RE “Voting: a teaching point” (Bring the Family, G section, Nov. 3): I commend Mark Shanahan’s idea of instructing his children in the enviable privilege we enjoy in electing public officials. However, having worked the polls for more than 40 years, I want to remind voters that having their children help should not be a teaching moment in the voting booth.

We have been told to expect an onslaught of voters on Election Day. No surprise there. Lines will be long and tempers short. There will not be time for us to tell parents that they cannot have their children mark the ballots for them. Nor will there be time to tell unattended children not to write on the booth with indelible pens, or to explain to children that the pens are not souvenirs.