Florida parents play a critical role in ensuring children can read

Reading at home

Who should be blamed for the decline in reading skills? | Column, November 29th

Lack of cultural diversity is the reason college kids don’t read, complains a column in Friday’s opinion page. The last time this reader looked, the page was white, the text was black, and the color was left to the reader’s imagination. If you want your child to read, try modeling their behavior. Read a bedtime story before the child learns to talk. Turn off the technology and let them see you enjoying a book. Promote reading and writing skills at home so that they do not become a foreign subject at school. Or we can just keep blaming the system.

Mark CampbellSt Petersburg

Parents needed

Who should be blamed for the decline in reading skills? | Column, November 29th

Parents are left out of the conversation about reading. The ability and enjoyment of reading begins at a young age at home. Do you encourage your child to read? Do you choose books that stimulate your imagination? Do you discuss the main topics?

Stop blaming teachers, schools and the government. Your child’s education begins at home.

Dale Kitt, St Petersburg

Decisions, decisions, decisions

One in four say they will go into debt over the holidays. Is social media to blame? | November 29th

I remember watching the Jack Benny show with my parents. He had an opening sketch that he used a lot where a man with a face mask and a gun comes up to Jack and says, “Your money or your life.” Jack says he has to think about it.

Everything we do in life is a choice. It’s not enough to blame social media or other people for our financial problems.

Dave Hinz, Clear water

Check your headlines

Bondi worked enchanted on the way to the White House | Dec 1st

A front-page headline in the Sunday newspaper informed me that Pam Bondi, in addition to her very busy career as a prosecutor and attorney general, “charmed” her way to the White House. On page 9, another headline warns that a political “manosphere” is accelerating derogatory language toward women. Who do I talk to to express my concerns about the “manosphere” at the Times?

Kim Curry, Tampa

Too partisan

Bondi worked enchanted on the way to the White House | Dec 1st

Pam Bondi is nothing more than Donald Trump’s sycophant. Her job as U.S. attorney general is to do his bidding, and that means going after Democrats and anyone on Trump’s enemies list. Since her election as Attorney General of Florida, I have heard nothing but partisan, biased, and prejudiced mumblings from her.

Scott Cochran, Tampa

So much for shame

This Week in History | Dec 1st

You can’t imagine my surprise when I saw that, according to the Associated Press and the Tampa Bay Times, the launch of Apollo 17 has replaced Pearl Harbor on December 7 as a major historic event that apparently will not live on in infamy.

John SV WeissSpring Hill