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Ben Franklin teaches the ‘Magic of Reading’
By SALLIE BARR PALMER
| Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008 |
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![[Image]](/content_images/013008_cit-04.jpg) |
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| Photo by SALLIE BARR PALMER |
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| Participating in Dr. Richard Davis’ electricity experiment are, from left, August Reader, Megan O’Rourke, Hannah Oberlin, Ruth Lewis, Ellen Lewis and Sarah Oberlin. |
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CLEARWATER – Writer, printer, diplomat, statesman, inventor. Benjamin Franklin is famed as a man of many talents. But who knew he was also a time traveler?
Yet, there he was, large as life, at the Clearwater Main Library on Jan. 22.
Ben actually appeared courtesy of Richard Davis, a former college English teacher who now travels the U.S. with his educational program entitled “The Magic of Reading.”
“I started the Benjamin Franklin program in 1993,” said Davis, “when I was asked to teach a public speaking class. As soon as I started public speaking, I fell in love with it. ‘This is so much fun’ I said to myself.”
Although Davis appears in authentic costume complete with shoulder-length wig, he insists he is not an impersonator. He is an entertainer and an educator.
When he started public speaking, he tried to figure out a way to make his appearances more exciting, and he decided to do it in costume. His very first choice was Benjamin Franklin.
His program is aimed at schoolchildren from kindergarten through eighth-grade. These ages made up the bulk of his audience at the library, but the accompanying adults enjoyed the proceedings as much as the youngsters did.
Davis started out by enumerating the three reasons why reading is magic.
- Education (he noted parenthetically that Franklin had only two years of schooling and thereafter was largely self-taught)
- Explore – you can travel the world through reading
- Expert – you can become an expert on a subject by reading about it.
He went on to tell the audience about Franklin’s life and accomplishments. One little-known fact was that Franklin’s favorite sport was swimming, and in the 1960s he was posthumously elected to the International Swimming Hall of Fame. He even invented paddles for the hands and feet to increase the swimmer’s speed, and sometimes held the string of a kite while swimming to let the wind pull him.
Davis also noted that Franklin was a voracious reader whose favorite book was “Pilgrim’s Progress.”
Davis does not merely lecture, he interacts with his audience.
About halfway through his program, he stopped to quiz the audience about what he had told them so far. The kids had obviously been paying close attention, because hands shot up all over the room in response to his questions.
Each correct answer earned a brightly colored bookmark, and it became a contest to see who could collect the most.
All went well until the final question: In what year was Benjamin Franklin born?
The little boy who was called upon underwent a sudden loss of memory, but gamely blurted out, “Boston,” which won him a bookmark anyway for sheer ingenuity.
The program went on to mention many of Franklin’s inventions, from bifocals to a glass harmonica, for which Mozart composed some music, and some of his famous sayings. The children had evidently been reading up ahead of time, as they called out examples even before being told the information.
In his discussion of Franklin’s experiments with electricity, Davis called for audience participation, and a number of the children trooped up to the front. As he explained the experiments, the children had to simulate the reactions of the people originally involved – jumping, screaming, and finally falling in a heap to the floor.
At the end of the program, Davis said “If you make reading your favorite hobby, two or three hundred years from now, your picture may be on the $100 bill, just like Benjamin Franklin’s.”
For additional information, go to www.benjaminfranklin1706.com.
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Article published on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008
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