Opinion
4A
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Our View
Preparing
for the next
pandemic
he next global pandemic looms. Will
Oregon and the world be more prepared?
Maybe. But panic, scramble and then
relax is the more typical pattern of response to a
threat. Oregon should do better. The world is not
going to get less crowded or less connected. We
can’t allow ourselves to get sick of all the focus on
sickness.
With the virus raging, now may not be the best
time to distract health policy experts and poli-
ticians with pandemic preparedness. There are
plenty of lessons to learn from this outbreak, but
there also are some old emergency preparedness
plans worth dusting off to see if they are adapt-
able to an outbreak. Those plans had their home in
Eastern Oregon.
The former Umatilla Chemical Depot near
Hermiston stood as a threat to everyone for miles
around. While the U.S. Army did a solid job dis-
posing of the piles of chemical munitions there,
the federal Chemical Stockpile Emergency Pre-
paredness Program worked with Hermiston and
other communities to ready everyone from grade
school students to parents to police officers and
firefighters about what to do if there was a terrible
accident at the depot that could mean danger for
those living nearby.
Massive annual exercises trained first
responders and others on how to keep safe,
including on the proper use of personal protec-
tive equipment and how to shelter at home. Yes,
a chemical emergency is a much faster moving
event than a virus outbreak, but there are parallels,
and one key element of CSEPP’s work worth con-
sidering is developing community buy-in.
The program worked diligently to encourage
residents near the depot to take preparation seri-
ously. Local community leaders such as county
commissioners, mayors and police chiefs played
vital roles in pounding home that message. The
program also went a long way in making the
effort a bit easier for folks to protect themselves,
providing, for example, free kits to seal homes.
A virus preparedness kit, then, could have some
proper face masks, sanitizer and perhaps toilet
paper.
Adapting and implementing those plans might
need some help from the state, but probably not a
federal agency or program.
At the national level, however, Congress needs
to pass another relief package. The Oregon Leg-
islature should do something about renters who
may be evicted when the moratorium expires —
among other things. There also are a couple lon-
ger-term matters to address.
Authority is one.
What role should the Legislature have in
making decisions about such sweeping regulation
of freedom and the economy? Now its role is near
zero. Is it right that Brown should be able to revise
and extend emergency orders for month after
month? At what point should the law require a
governor to get legislative approval? Can the Leg-
islature be nimble enough and functional enough
to respond to that? All questions worth revisiting.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention recommended
a national campaign to commemorate the 1918 flu
pandemic. It was a way to remind people of the
dangers of viral pandemics — deaths, the disrup-
tion of lives and the economy. People won’t need
that sort of messaging now. But government at all
levels needs to take action to ensure we are better
prepared for the next one.
T
Other Views
The importance of reading to children
SCOTT SMITH
EDUCATOR
or generations, we have heard
how important it is to read to
children. It provides adult time
the child (or children) so often crave.
You model reading and share in the
adventure or learn about the sub-
ject matter. There are so many bene-
fits that impact children and they will
apply them later in their classrooms at
school and for life.
Taking the time to have your child
sit and read with you has a big impact
on their attention span. Learning to
sit and listen is not a natural behavior.
We are wired to move. Having your
child sit and listen is teaching them
and training them that there are times
when you have to focus on informa-
tion they might not be so interested in.
Start off slow. You have to
remember the child wants control and
the way this is accomplished is by
getting you off task. You might have
to start with two minutes of sitting
and looking at a book. Then later in
the day or the next day add a minute.
Make each session longer and soon
they will realize they are getting your
time.
Later, when they start attending
school, they have an easier time sitting
and focusing on what is happening in
the classroom. Again, this is not a nat-
ural thing to do but a taught behavior.
If the child is struggling with
paying attention, having them draw
F
or color while you read will defeat the
purpose of reading to the child. You
have changed the focus of learning
and now are reading for your pleasure,
not the child’s skill-building.
When they draw or color as you
read it appears that you are receiving
the behavior you want. They are
engaged, however, they are not
engaged in learning to sit and listen
to expand their ability to learn. The
focus of reading to the child is to help
the brain develop skills the child will
need when they are older.
While reading with the child, it
is important to interact with them.
Talking about the pictures and what
the characters are doing or are going
to do helps keep their attention.
Preschoolers are not reading, but
they can listen. Remember, listening
is a learned skill. Talking about what
is being read and discussing it builds
understanding or comprehension. Lis-
tening understanding and compre-
hension will then transfer to reading
understanding and comprehension
when they are older and in school.
