To celebrate Read Across America day, St. George firefighters visited elementary schools Monday to read to students in an effort to help promote the importance of reading.
In celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday, Read Across America is a reading initiative held annually and was first incepted in 1997 by the National Education Association.
According to a 2019 report published by the National Center for Education Statistics, one in five American adults are not sufficiently literate, which can cause lifelong consequences.
Promoting reading at an early age is becoming increasingly important due to a number of digital temptations fighting for the attention of today’s children, said Amy Mitchell, executive director of elementary education and Title I.
“The digital age has also been a hurdle. A lot of children would rather play a video game than pick up a book and read,” Mitchell said.