Give a kid a lifelong gift: A love of reading | Letters to the editor
School’s out for summer. But don’t stop reading to your children.
As an early childhood education educator, I instill the love of books to children in my classroom from Day One. Throughout the school year, I teach literacy skills such as vocabulary, print awareness, phonological awareness and writing. Through storytelling, descriptive language and conversation, I help children develop their language skills on a daily basis along with physical, social-emotional and cognitive skills.
When summer begins, parents should continue the literary learning process by setting aside time every day to read. This can be through age-appropriate games and activities, attending a library storytelling session or reenacting your child’s favorite story with puppets. Nearly 47% of Florida students cannot read at a minimally proficient level by the end of third grade. With your help, we can improve on that statistic, a child at a time.
Consider volunteering to be a mentor through United Way of Broward County’s ReadingPals program at unitedwaybroward.org/readingpals.
Nancy Thompson, Sunrise
Save green space in Tamarac
I am writing to again express my deep concern regarding the proposed development of 77 acres of the city-owned Glades golf course at Colony West in Tamarac.
This development, as it stands, would lead to reduced valuable green space — a critical asset for our community. This also breaks the promise of maintaining the course. As City Commissioner Elvin Villalobos said publicly: “The whole course just sucks.”
Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but such language is inappropriate for use on a dais in a televised public meeting. It does, however, imply that the city has neglected its duty to properly maintain the course, thereby failing its residents. I’m not sure that that is what he wished to convey, but that is what was heard.
In contrast, I commend Commissioner Morey Wright for advocating preservation and maintenance of green space for future generations. I wholeheartedly agree with him that development is not the answer. Instead, we should prioritize better maintenance practices to ensure the longevity and beauty of green space.
Proper maintenance of city buildings and infrastructure would not only be less expensive in the long run, but more environmentally friendly. Neglecting maintenance often leads to costly repairs and replacements, with negative impacts to our budget and the environment.
I urge the city to reconsider the proposed golf course development and focus on enhancing maintenance of the golf course and other city-owned property. By investing in proper maintenance, we can preserve our green spaces, protect the environment, and provide a better quality of life for residents.
Adriane Reesey, Tamarac
(Editor’s Note: The Tamarac City Commission will discuss the future of the golf course at a public meeting on Wednesday, July 12).
Highly informative
The highly informative articles on the draconian changes in Florida education under Ron DeSantis, his acceptance of money and influence from wealthy developers like Mori Hosseini, and the oppressive laws against minorities, made me appreciate even more the accurate and timely reporting by the Sun-Sentinel.
Read, educate yourself — and vote.
Herb Silver, Boca Raton
DeSantis and history
In my last semester of architecture school at the Illinois Institute of Technology, I was fortunate to take a History of Architecture class taught by renowned landscape architect Alfred Caldwell. The first day of class, he said to write down what is history. Everyone had five minutes to complete the task.
Some students looked bewildered. Some wrote a half-page essay; others wrote non-meaningful text. As my classmates read their answers, it got to where Caldwell heard enough. After a long pause, he said, point-blank: “History is what happened.” Gov. DeSantis should have taken this class, because Yale and Harvard surely didn’t teach him anything.
Stan Schachne, Davie