Latest / Children's Hour / 3.22.25 - Part 2

Transcript

3.22.25 - Part 2 · Children's Hour

0:01
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to Realized Children's Story Hour. As a
0:04
remindered a reading service intended for people who are flying
0:09
or of other disabilities that make it difficult to read
0:12
printa material. Today, we will be reading from various books
0:16
on famous women. Your reader today is Diane. We will
0:21
begin with the book we left off with last time
0:24
and did not finish. Not done yet, Shirley Chisholm's Fight
0:29
for Change. It was published by mill Brook Press and
0:35
it has a copy of right year of twenty twenty two,
0:39
and it was written by Tamika Friar Brown. It was
0:43
a difficult battle from the start in using her voice
0:47
for change. It seems Shirley had made many enemies. They
0:51
mocked her and did everything they could to make sure
0:53
that she would lose. A little school teacher can't lead us,
0:57
they said, what we need is a big strong man.
1:01
This made women furious. Show them with your vote, Shirley said,
1:06
they did, and she won, the first black woman ever
1:10
elected to Congress. She made history, but she wasn't done yet.
1:16
When Representative Chislem walked the hallowed halls of Congress, the
1:23
thing she felt most was unwelcome. No one would sit
1:27
with her at lunch, her colleagues made nasty remarks. One
1:31
man even spat when she entered the room, all to
1:34
scare her and keep her in her place. As usual,
1:39
Shirley didn't bite down. She stayed focused on what she
1:43
come to do. She hired a staff of all women.
1:47
She fiercely demanded rights for all. She fought for the environment,
1:52
for children, for health care. A righteous rebel who earned respect,
1:56
she made her mark, but she wasn't done yet. Shirley
2:00
championed bode ideas to better the country she loved. But
2:05
how could she get more people to listen? I know
2:09
I'll run for president. No black person or a woman
2:12
had seriously run for president before, but Shirley was serious.
2:17
She wanted to win, to show others they could win.
2:21
To Shirley travel the country, share and revision of liberty
2:25
and justice for all. Let us move beyond hate, so
2:28
America works for the neglected, the forgotten, for everyone. Shirley
2:35
didn't win, but the path that she paid makes a
2:37
better nation possible today. Shirley Chisholm was a natural born fighter.
2:43
She battered for fairness and change. Her legacy lives. The
2:48
fight continues. We're not done yet. Our next book is
2:53
Emmy Nother, The most Important Mathematician You've Never heard of,
2:59
and it was public by King Kids Can Press. It
3:05
has a copyright year of twenty twenty and the author
3:12
is Helene Becker. Meet Emmy Nother, the mathematician who solved
3:19
the mystery of life. Some laws of physics, such as
3:21
the law of gravity never changed. Never heard of her.
3:25
That's probably because not many people have. It's nerve or
3:30
not Nother. By the way, Emmy was born into a
3:37
Jewish family in Erglang in Germany in eighteen eighty two,
3:42
and back in her day, girls were supposed to be
3:45
pretty gentle and quiet, cook and sew, get married, and
3:49
have kids, play the piano if their families were fancy,
3:53
not be geniuses. But Emmy was considered playing, not interested
3:59
in cookie sewing, her other homemaking skills, not interested in
4:03
getting married or having kids, A lousy piano player, super
4:08
terrific at puzzles in math, which no one took much
4:12
notice of because she was a girl. When Emmy was
4:17
eighteen years old, she was supposed to start teaching French
4:20
at a girls' school. This was considered an acceptable occupation
4:24
for an unmarried young lady. But Emmy decided she'd rather
4:28
study mathematics at the university instead. This was not considered
4:33
an acceptable occupation for a young lady in those days.
4:37
Women weren't even allowed to attend university. Her proud and
4:41
donting father, who was a professor at the local university,
4:45
pulled some strings so that Emmy could sit in on classes.
4:49
She could go to the lectures, but couldn't take tests
4:52
or get a degree. Emmy was much smarter than everyone
4:56
else in her classes. The other students knew it and
4:59
didn't much like it, After all, girls were not supposed
5:03
to be smarter than boys. They also didn't like her
5:06
messy hair, her booming voice, or habit of talking enthusiastically
5:12
while she ate. But her fellow students did like that
5:15
she helped them with their homework and that they got
5:18
to take credit for all her nifty ideas since she
5:23
wasn't officially a student. When the university finally changed it's
5:27
no women students rule three years later, Emmy was allowed
5:32
to earn her degree. Then she ran into another problem.
