Schools across Beaufort County celebrated Read Across America Day, a nationwide initiative to encourage reading in the elementary grades, on Wednesday.

It is undoubtedly a good program for younger students and gives them the opportunity to realize the enjoyment of reading, but it also serves a larger purpose.

Having government and school officials take some time out of their day to get down on eye level with these children to read to them is something that doesn’t happen often. For the students, the excitement was hard to contain.

Amid the squabbling over budgets, school policies, funding and the like, it’s nice to take a step back and remember what truly matters at the end of the day — the children.

Beaufort County officials can get caught up in the day-to-day politics of legislating, which is completely human, but what they need to remember is that everything they decide somehow affects those children.

Seeing the light bulb turn on in a child’s mind is a moment unlike any other for educators, and it’s those small instances that truly matter. Those are the sparks that will ignite into a great mind to change the future.

Read Across America may be celebrated all over the country, but for county officials in particular, it was a good reminder of what is held dear.

These students are the future of Beaufort County and should be treated with the utmost care, as should the policies that affect them.

The hope is that each person who read to a class this past week would realize the duty with which he or she has been charged.

Most of the county’s government and school officials understand this duty overall, but it’s always beneficial to see them go back to the roots.