former president barack obama and former first lady michelle obama probably didn’t foresee dr. Seuss became persona non grata at President Biden’s White House when his work was highlighted to interns and children.
Clips of the Obamas praising and quoting the famous author in 2015 have resurfaced after the Biden administration removed his name from reading day across America.
At an April 2015 meeting between the then-president and White House interns, where he answered questions from the group, obama told the young politicians that “pretty much everything you need to know is in dr. seuss.”
You are reading: Michelle obama reading dr. seuss books
“It’s like star belly sneezes, you know? we are all the same, so why would we treat someone differently just because he doesn’t have a star in his belly? if i think of responsibility, i think of horton sitting in the egg high up in the tree, while lazy mayzie flies off, doing what she wants. Do you know what I mean?” the 44th president asked the group of interns, referencing the Seuss classics “the sneetches” and “horton listens to who!”
“all I’m saying is that as you get older, you’ll find that the basic hometown virtues your mom, dad, or people you care about or admire taught you: work hard, be responsible, be kind, give something back, being helpful, working as a team… turns out all of that is true,” he continued.
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The former first lady also spoke highly of the late children’s author during Read Across America Day that same year, reading a copy of “Oh, The Things You Can Do That Are Good for You,” a revamped version of the children’s classic “Oh, The Things You Can Do” with added content on the basics of healthy living.
Speaking at a White House event, the first lady told children in the audience: “Do you know who saw this book this morning before they got on the helicopter? the president.”
“we love dr. seuss in this house,” she continued, holding up a copy of the book.
the birthday of dr. Seuss, who died at age 87 in 1991, was chosen by the National Education Association in 1998 as the date for a new holiday focused on promoting children’s literacy.
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This year, Biden removed mentions of Seuss from his presidential proclamation after the late author was accused of including “racial undertones” in some of his classic and whimsical children’s stories.
Seuss’s work has recently become the center of controversy following a study that highlights the lack of diversity among the author’s characters.
“of the 2,240 (identified) human characters, there are forty-five color characters representing 2% of the total number of human characters,” according to a 2019 study by the library for conscious children and the university of california that examined 50 of dr. the seuss books.
Last week, a Virginia school district ordered its teachers to avoid “connecting Read Across America Day with Dr. Seuss” because of recent research that allegedly “revealed strong racial undertones” in many of the author’s books.
While the controversy continued, the company that oversees the publication of dr. seuss’works said it would be throwing away six of his books: “if i ran the zoo”, “and to think i saw it on mulberry street”, “mcelligot’s pool”, “beyond the zebra!”, “super eggs scrambled.” !” and “the cat contest”.
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