'Many students identified this as having been one of the first books they had loved as children, and the importance of the lesson that you should be open to trying new things,' he said. He's doing it because he's exhausted, tired, worn down and trapped,' Fishback said.įishback said he had initially wanted to teach his seventh grade class of 12- and 13-year-old students about how they could use storytelling to support an argument.Ī week or so before delivering the lesson, in the context of an unrelated class activity, Fishback lightheartedly referred to his dislike of Green Eggs and Ham, which prompted significant pushback from the class. 'When the second character at the end of the book says, 'ok, Sam-I-Am, I'll try it,' he's not saying he's trying it because he's changed his mind. 'If someone says 'no,' you do not persist and badger them until they break down and say yes', the teacher said. Seuss at the Children's Museum of Manhattan Jin New York City.

Seuss (Theodore Seuss Geisel) is seen during a press preview of an interactive exhibition dedicated to Dr. 'Then it occurred to me that now, in the context of the MeToo era, this could really be interpreted as a story about lack of consent.'įishback said that Sam-I-Am's repeated badgering of the second character, demanding that they try 'green eggs and ham,' despite their refusals, could be seen as a form of harassment.Ī portrait of Dr. 'Every time I read the book I think about how this is a really bad example of how to have relations with people,' he said. 'I had been thinking about this ever since I read the book to my daughter who is now five,' Mike Fishback, a San Diego humanities teacher, told Newsweek. The story is supposed to be one about persistence, about trying new things.īut one middle school teacher says the tale could also be interpreted in a more negative way-and could have an important lesson to teach us about consent. Chip Somodevilla/GettyĪfter being hounded by the determined Sam-I-Am across several locations, including in a car, on a train and on a boat in the middle of the ocean, the second character finally relents, agreeing to give green eggs and ham a chance.

Seuss' 'Green Eggs and Ham' during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House Apin Washington, D.C. Actress and producer Genevieve Goings reads Dr.

Dr seuss books green eggs and ham