Reading

Only in the myopic world of American political correctness is race so clearly indistinguishable from culture. Does teacher Alfee Enciso (Voices, March 28) really believe that whites resonate to Shakespeare only because the Bard embodies "white" culture? Is it possible that Shakespeare, Hemingway and Hawthorne are great because they illuminate universal human values and foibles? Enciso claims the problem of illegitimacy precludes the teaching of "The Scarlet Letter" to inner-city youth.

Reading for My Life Writings, 1958-2008 John Leonard Edited by Sue Leonard Viking: 382 pp., $35 I want to talk about criticism, about what it is and how it operates: an issue that was one of the abiding passions of John Leonard's career. And not just criticism as a form of service journalism (although, in part, that too) but criticism as an expression of social and cultural engagement, a function of political or literary life. It's no coincidence that on the day before he died - of lung cancer, at age 69 - Leonard spent hours waiting to vote for Barack Obama for president.

Thank goodness for your sane report on the subject of reading ("A Bookish Debate," Sept. 14). If all parents were able to send teachers children who are ready to learn, every reading and writing session could look like Pam Corey's at Van Nuys Elementary. It's our families that desperately need our help, not the language arts curriculum. The phonic panacea has been touted for years. BETTE SIMONS Sherman Oaks

And God said unto them: "i before e, except after c!" MARLENE STEIN Pahrump, Nev .

It is welcome news that reading has become a priority with everyone including our new governor. New demands that kids be "reading by age 9" are trumpeted in the halls of the Legislature, at PTA meetings, and in the pages of our newspapers. But just in case there are any doubts out there, I'd like to add another reason to the stack. Putting it bluntly, unless major reforms materialize, a child who does not read effectively before junior high school can just about kiss that skill goodbye.

As a child, I sat isolated with tape over my mouth at the very same Miramonte School that now allows a teacher (Jacqueline Chanda) to punish children ". . . by making students do something they really hate, which is reading a book." Garry Abrams' article ("Emergency Teachers Recall Lessons of First Year on the Job," June 19) featured five brave emergency teachers ingeniously attempting to solve discipline problems. The idea, however, that reading ought to be presented as a punishment is counterproductive to a major goal of education, which is getting students to enjoy books.

Deborah Sanchez is Los Angeles deputy city attorney and editor of an upcoming book of poems about experiences in the criminal justice system. My mom was a high school dropout, but she always had a billion books around her. She was reading all the time. She would say that was how she escaped. I didn't understand why she loved books and reading so much. I had always looked at books as a tool. When I was 13, my mom decided to continue her education.

It's often said that if a child likes to read, half the battle of learning is won. You can help your preschool child get interested in books by reading to them and by encouraging them to read and play. The national, nonprofit organization Reading Is Fundamental Inc. has some tips on honing your child's pre-reading skills. Children often ask questions when you're reading and that's OK. Be a patient listener because preschoolers often ramble while completing their thoughts.

Concerning the controversy surrounding poetry, I'd like to add a bit of information I received from a county librarian. The county maintains small libraries within many local correctional facilities. A county librarian, who had conducted some research to find out which books the inmates checked out most frequently, told me that, in order of preference, convicts like to read books of poetry, books on calligraphy, and the novels of Louis L'Amour. When I asked how she might account for this, she guessed--and it was only a guess--that perhaps inmates chose books of poetry as their first preference in reading because poems are able to express certain emotions that they themselves feel, and, wishing to express these emotions to a loved one, they might even quote lines during visits or in letters.

"School Excels in Reading by Sticking With What Works" (April 1) mischaracterizes the whole-language approach to teaching reading. Whole language does not simply "encourage children to intuit the nuts and bolts of how words worked"; rather, whole language is based on the well-supported hypothesis that we learn to read when we understand what is on the page. A central task of a whole-language teacher is to provide children with interesting texts and to help make these texts comprehensible.