Marin IJ Readers’ Forum for July 9, 2023

All schools should be able to teach reading

I am writing in regard to the article published July 2 with the headline, “Marin schools reexamine reading teaching methods.” Teaching reading to a child is not rocket science. Children cannot put their developmental years on hold while the adults figure out how to be responsible and how to provide meaningful instruction to children.

Here is how it is done: See the word, sound it out, infer from context, memorize words that do not conform to rules of phonics, provide both books that appeal to individual children’s interests and range of abilities. Provide a wide variety of real-life experiences so that words have meaning and are not mere symbols. The price of illiteracy and innumeracy, as well as general ignorance, is very high.

Schools are in a tough position. Employees have someone else’s children in their legal custody through mandatory attendance laws. Students are in their care throughout school days during a child’s formative years. We should be raising the bar, not lowering it. Thinking the absence of any real accountability perpetuates this grotesque sub-par performance.

There is no excuse for long-standing failures of public education. Nor is there any excuse for parents to fail to spend at least 15 minutes a day reading to their children, teaching them the alphabet, numbers, phonics, shapes, colors and more. This should happen from the time they are infants, so that their children are not placed at the mercy of strangers who fail to perform to any decent pedagogical standards.

— Suzanne Gorenfeld, Novato

Take focus off court, put it on K-12 education

Some are wringing their hands over the Supreme Court’s action regarding college admissions (“Divided Supreme Court outlaws affirmative action in college admissions, says race can’t be used,” June 30).

The majority of justices are seemingly blind to our nation’s history regarding minorities. Rather than worrying about how to remedy inequality through admissions policies at colleges and universities, how about educating our K-12 population in a manner that would give children an equal education? Only then should they be forced to qualify for college regardless of their background, race, ethnicity or any other factor.

Does Marin County really care about its K-12 education? We need to ensure that programs are in place to remedy students’ background and needs. Marin County needs to prepare K-12 students to be competitive in colleges and the workplace.

Until we are confident in the education we are giving our children and it is shown in performance, only then can we be allowed to wring our hands about what the Supreme Court is doing wrong.

— David Colton, Greenbrae

Supreme Court justices should report all gifts

Apparently, no one is above the law, except those on the Supreme Court.

In a recent disclosure, it was reported that Justice Samuel Alito accepted gifts, falling into the same “misunderstanding” of the rule of law that Justice Clarence Thomas has. All should disclose unreported gifts. How many years have these shenanigans been going on?

Term limits are clearly necessary for all who govern.

— Joel Schwartz, San Rafael

Since cyclists use the road, they should pay a fee

I was pleased to see the letter to the editor by Adam Abolfazli and Lucy Ruiz, which supported sentiments I shared in a letter earlier this year. I agree that, because cyclists are subject to the California Vehicle Code, they should be licensed and easily identified like cars. It seems to me that the lack of accountability in Sausalito, as mentioned by the authors, reinforces licensing as a reasonable choice. I have several small additions to this idea.

Licensing should be a fee-based system. Cyclists use the roadways. They do so with some inconvenience to the motoring public who do pay for the pavement under which all of the wheels travel.

All cyclists should pay this fee, including, but not limited to those who ride electric-assist bicycles. The well-documented impact of certain actors on these higher speed machines should be included in the potential ability to hold them accountable by having identifiable license plates; just like cars and motorcycles.

All vehicles must abide by the California Vehicle Code.

— Joseph Brooke, Point Reyes