Letters: Phonics alone won’t get California’s kids reading

Submit your letter to the editor via this form Read more Letters to the Editor Phonics alone won t get kids reading Re Far too multiple California children can t read Page A June Denise Amos says that California districts encourage students to memorize words and believes they should instead be using phonics As a former reading specialist I know that both phonics and memorization sight words are needed If there were one system that worked we d all be using it One system alone doesn t work It s like losing weight you need both exercise and diet Try to use phonics for words like through and threw blue and blew there and their for and four and how would phonics help with words like to for why There are a large number of lists of sight words to memorize one is the Dolch List of words with the words I ve listed But with both sight words and beginning phonics students can begin reading on their own Jean Ricket Saratoga U S should plan for jobs of not The global commerce war that President Donald Trump is using to bring manufacturing back to the United States seems like a big beautiful idea until you realize that there are a number of roadblocks to this goal First there are not enough young working-age Americans to work these labor-intensive jobs Do they even want these jobs Second the cost of doing business is very expensive in this country because of high labor materials rent capacity and tax costs A pair of socks would cost Third the immigrants who are willing to work these labor-intensive and back-breaking jobs are mostly being deported As more and more baby boomers retire and fewer and fewer American babies are born who or what will replace them and provide needed labor and manufacturing Robots AI The U S should focus on manufacturing new ideas and mechanism for not Patricia Marquez Rutt Redwood City No Kings rallies forgot one message Vote Re Large crowds attend area No Kings rallies Page B June The crowd numbers across the United States were impressive during the No Kings marches Thank you Mercury News for covering them Flags flying clever signs people chanting and of program politicians and wanna-be politicians speaking to the cameras What I did not hear or see were any signs or speeches that encouraged people to vote That s a miss that no flags nor chanting nor signs can make up for Vote people Tina Morrill San Jose Glorifying consumption in a time of scarcity Re Chestnut says he ll be back in hot dog contest Page B June Why oh why is it newsworthy that Joey Chestnut will return to the hot-dog-eating contest on July For that matter why does the paper even feature that contest given the hunger and food insufficiency problems in the country and the world I just don t get it Joyce Gross Saratoga Immigrants who stay consigned to privation In there were about million people without legal status in the United States During the last four years the margin was open and people poured across by the millions Now we have thousands of people protesting their removal Rethink your humanity By allowing these millions to remain here you are guaranteeing them stays as a permanent underclass relegated to low pay poverty and little chance of inclusion in our American dream You are doing nothing more than creating a new class of slavery in perpetuity If you are truly Americans stop this now Let s start doing our own dirty jobs or pay people what they are worth to us in civilized society Jay Morrett San Jose Safeguard bees limit neonic pesticides Beyond butterflies bees are taking a huge hit I ve lived in the South Bay my whole life and I care about protecting our pollinators because they are crucial for so a great number of things From the orchards just outside San Jose to the backyard gardens of folks across the entire Silicon Valley bees in particular keep our flowers blooming and our fruit growing Related Articles Letters Coverage of No Kings rallies sold magnitude short Letters The hard work of change remains after No Kings rallies Letters The military serves the people not Donald Trump Letters Valley Water s plan for Pacheco Dam is out of date Letters Civil disobedience is as key in current times as ever But a quarter of our native bumblebee species are at danger of going extinct and a huge reason for this is a class of unnecessarily toxic pesticides called neonics Companies pre-treat seeds by coating them with these deadly pesticides meaning they grow throughout the plant and contaminate the soil Just one neonic seed can kill bees The key is simple Stop doing that Gov Newsom and the California EPA should take the step to protect our best pollinators by supporting reasonable regulations on seeds coated in neonics Leila Salam Sunnyvale