Apr

18

April Showers.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 18, 2008 |

Whan that Aprille with his shoures sote
The Droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote…
-Geoffrey Chaucer (who has his own blog)

April is National Poetry Month, but, according to The Teacher’s Corner, it’s also Autism Awareness Month, International Guitar Month, Keep America Beautiful Month, Mathematics Awareness Month, National Child Abuse Prevention Month, National Frog Month, National Humor Month, National Garden Month, Stress Awareness Month, National School Library Media Month, and National Youth Sports Safety Month. According to Cosmeo it’s also Alcohol Awareness Month. And it’s Animal Cruelty Prevention Month.

There’s also Week Of The Young Child, sponsored by the National Association for the Education of Young Children, taking place April 13-19…wait, that’s just six days. Well, they are young children. We don’t want to overdo it. National Wildlife Week, sponsored by National Wildlife Federation, is April 19-27–eight days, because, hey, you can’t control wildlife. And then the American Library Association is sponsoring National Library Week, which is April 13-19. It’s also just six days because they’re librarians, not accountants.

And on April 19th, the city of Philadelphia is kicking off the Year of Evolution, an unprecedented educational effort that will, among other things, counter a pseudo-documentary that’s attempting to expel science and even facts from schools and universities.

Let me go ahead and make the typical joke just to get it out of the way: should we only be aware of poetry, autism, guitars, keeping America beautiful, math education, preventing child abuse, frogs, humor, gardens, stress, school library media, youth sports safety, and preventing animal cruelty for one month and completely oblivious to these things the other eleven months of the year?

The fact is problems like autism, child abuse and animal cruelty go on every day of the year.There’s nothing wrong with setting aside a month in which events are held to remind the rest of us about these problems, and, hopefully, prompt us into action.

As for poetry, frogs, math education, wildlife, guitars, and all those other things, well, hey, they deserve to be celebrated. A week, a month, a day–maybe even a few minutes. If something you normally don’t think about brings a little joy into your life, that’s groovy. And if it doesn’t there’s always next month.


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