The national "Read Across America" celebration took place this year on March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss (pseudonym of Theodore Geisel). On that date, literally millions of persons, led by The Cat in the Hat , emphasized their commitment to literacy and reading to children by picking up a book and sharing its words with a child. On Long Island local school districts participated in different ways. In Manhasset, for example, the elementary schools held their "Guess Who's Coming to Read" programs, in which local people including a veterinarian, a former judge and a newspaper editor visited school and read to the young children.

Baltimore Orioles third baseman Carl Ripken Jr. is the event's national chairman and the National Education Association, a national teachers' union with 2.3 million members, its chief sponsor.

In several states, NEA members contributed books to youngsters in homeless shelters. The North Carolina Association of Educators donated 10,000 new books to needy children.

Volunteers came from everywhere:

*Lorna Hellbronner, a 68-year-old retired teacher, organized 40 of her retirement community friends to sip hot chocolate and read with Head Start students in front of a fire in her community's clubhouse. Every child received a "Cat in the Hat" hat and a book to take home.

*In Massachusetts, 39 business leaders read in first-grade classrooms and city chefs prepared "green eggs and ham" for students (another Dr. Seuss book, for those who might have missed it).

The celebration of reading was designated as an NEA priority by its president, Bob Chase, last fall as a project to stimulate greater interest in reading among children and to gain more public support for improving education. While studies regularly find that young people who read for enjoyment outside of school do better in school, a 1996 trend report by the National Assessment of Educational Progress found that the number of older children who read outside the classroom is gradually decreasing. The obvious omnipresence of TV can certainly be named as a principal reason for the change.