When children reach the inter-
mediate grades, we see them often
struggle with comprehension about
what they have read. Quite often, they
also struggle with language compre-
hension. We have to build the child’s
ability to comprehend what they have
heard before they will be able to apply
that skill to their own reading.
Often, many teachers feel they
have to focus on reading comprehen-
sion when their students have not yet
acquired the skills of language (lis-
tening) comprehension.
There is no question one of the
best things you can do for a child is
to read to them. If you wish to have a
huge impact on a child’s learning as
they get older, it is key to build their
endurance in listening, reading,
and discussing. It may only start
with less than five minutes. Once you
let them draw or color, remember the
learning skill has changed and you
are teaching them that, “If you do not
want to do what I want you to do, it is
OK to draw or color.”
Reading and discussing what is
happening builds pathways in their
brain that will later transfer to their
own reading comprehension and
to life. As you are out driving with
your child and see a lake you can ask
them questions like, “Do you think
there are fish in that lake, like in our
book?”
By doing this, you are taking
reading to your child to a whole new
level of inferencing and prediction.
Who knows, they might be the child
who understands things uniquely and
is able to make changes in our world
we had never thought about.
Keep reading and discussing
with your children.
———
Scott Smith is a Umatilla
County educator with 40-plus
years of experience. He taught
at McNary Heights Elemen-
tary School and then for Eastern
Oregon University in its teacher
education program at Blue Moun-
tain Community College. He serves
on the Decoding Dyslexia Oregon
board as its parent/teacher liaison.
Contact your public officials
Local officials
La Grande: City Manager Robert Strope, 541-
962-1309, fax 541-963-3333; RStrope@city-
oflagrande.org; P.O. Box 670, La Grande, OR
97850; Mayor Steve Clements, mayor@cityo-
flagrande.org; Councilors Gary Lillard (mayor
pro tem), glillard@cityoflagrande.org; Nicole
Howard, nhoward@cityoflagrande.org; Cor-
rine Dutto, cdutto@cityoflagrande.org; Mary
Ann Miesner, mmiesner@cityoflagrande.org;
Justin Rock, jrock@cityoflagrande.org; and
through the city manager’s office.
Elgin: City Hall, 790 S. Eighth Ave., Elgin, OR,
97827; City Recorder/Administrator Brock
Eckstein, cityadm@cityofelginor.org; Mayor
Allan Duffy, 541-240-9763, mayor@cityofelgi-
nor.org; Councilors Mary West, 541-805-0443,
councilor3@cityofelginor.org; Kathy Warren,
541-786-9611, councilor6@cityofelginor.org;
Risa Hallgarth, 541-437-9462, councilor2@
cityofelginor.org; Rocky Burgess, 541-786-
2417, councilor1@cityofelginor.org; David
Reed,541-975-3306, councilor4@cityofel-
ginor.org; and Ryan Martin, councilor5@
cityofelginor.org.
Cove: City Hall, 504 Alder St., P.O. Box 8 Cove,
OR 97824; City Recorder Donna Lewis, 541 568-
4566, donna.lewis@cityofcove.org; Mayor Del
Little, 503-508-6727.
Union County: County Courthouse: 1106 K
Ave., La Grande, OR 97850; 541-963-1001;
fax 541-963-1079; Commissioners Donna
Beverage, dbeverage@union-county.org,
Matt Scarfo, mscarfo@union-county.org,
and Paul Anderes, panderes@union-county.
org; administrative officer Shelley Burgess,
sburgess@union-county.org.
Wallowa County: Courthouse, 101 S. River
St., Enterprise OR 97828, 541-426-4543 ext.
15; fax 541-426-0582; Commissioners Susan
Roberts, ext.133, sroberts@co.wallowa.or.us;
Todd Nash, ext.132, tnash@co.wallowa.or.us;
John Hillock, ext.131, jhillock@co.wallowa.
or.us.
State officials
Rep. Greg Barreto of Cove (58th District): Sa-
lem office: 900 Court St. N.E., H-384, Salem, OR
97301; 503-986-1458. Email: rep.gregbarreto@
oregonlegislature.gov.
Sen. William S. Hansell of Athena (29th
District): Salem office: 900 Court St. N.E., S-423,
Salem, OR 97301; 503-986-1729. Email:
sen.billhansell@oregonlegislature.gov
Gov. Kate Brown: 254 State Capitol, Salem, OR
97310; 503-378-3111; www.governor.oregon.
gov.
United States officials
President Donald Trump: The White House,
1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, D.C. 20500;
202-456-1414; fax 202-456-2461; to send com-
ments, go to www.whitehouse.gov/contact.