Letters to the editor – Tuesday (3-22-2011)

Published 12:00 am Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Early childhood education important for development
I’ve been working for 17 years in the early childhood field. I feel that high quality child care is important for all children. When children engage in constructive play and are challenged, it promotes brain cell growth.
It is my goal to get as many parents involved in their children’s education as early as possible by reading to them frequently. Children develop literacy skills and an awareness of language long before they are able to read on their own. It has been proven that children who are read to regularly by family members experience multiple benefits. These include social-emotional gains, a boost in literacy development, and an increased likelihood of later overall school success.
So I encourage all parents to make the most of these early years and help your child to succeed in the future.
— Lori Webster
China Grove
Drugs take a terrible toll
As a grandmother of young kids, I’m sick and tired of the drug problem that seems to be invading the lives of so many families. Yes, it affects the whole family when a child succumbs to this terrible affliction.
I’m tired of marijuana being touted as just another God-made plant that does no more harm than a cigarette (which is also hazardous), and I fear it will soon be legalized, too. This attitude is being modeled for our young people, whose brains are not yet fully developed, by professional people that they look up to and respect. The fact that it is a mind-altering drug and is a gateway to harder drugs is not mentioned except by doctors and experts in the field.
Yes, some may be able to walk away after trying it, but many others who have an inherited addictive personality are caught in its web, and so are the parents and grandparents.
We need to rebel, take action and literally snatch these precious young lives from the fire as the Bible speaks about (Jude 23).
Someone has to!
— Rose Vogel
Salisbury