What can Dr. Seuss teach us?
A lot, as it turns out.
Why? How? Discover the answer by watching our Truth in Two (full text below).
Support MarkEckel.com (here). Find the MarkEckel.com YouTube Channel (here). Mark is President of The Comenius Institute (website). Dr. Eckel spends time with Christian young people in public university (1 minute video), teaching at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis, and interprets culture from a Christian vantage point (1 minute video). Consider becoming a Comenius patron (here).
Pictures: Josh Collingwood, SnappyGoat, Wikipedia
FULL TEXT
“Would you rather have me give a 45-minute speech on pride, or read Yertle the Turtle in five minutes?” I ask my students after reading the story. It’s no surprise. After I read Yertle the Turtle to my college students, they request Dr. Seuss, not a lecture, every time. I read the story from a large, hard-cover book, holding it high, so all can see the illustrations, just as I would, if I were reading to my grandchildren.
The story of Yertle teaches us that position, power, and pride can usurp freedom, rights, and care for others. Yertle is a turtle king. He is not satisfied with where he is in the pond. He says,
“With this stone for a throne, I look down on my pond / But I cannot look down on the places beyond.”
So, Yertle commands the turtles to create a stack so he can climb on their backs, in his words,
“If I could sit high, how much greater I’d be!”
He is higher, until, a plain turtle named Mack questions the whole enterprise. In case you’ve never read the story I will leave out any spoilers.
But beyond the obvious message, is the way the story is told. Seuss created memorable characters in King Yertle and Mack. The illustrations are pure Seuss – wonky and wonderful. But I believe it is the poetry that best captures attention. Rhyming is signature Seuss. But rhyming can close the loop on understanding, as primary teachers know full well.
There is a reason I have been reading this same story over and over again for years. The teaching is timeless. But most important to me is the universal concept that words have power, and the power of words can dethrone a king’s arrogance. For Truth in Two, this is Dr. Mark Eckel, president of The Comenius Institute, personally seeking the power of words, to tell the truth.