Assemblyman ‘in the Hat’

Jackson Bell

You can’t fault Assemblyman Dario Frommer (D-Burbank) for reading at

an elementary-school level.

He was doing it for a good cause.

Frommer on Wednesday paid a visit to Bret Harte Elementary School,

where he read Dr. Suess’ “The Cat in the Hat” to classes of second-

and fifth-graders as a way to promote reading.

“Reading is really important because any job you do will require

you to read and read well,” he told a class of fifth-graders. “But

most important, reading is fun.”

Children spent the morning giggling along to the rhyming story and

asking Frommer questions about a variety of topics ranging from the

recent Southern California wildfires to whether he would pass a bill

to close schools on Fridays.

Willy Goshorn, 10, said he was excited because it was the first

time he got to meet someone in a political office.

“I think he’s really cool because he wanted to do something for us

and took the time to be here,” Willy said. “We’re lucky to get to do

something like this.”

Before leaving, Frommer presented children in the two classrooms

with individual certificates of recognition for being good readers.

Since he was elected in 2000, Frommer has participated in several

reading programs as a way to stress the need to develop strong

reading skills as well as encouraging the pleasures of literacy.

Fifth-grade teacher Dave Engel said Frommer’s presence brought the

students’ lessons out of their textbooks.

“We’ve been studying government, especially about the fires and

how it helped with that, and it is nice of him to come out and meet

with the kids,” Engel said. “It shows them that government isn’t so

far removed.”

Amanda Cohen, 10, said watching the assemblyman gave her a better

understanding of how learning better reading skills will pay off.

“It looks kind of cool how fast you can read when you get older,”

she said.