Dr. Seuss, Poetry, and Learning

I’ve been reading poetry since I was around a small child. Actually, I’m quite sure most of you have. Dr. Seuss was by far my favorite, and even today I love picking up a Dr. Seuss book at the book store and read a few lines whenever I see it. The rhymes and rhythm are amazing things. Oh, and not to mention the drawings.

For those of you who don’t know, Dr. Seuss actually got his start by writing in a college humor magazine then satirized the technology movement and later did advertising. He then had some success as a children’s author before WWII (although not much). During the WWII era, Seuss began creating racist and erotic drawings. Yep. Seriously! Maybe some of you have weird fetishes about Seuss’s cartoons so I’ll leave this linky here.

After World War II, some reports came out about illiteracy in children. A director of education asked Seuss to write a book using 250 words every first-grader should know and only use those words. Nine months later, Dr. Seuss published The Cat in the Hat. He then went on to create many other great children stories.

Obviously, it was a good career move. His works are now among some of the greatest writers and will be remembered for generations.

You see, poetry isn’t always about your own emotions. It can be used to help expand knowledge. It can be used to teach children how to read, and in recent years it has shown promise in developing language in children at an early age.

Not only this, but Dr. Seuss should serve as inspiration for all of us. Even though the man has his own faults (even though you could argue that the racist cartoons were requested by the US government and weren’t exactly his own views), he was able to overcome them and do good in this world.

We aren’t all perfect. Actually, no one is perfect. But our imperfections shouldn’t stop us. We should always strive to be better and do good things.

I have several points I wanted to make with this post.

1. We all have imperfections, but we all have the ability to overcome them and still make the world a better place.

2. Poetry shouldn’t always be about yourself. Take a step back and write about something else. Be creative. Some of your best work might come through fantasy and imagination.

3. Dr. Seuss might have been a bit of an asshole but his books are a guilty pleasure of mine and I hope to read them to my children someday.