1; which show the diversity of living things. Books such as “The Foot Book” teach children tolerance for all different type of people and things, denouncing racism and sexism and any other –ism you can think of. That message certainly should be heeded, but can it be proven that Seuss was an adamant supporter of those morals? Being born in 1904, when the status of civil rights was very different, he was almost definitely raised with a less egalitarian viewpoint than children born in the past 20-30 years – he could have either been truly in opposition to what was going on in the 50’s when “The Foot Book” was written, or he could have been latching onto the civil rights trends that were prevalent and, after a period of time, accepted. More evidence about this later. In 1950, Seuss read an article saying that educators and teachers thought children did not have good reading skills. Seuss decided to fulfill that need and wrote “The Cat In The Hat”, the first-ever beginner reader book that was fun to read (he would later publish many more books fulfilling the same function) – up ‘til that point, the ultra-bland Dick and Jane literature was the only thing struggling young readers had any access to. Here’s another little dilemma: Was the “Cat in the Hat” an exercise of creative power, an attempt to seriously improve upon the youth of that time, or an attempt to make money by monopolizing on fun children’s reading education (the Cat in the Hat, after all, sold 50 million copies). Seuss did originally want to become a teacher (come to think of it, he did teach millions of children… but that’s another topic), so perhaps this educational altruism was what he really desired… then again, how many teachers are in schools because they want to improve the minds of children and how many are in schools because they want to put food on their tables -...
