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.