aspects of literature we don’t always get to see,” she said. “It was a good day because it was different. We need more variety in school.”

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Another Seuss book--”Green Eggs and Ham”--inspired educators at many Ventura County schools.

At Lincoln Elementary School in downtown Ventura, City Councilman Brian Brennan whipped up the delicacy for a couple of kindergarten classes after Principal Valerie Chrisman read from the famous tongue-twister.

“We got a lot of upturned noses when we brought out the green eggs,” said Brennan, a Ventura restaurateur. “At first we told them that green eggs come from green chickens, but then we showed them how we use green food coloring to make them. We told them just to close their eyes and eat them and they loved them.”

And at Sheridan Way Elementary School on the city’s west side, the book took on a different tongue as food services director Ed Diaz read the Spanish-language version to youngsters, the one where Sam I Am is replaced with Juan Ramon and green eggs and ham becomes los huevos verdes y jamon.

“These kids are very appreciative to have somebody read to them,” said Diaz, who also took part in the program last year at Sheridan Way. “It’s a very worthwhile endeavor. It gives us a real grass-roots feel for what’s going on in the classroom, and it’s a chance for me to see all my little customers up close.”

There was a push this year in the Ventura Unified School District to get adult readers onto every campus. That effort received a boost when the local chamber of commerce coincidentally scheduled its annual Principal For A Day program on the same day as Read Across America. The chamber’s program matches local business owners with city schools to give community members a better idea of how schools operate.

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Suddenly, Ventura schools had an abundance of adults ready and willing to don stovepipe hats and read to children.

“Boy, it brings back memories,” said Sally Bennett, a former elementary school teacher who now owns Bennett’s School Supplies. “This really gives us a chance to look around and get a different view of the schools.”

There was definitely a different view at Saticoy Elementary School in Ventura.

Teachers and students came to school in pajamas and slippers and all gathered on the playground at midmorning to read together on the large grassy areas. They read on the swings and they read on the slides. And they cracked wide smiles as teachers wore silly hats, and even sillier costumes, to honor the nonsense words and rhythmic rhymes of Dr. Seuss.

“Kids love the chaos and craziness,” Dunlap said, trying to keep students from grabbing her long S-shaped tail. “It’s a little off the beaten path, and it gets them excited about what we’re trying to get them to do.”

Alvarez is a Times staff writer and Hamm is a Times Community News reporter.

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