5:36
Women were not allowed to be professors or teach men
5:39
anywhere in Germany. Emmy loved math, so much. She found
5:43
a way to teach anyway. She did it for free.
5:46
That let her keep doing the research she loved and
5:49
come up with new ways to think about and do math.
5:53
But just like when she was a student, other mathematicians
5:58
took credit for her work or forgot to credit her.
6:02
They knew they could get away with it. Emmy spoke up,
6:05
she could get kicked out of the university since she
6:08
wasn't supposed to be there. Meanwhile, another super brilliant, messy
6:14
haired person had come up with a thrilling idea. Albert
6:18
Einstein's general theory of relativity describes how time, space, mass,
6:24
and gravity are all connected, and it was a thing
6:26
of unparalleled beauty. Almost you see the thrilling idea seem
6:31
to have a hole in it. Einstein's theory depends on
6:35
some well known laws of physics that explain the physical world.
6:40
They are laws because, as far as we know, they
6:43
can never be changed or broken. For example, when you
6:46
drop a bowling ball, you can be sure it will
6:48
fall down, not up. That's because his behavior is ruled
6:52
by the law of gravity. And when you roll a
6:55
bowling ball, you know it will move in a nice
6:58
predictable line. Rather wandering off to do a loop de
7:02
loops all by itself. Its behavior is ruled by the
7:05
first law of motion, which says objects in motion stay
7:09
on a prodictable path. Einstein's general theory of relativity involves
7:15
the conservation of energy principle, which says the amount of
7:19
energy and a system must be conserved or kept exactly
7:23
the same, no matter what. For example, a bowling ball
7:26
can't magically be created out of nothing, and neither can energy.
7:30
Nor can energy be destroyed. It can move from here
7:34
to there, even change form, but the original amount always
7:38
exists somewhere. Last, but not least, it can't turn into
7:42
something else completely. A bowling ball could never become a donkey.
7:46
But the general theory of relativity appeared to be breaking
7:50
that principle. Then real numbers were used to prove the theory.
7:54
It looked as if energy was disappearing. That was the
7:58
whole Many of the greatest scientists that they tried to
8:04
solve the problem. They couldn't. Several of the greatest mathematicians
8:07
of the day were called in. They were stumped to
8:11
in desperation. They called emmy Nuther. You see, as a
8:16
Jewish female mathematician, Emmy had always been an outsider, and
8:21
outsiders often come up with their own ways of doing things.
8:26
It turns out was one of Emmy's secret superpowers. When
8:31
most of Emmy's fellow mathematicians developed their ideas, they would
8:35
start with known equations in formulas, but Emmy's method was
8:39
to look first for any larger patterns. For example, if
8:43
Emmy were to study socks, she wouldn't worry about details
8:47
such as what kind of thread was used to sew them.
8:50
She was more interested in figuring out softness or what
8:54
makes a sock a sock. And it was this outside
8:58
and approach that helped Emmy pinpoint the reason for the
9:01
problem in the general theory of relativity. She discovered that
9:06
everyone had been looking at an area of space that
9:08
was simply too small. When she widened the view to
9:11
show the big picture and a big enough area of space,
9:15
it became clear that energy was not disappearing. It still existed,
9:19
but had moved to a place outside of where people
9:22
expected it to be. Energy had been conserved all along.
