4 | FEBRUARY 11 • 2021 

for openers
Give and Take

essay
Teach Literacy Early to Kids to 
Help Internalize Moral Values

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Y

ou’ve got to give a lit-
tle, take a little …” or 
so an old song would 
have us believe. It’s true that 
there are many tradeoffs in 
our lives and to 
illustrate that, 
just look at our 
conversational 
clues.
When you 
do not believe 
what someone 
is telling you, 
you may encourage him not 
to give you that story. Or, 
you may just intone, “Give 
me a break!” Be aware that 
he may be giving you a run 
for your money. You may 
then give your two cents’ 
worth about the scheme 
before you give away the 
store.

People can be helpful and/
or generous. They may give 
you a leg up. They may offer 
to give the shirts off their 
backs. Be cautious if some-
one is only giving lip service 
to his generosity and then 
tries to give you the slip. He 
may then not even want to 
give you the time of day. Do 
not hesitate in giving that 
person a piece of your mind.
It does take time to get 
used to something new but 
remember that it takes a lot 

of nerve to take someone 
down a notch. Take what 
people say with a grain of 
salt.
Take a breather and know 
that before you take a pot 
shot at someone that it takes 
two to make a quarrel. Yes, 
it may take a load off your 
mind to react immediately, 
but it may be best to take a 
rain check before you end up 
taking a beating.
Good advice is to take 
a trip down memory lane 
before you take the gloves 
off. Yes, you know that you 
can only take so much but it 
only takes one bad apple to 
spoil the barrel.
Let me give you some food 
for thought: It is not bad to 
take the back seat … unless 
you are driving. 

T

he Dec. 31 JN article 
“The Right to Read” 
was inspirational as 
attorney Mark Rosenbaum 
confronted a gross inequity 
in the approach 
to the education 
of disadvan-
taged children 
in Detroit. One 
sentence in the 
article, “
And if 
students don’t 
learn literacy in 
school, they often never will,” 
requires clarification.
Indeed, the road to literacy 

has been found to be facili-
tated by a quality preschool 
experience. In 1993, Dr. 
David Weikart and colleagues 
from Ypsilanti published a 
27-year follow-up of disad-
vantaged children who com-
pleted their preschool curric-
ulum. There was less crime, 
more high school graduates, 
higher earnings, higher mar-
riage rates, etc., in the attend-
ees versus the control group 
(High/Scope Press 1993). The 
“Brookline Study,” reported in 
2005, showed similar results. 
So, it became clear that the 

road to self-support and 
responsible citizenship can 
be facilitated by providing a 
quality preschool experience. 
Interesting that the road to 
literacy can and should begin 
shortly after birth. Studies 
have shown that brain growth 
is enhanced when more 
words are spoken to children 
from infancy. Reading to chil-
dren regularly is also helpful 
in nurturing thinking and 
language skills. Unfortunately, 
across the USA less than 50% 
of children are read to daily 
by parents.

Sy Manello
Editorial 
Assistant

Dr. Gerald H 

Katzman 

PURELY COMMENTARY

continued on page 7

A Note 
to Our 
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