Teach Children

The 7-year-old was a talented skier, having a great time on the mountain with a ski school group her own age. But that wasn't enough for her parents. They insisted the ski school put her with older, faster children."

Jeremie Rose hated to read when he started second grade at Halls Cross Roads Elementary School in Aberdeen, and his mother, Sybil L. Robertson, didn't know how to help him.But after immersion in REACH, a daily, one-on-one instructional program, Jeremie, 7, enjoys reading -- and success stories such as his have school officials envisioning its expansion throughout Harford County."

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- With the holidays upon us, thoughts will turn soon to New Year's resolutions. More than 35 million children - nearly half the children in America - play sports each year, so plenty of parents and coaches would do well to resolve to make sports better for boys and girls in 2007. "Making sports better" means no more adults slugging one another at games for children as young as 6. No more "select" teams that cut 8-year-olds. No more adults whose zeal to win has fueled an epidemic of overuse injuries in preteens pushed too hard, too fast.

When it comes to outfitting the Northwest Bulldogs, Coach Tyrone Johnson doesn't always have enough No. 31s to go around. Players in the Maryland Football Association program, ages 5 to 15, look up to the Baltimore Ravens' No. 31 - partly for his achievements on the field, partly because he donated several bicycles a few years back, partly because he's Jamal Lewis. When one of them, Johnson's son, Trey, 13, ran into Lewis in a Circuit City store, he was thrilled. "I could just see the excitement on his face," said Johnson, head of the Northwest program.

I AM AT AN AGE when birthdays are not cause for celebration, but this one certainly is: Sesame Street is 35 years old. The children's television program that changed that genre for the good -- and forever -- will launch its 35th season with a prime-time special starring Elmo, the world's favorite toddler. Sesame Street Presents: The Street We Live On will be broadcast on public television stations at 8 p.m. next Sunday. That's bedtime for many of Elmo's most faithful fans. But the good news is, the show will be broadcast Monday morning at Sesame Street's regular time as the first episode of the new season.

It is just after 8 a.m. on a warm spring day that is bright with sunshine and promise, and Colman McCarthy is hectoring his students."How many of you have ever been to 1305 T Street, N.W.?" he demands, scribbling the Washington, D.C. address on ablackboard. "You haven't been there? None of you? How many of you even know what's there? You don't, right? Right?"Mr. McCarthy pauses and looks off into the distance. His students shift uneasily. They are in a social studies class at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, in an affluent suburb of Washington.

WASHINGTON - So it's parents' night at school and I'm there on behalf of my youngest son. I look at him sometimes and see a toddler with a gap in his grin and a penchant for gnawing his toes. But that's just a memory lie. The toddler is a teen-ager 2 inches taller than I am, a youngster on the cusp of manhood. It hasn't been a fun passage. Last year, we went through a phase where he felt compelled to challenge everything I said, down to and including, "Hello." These days, he doesn't so much challenge me as endure me. My son has perfected the thousand-yard stare, eyes fixed on something beyond your line of sight while you're yammering on about a good work ethic, the importance of education or some other bit of useless arcana from the book of responsible adulthood.

I find it sadly ironic that letter writers Kyle Lagratta and T. Griffith contributed numerous column inches to defending lacrosse and pontificating about teaching their sons respect for sport ("A culture of entitlement" and "Culture of respect missing in lacrosse, youth sports," Readers respond, May 11) but not a single word about teaching them not to physically or psychologically abuse people they purportedly love. The tragedy of Yeardley Love's death is that in this day and age, 50 years after the birth of the women's movement, fathers and mothers apparently still are not teaching their sons and daughters not to abuse the ones they love, or that no-one should ever put up with abuse from one who claims to love them.

When twin brothers Reid and Sam Shafley, 16, first tried to teach their younger brother Will to ride a bike, they thought it was hopeless. Will is considered to be in the autism spectrum, which makes some tasks difficult. "We had tried to teach him for many years, but we just couldn't get him to ride a bike," Reid said. Then their mother, Sue Ann Shafley, found Lose The Training Wheels, a small, nonprofit volunteer camp based in Virginia that travels around the country with a fleet of special bicycles.

Five teen-age outreach workers from the county Health Department spent the summer teaching youngsters about the dangers of tobacco.Using lessons, games and quizzes, the teens spoke to 2,033 Anne Arundel County children at 53 local camps and playgrounds.The "Smoking Stinks!" presentations were conducted by Teresa Addeo and Scott Leary of Riva, Beth Neuberger of Millersville and Brian and Lisa St. Louis of Gambrills.The program is part of the Health Department's Learn To Live cancer prevention campaign.