9:27
Super Emmy had sewn up the hoe in Einstein's Grand
9:30
theory by proving the part of it that no one
9:33
else could. Everyone, including Einstein, was impressed and grateful. The
9:38
general theory of relativity became super famous, and so did
9:43
Albert Einstein. Emmy, however, did not. She didn't mind, though
9:47
she was still doing her work she loved. Besides, it
9:50
led her to all kinds of exciting new ideas. While
9:54
working on the general theory of relativity, Emmy had noticed
9:58
intriguing mathematical patterns in the data, patterns that led to
10:02
her to an important discovery. The mathematical laws of symmetry
10:07
and the physical laws of conservation are connected. This discovery
10:12
proved that each conservation laws paired with a symmetry law,
10:17
and that led in each understand why the laws of
10:19
physics are laws and can't be broken. It also proved
10:24
that certain kinds of physical events will always occur exactly
10:28
the same way symmetry, whether they happen now or later
10:32
here or there while standing still or in motion. As
10:37
obvious as this might see, no one had ever proven it,
10:40
and that made it a very big deal. In fact,
10:44
in these theorems, as the discovery is still called today,
10:48
was in a revolutionary and earth shaking as the general
10:52
theory of relativity completely changed our understanding of the universe,
10:58
and Emmy wasn't done yet. She went on to figure
11:01
out new math concepts that would be used by scientists
11:04
to help them understand atoms and by future mathematicians to
11:09
develop computer software. So why in the world don't we
11:12
know as much about Amy Ruther as we do about
11:16
other important scientists. You might already have guessed. Part of
11:20
the reason. She worked in a field of study that
11:23
didn't welcome women, and her male colleagues didn't even think
11:27
to give her credit when they used her work or
11:29
included it in their own. The rest has to do
11:32
with a terrible twist of fate. Things has started to
11:35
go pretty well for Emmy by the early nineteen thirties.
11:38
She was finally getting international attention for achievements, and even
11:43
though not everyone was happy about it, she was earning
11:46
a small salary as an assistant professor. But then in
11:50
nineteen thirty three, the na Seas came to power in Germany.
11:54
They promoted the hatred and discrimination against certain groups, including
11:58
Jewish people like him. Life became increasingly difficult and Emmy
12:03
lost her hard one university position. Still, Emmy kept teaching
12:08
in her home and in secret, everyone was welcome as
12:12
long as they loved math. Emmy's friends were scared for her.
12:16
The Nazis were arresting Jews and sending them to labor camps.
12:20
Many were never seen again. How long before the Brown
12:24
Shirts appeared at Emmy's store, not for math lessons, but
12:28
for her. With her in life and danger, Emmy had
12:32
to flee the country. In the United States, many people,
12:36
including Albert Einstein, worked to help Emmy. They found her
12:40
a job at a woman's college, where she was welcome
12:42
with open arms. Now for the first time in her life,
12:45
Emmy was surrounded by female colleagues and students. It was
12:51
to be the beginning of a spectacular new career. Tragically, though,
12:56
Emmy got very sick and died soon after her arrival.
13:00
Her ideas, however, live on. Nuther's theorem is still fundamental
13:05
to the study of physics, even though most people who
13:07
use it have no idea about the woman who invented it,
13:11
and her later work plays an important role in the
13:13
fields of quantum mechanics, the area of physics that studies
13:17
the inner workings of atoms, and computer science, a field
13:21
study that didn't even exist in her day, So just
13:24
who was Emmy Nuther, a loud lady, a great friend,
13:30
super brainy, inventor of not one but two major ideas
13:34
that changed how we understand the universe. Very important thinker.
13:41
Our next book is titled Good Books for Bad Children,
13:44
The Genius of Ursula Nordstom. It was published by Anne
13:50
Schwart's Books. It has a copyright year of twenty twenty
13:55
three and it was written by Beth Gephart. Ursula Normstrom
14:01
was a grown up who never forgot what it was
14:04
to be a child. Her parents had been glamourus dashing
14:08
Henry an actor comedian magician, gorgeous Marie, an opera singer
14:13
and actress. No brother, no sister, just Ursula, who watched
14:18
the world and listened. She heard the sound of her
14:21
father's voice as he read his favorite books out loud,
14:25
Nicholas nickleby David Copperfield. You must know books, learn books,
14:30
Love books, he'd tell her, and turn the page. Sheared
14:34
the sound of her parents fighting. Alone in her room,
14:37
Ursula would escape into the adventures of Beatrix Pottery Potter.
14:43
She'd read The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. She turned the
14:45
pages of her own imagination. Ursula was seven when her
14:49
parents' divorce arrangements were made, her bags got packed. She
14:54
left New York City for Long Island and a school
14:56
called Wynnwood. Through the window of her train, she watched
15:01
the smear of the world and tried to imagine what
15:05
was next. At boarding school, Ursula slowly made friends. She
15:09
was funny, a spark, a girl who laughed, but who
15:14
could also feel lone and different. At sixteen, Ursula left
15:18
Winwood for Northfield Seminary in Massachusetts, where she was soon
15:23
dreaming of college, of a degree in a career as
15:26
a writer, maybe or a social worker. But college was expensive.
