Earlier in September, First Lady Melania Trump donated Dr. Suess books to several public schools in celebration of National Read a Book Day. One public school in each state was chosen to receive the gift of ten books, including “The Cat in the Hat,” “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish,” “Green Eggs and Ham,” and “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”.
In Massachusetts, the school chosen to receive the gift of books was Cambridgeport Elementary, located in Cambridge.
Unfortunately for Cambridgeport, they have an ungrateful librarian by the name of Liz Phipps Soeiro, who took it upon herself to reject the First Lady’s gift, then made things worse by writing a blog post in which she presumes to educate Mrs. Trump on public schools, with the obligatory leftist screed on Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, whilst also patting herself on the back for being so well educated:
My students have access to a school library with over nine thousand volumes and a librarian with a graduate degree in library science. Multiple studies show that schools with professionally staffed libraries improve student performance.
Clearly, graduate degrees such as the one Liz Phipps Soeiro received do not confer class and graciousness. Surely, the teachers and administrators at Cambridgeport Elementary will be surprised to learn that the achievements of their school are the result of one person: Liz Phipps Soeiro. Without her graduate degree, that school would be a big failure.
And lucky them that they don’t have a need for the books gifted to them by the First Lady. Librarian extraordinaire Liz Phipps Soeiro could’ve done the decent thing and quietly donated them to a needy school in her area. Imagine the lesson she could have taught the students at her school by showing compassion and kindness. But, no, leftists like Phipps Soeiro always choose instead to double down on their natural state of ingratitude and combine it with their sneering, short-sighted view of the world.
(Here’s what etiquette queen Emily Post suggests when receiving an unwanted gift: Send a note saying, “This is so thoughtful! The generosity of friends like you is something I really appreciate.” Something all rational grown ups know to do.)
And then there’s the Suess-shaming. Prepare yourselves, Suess-heads.
And then there’s the matter of the books themselves. You may not be aware of this, but Dr. Seuss is a bit of a cliché, a tired and worn ambassador for children’s literature.
It drips with condescension, no?
So “cliché” is Dr. Suess that one Barack Obama declared March 2, 2016 as “Read Across America Day” in honor of the birthday of Dr. Suess himself, Theodor Suess Geisel.
Theodor Seuss Geisel — or Dr. Seuss — used his incredible talent to instill in his most impressionable readers universal values we all hold dear. Through a prolific collection of stories, he made children see that reading is fun, and in the process, he emphasized respect for all; pushed us to accept ourselves for who we are; challenged preconceived notions and encouraged trying new things; and by example, taught us that we are limited by nothing but the range of our aspirations and the vibrancy of our imaginations.
Reading for fun is an idea that is apparently lost on Liz Phipps Soeiro. Luckily, it seems like the kids of Cambridgeport are thriving despite their librarian’s efforts to control what they read and force her rather limited worldview upon them.
Next time, Mrs. Trump might want to forget the Dr. Seuss and instead send an Emily Post tome Liz Phipps Soeiro’s way.
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