15:31
Ursula would have to get a job instead, and she did.
15:35
In the college textbook department of Harper and Brothers. She clerk,
15:40
She filed, She typed every day like the day before
15:45
for five long years. And then in the Harper cafeteria,
15:49
Ursula made a friend, Ida Louise Raymond, from the department
15:53
of Books for Boys and Girls. Louise, would you be
15:57
my assistant? Louise as Ursulaine. One day, yes, Ursula said,
16:03
she answered the phone. She read the manuscripts of famous authors.
16:07
She read letters from children who loved the books that
16:09
she helped publish every day was new and excellent education.
16:14
For four years, Ursula learned from Louise, and then when
16:18
Louise left, Ursula was promoted. Louise's department became hers. Now
16:23
it was up to Ursula to choose what kinds of funny, naughty, scary,
16:27
true children's books she might publish. Up to her to
16:30
find the writers and artists with the most terrific ideas.
16:35
Up to her to talk to librarians, teachers, parents about
16:39
her favorite books of all good books for bad children.
16:42
As she liked to say, come right in. Ursula would
16:46
shout to those who showed up unannounced, Come see me,
16:50
she would insist. To those she discovered in the pages
16:52
of magazines, you've come home, she'd say, answer that. She
16:57
yielded her assistant when the phone would green. That could
17:01
be the next Mark Twain. Urslow published what she pleased.
17:06
She was curious, She was honest. She knew what to
17:09
ask her writers and artists, and how best to listen,
17:13
how to stare out through her bright blue eyes and
17:16
her wide spectacles and encourage their most fabulous stories. Children
17:22
want to feel seen, she said, in a voice some
17:25
called musical and some called gravely children deserve our best.
17:30
Ursula demanded perfection from others. Not good enough for you.
17:34
She would sometimes scribble to a writer in the margins
17:37
of a manuscript she believed could be better. It does
17:41
need pulling together, she wrote to Margaret wise Brown about
17:45
a draft of The Runaway Bunny. Ursula also demanded perfection
17:50
from herself. Awfully sorry from my first reaction to Harold
17:55
was so lukewarm. I certainly was wrong. She apologized to
17:59
Crockett Johnson for not liking Harold and the Purple Crayon.
18:03
Early on, Ursula checked out her thoughts and her noisy
18:07
Smith Corona typewriter, making mistakes and not stopping to fix them. Once,
18:14
when the phone rang, Ursula picked it up and closed
18:17
her eyes and listened as Margaret wise Brown read the
18:20
first sentences of her new story. In the great green room,
18:23
there was a telephone and a red balloon. This would
18:27
become good Night noon. When Ruth Kraft came to the
18:31
office and read from a pile of cards, Ursula laughed
18:36
until the seams of her rumpled suit split and her
18:39
jewelry jangled. That was the start of a hole is
18:44
to dig. Sometimes, Ursula would find a way to help
18:49
her writers and artists in their stories, Like when Maurice
18:53
Sindak came to her with a tell about a boy
18:56
named Mix who goes on a wild stomp of an invention.
19:00
The problem Maurice didn't know how to get Mix back home. Well,
19:04
why did Mix want to go home? Ursula asked, and
19:07
asked again, Well, he wanted to be where someone loved
19:10
him best of all, But he couldn't really say that,
19:13
Maurice said, at last, why not? Ursula asked. It was
19:17
the perfect question, which led to the perfect ending for
19:21
Where the Wild Things Are. Ursula could reminder writers to
19:25
write what they knew, and never forget that what you
19:29
told me is something only you know about. She wrote
19:32
to John Steptee, who was still a high school student
19:36
when the two met to talk about his books. Stevie
19:42
and She would remind anyone who called stories too naughty, funny,
19:46
or scary that there are all kinds of children who
19:48
need all kinds of books. Books for children who feel sad,
19:52
books for children who get mad, books for children who
19:55
feel different, books for children who are lonely, books for
19:59
children who have seen once. When Ursta was asked to
20:02
explain why she a grown up who had not gone
20:05
to college, who'd never been a teacher, librarian, had any
20:08
business making books for children. She declared, I am a
20:12
former child, and I haven't forgotten a thing. Ursula took
20:16
good care of her artists and writers, her geniuses, as
20:19
she called them. They had names for her too, Ursula
20:23
Malstrom and Ursula Major, And on October twenty third, nineteen
20:28
fifty one, they held an Ursuline Normstrom Day, filling her
20:33
office with gifts and flowers and funny telegrams. There were
20:38
years upon years of interesting life. A meaningful bote in
20:42
brave life, though sometimes still in the quiet, slipped in
20:46
late at night when the moon was high and it
20:48
was just Ursula in the office. Decades went by. At last,
20:53
Ursula retired and headed home to her quiet house in Connecticut,
20:57
where she lived with Mary Griffith, the woman she loved. Sometimes,
21:02
when the colors changed and the school year began, Ursula
21:05
would remember wing Wood and the train she had written
21:09
in the smear of the windows, and the child she
21:12
had been, And then she remembered all those good books
21:16
for all those bad children, the only proper kind of books,
21:20
in her opinion. Her next story is called Maya Angelo,
21:25
and It was published by Francis Lincoln Children's Books and
21:29
has a copyright year of twenty sixteen. The author of
21:33
the book is Elizabeth Kaiser. Marguerite was born in the
21:38
city of Saint Louis. Her brother called her Maya. When
21:41
Maya was four, she and her brother were sent to
21:45
live with her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. Growing up in
21:50
the South, Maya was treated unfairly because of the color
21:53
of her skin and because she was a girl. The
21:56
world outside was very cruel. Home was her too. When
22:01
Maya was eight, her mother's boyfriend attacked her. Maya was
22:04
so upset she stopped talking. A friend of her grandmother's name,
22:09
Missus Flowers, knows that Maya was afraid to use her voice.
22:12
Missus Flowers showed Maya all kinds of wonderful books and
22:16
how the words come alive when you read them out loud.
22:20
Maya found her voice again in the stories and poems
22:23
of great writers. She loved words so much she read
22:27
every book in the library. Even though Maya was a
22:30
great student, she was told that she couldn't get a
22:32
good job because of the color of her skin. But
22:35
she had pride and hope. She thought, there's nothing I
22:39
can't be, and she was right. She was a cook
22:42
and a streetcar conductor. She was a dancer, a singer,
22:47
and an actress. She traveled the world and learned to
22:51
speak a lot of languages. At home in America, she
22:54
worked to help all people get treated equally. It was
23:00
until Maya was all grown up that she decided she
23:02
wanted to be a writer, so she began writing a
23:05
book about her life. She told the story of a
23:08
little girl who struggled through hard times but did not
23:11
give up. People all around the world were moved by
23:14
her powerful story. In her beautiful words, Maya became a
23:18
famous writer, teacher, and speaker, inspiring everyone with her belief
23:23
that you can be anything you want to be. On
23:28
the day Bill Clinton became president, Maya read a poem.
23:31
She had once been a little girl who was fraid
23:33
to use her voice. Now she was speaking to the
23:36
entire country about her favorite thing, hope. Her next book
23:43
is titled Jackie Kennedy and it was published by Cherry
23:47
Lake Press. It has a copyright year of twenty twenty
23:55
one and the author of the book is Meg Pincus.
24:03
I was born in New York. It was nineteen twenty nine.
24:06
I grew up with brothers and sisters. I love to
24:11
ride horses and read books. I learned to speak French
24:13
and to dance. I also like to write. I studied history, writing,
24:19
and art in college. I became a reporter. What subjects
24:23
do you like to study? I married a young congressman
24:28
named John F. Kennedy. He later became President of the
24:31
United States. This meant I was the first lady. We
24:35
had three children. I traveled the world. I brought art
24:39
and style to the White House. Also became a fashion icon.
24:46
Then my husband died. The country shared my deep sadness.
24:50
What do you do when you are sad? My sadness
24:53
didn't stop me. I raised my children. I worked as
24:57
a book editor for nineteen years. I work to preserve
25:01
America's history. I helped make a museum and library. I
25:05
saved important old buildings. I died in nineteen ninety four,
25:10
but my life continues to inspire others. I paved the
25:13
path for future first ladies. I was proud of my family.
25:18
I was proud of the books and buildings I left
25:20
for others. What would you like to ask me? This
25:26
is all we have time for today, so this concludes
25:30
our story our Please join us next time as we
25:35
will read more stories, fables and fairy tales. Thank you
25:39
for listening. Please stay tuned for the Lexton Herald Leader
25:43
on Radio I