Latest / Normally / Normally Podcast: U.S. Troops Attacked in Syria, Hanukkah Shooting in Australia & America’s Reading Crisis

Transcript

Normally Podcast: U.S. Troops Attacked in Syria, Hanukkah Shooting in Australia & America’s Reading Crisis · Normally

0:04
Speaker 1: Hey, guys are back on.
0:05
Speaker 2: Normally the show is normally takes, but when the news gets.
0:07
Speaker 1: Weird, I am Erican him and I am Pyle Michaels.
0:11
Speaker 1: We're going to have a really sad show today. The
0:13
Speaker 1: news is not good top to bottom. So let's start
0:17
Speaker 1: with a little lightness. How was your weekend?
0:19
Speaker 2: It was pretty good. Had to take the not had to.
0:23
Speaker 2: This is one of my favorite yearly events. We go
0:24
Speaker 2: to a little Santa brunch where they get to meet Santa,
0:27
Speaker 2: and we have a nice, nice meal with our friends,
0:31
Speaker 2: and you get the kiddos dressed up, and as we
0:35
Speaker 2: were leaving, as is customary with children, I'm leaning over
0:40
Speaker 2: my four year old daughter and she's putting on her shoes.
0:43
Speaker 2: At part of the long struggle of getting a decent
0:45
Speaker 2: outfit on, She's putting her shoes on and I'm like, oh,
0:48
Speaker 2: this is the wrong feet, But who cares? Like, if
0:50
Speaker 2: you want to change them, change them. If you don't,
0:52
Speaker 2: no big deal, And she goes, that's okay, mom, and
0:55
Speaker 2: then she triumphantly jumps into the air into my Oh no,
1:01
Speaker 2: I do not have a broken nose. I do not
1:03
Speaker 2: have a mark. Like we're in a good We're in
1:05
Speaker 2: a pretty good place, but in the moment, it hurts
1:08
Speaker 2: so bad. And I was like, they broke my face.
1:11
Speaker 2: To my oldest daughter, I was like, can you take
1:13
Speaker 2: over here stairs and deal with us, like try not
1:16
Speaker 2: to cry, try not to flip out, And all was well,
1:20
Speaker 2: Like I said, I am unmarked, just bruised, and ego, yes.
1:24
Speaker 1: Yes, yeah you look great. You don't you don't look
1:27
Speaker 1: like you you take care a beating. But h yeah,
1:29
Speaker 1: those kids they could like exuberantly love you until a
1:33
Speaker 1: lot of pains.
1:34
Speaker 2: Yes, it happened, and Steve said, don't let your self
1:37
Speaker 2: are protected like that, right, it's your fault, which, like
1:41
Speaker 2: you know, I've had a lot of kids. I should know.
1:44
Speaker 2: I should know.
1:44
Speaker 1: Yeah, we are deep in holiday party season down here
1:48
Speaker 1: in Florida. Buck Sexton had a really fun one on Thursday.
1:52
Speaker 1: Dave Ruben had one on Saturday. The gang was all there.
1:55
Speaker 1: You were missed. You are always welcome in South Florida.
1:57
Speaker 1: You know this. You don't have to suffer up there
1:59
Speaker 1: in the cold. We could come down to our chili.
2:02
Speaker 1: But still, you know, pretty good seventy degrees.
2:05
Speaker 2: No party season down there does look great because I
2:09
Speaker 2: do have an issue with dressing up and going out
2:12
Speaker 2: in the cold. Yeah, and I do it basically once
2:15
Speaker 2: a year. I do black tie in the cold and
2:17
Speaker 2: that is the Travis Mannon Foundation Gala, which I did
2:20
Speaker 2: on Thursday and it was beautiful.
2:22
Speaker 1: Yeah. But man, sweater dresses. I like sweater dresses personally for.
2:26
Speaker 2: That b there, you could do that.
2:28
Speaker 1: They really they work very well. All right, let's talk
2:32
Speaker 1: about all the terrible stuff going on in the world
2:35
Speaker 1: and how much it sucks. We're actually going to start
2:38
Speaker 1: with there were two US Army soldiers and an American
2:42
Speaker 1: interpreter killed in Syria on Saturday, and we're starting with
2:46
Speaker 1: that because it's such an underreported story. It's just not
2:51
Speaker 1: out there at all. And we understand that there's a
2:53
Speaker 1: lot of news that we're going to talk about, Bondi
2:55
Speaker 1: in the next segment. But I do think I and
3:00
Speaker 1: you know, I could be accused sometimes of being not
3:02
Speaker 1: America first because I dare be Jewish, But I do
3:05
Speaker 1: think American news should lead our news. I think American deaths,
3:09
Speaker 1: especially military deaths, should be at the top of our
3:12
Speaker 1: news feed. And so we're going to talk about it
3:15
Speaker 1: on here. The name of the two Iowa Army National
3:19
Speaker 1: Guard soldiers are Sergeant William Nathaniel Nate Howard, he was
3:23
Speaker 1: twenty nine of Marshalltown and Sergeant Edgar Bryan Torres Tavar,
3:27
Speaker 1: twenty five of Grimes. It's just a giant tragedy, and
3:33
Speaker 1: there were three other soldiers wounded. They are apparently doing well,
3:38
Speaker 1: but we lost these two young men and it's just
3:41
Speaker 1: a giant tragedy and we need to commemorate them.
3:45
Speaker 2: This is part of a support system or support mission
3:49
Speaker 2: that US troops are doing. About nine hundred of them
3:52
Speaker 2: are stationed in eastern Syria as part of a coalition
3:55
Speaker 2: fighting the Islamic State Group and to hinder Iranian influence.
3:58
Speaker 2: They think the shooter was sort of an inside job
4:01
Speaker 2: who had infiltrated but was an ISIS guy, and I
4:04
Speaker 2: believe he was taken out by in retaliation. Apparently. I
4:10
Speaker 2: just read that Syria has arrested five in this plot,
4:17
Speaker 2: and Trump of course is vowing retaliation. This seems like
4:21
Speaker 2: what might be an interesting early test of the relationship
4:24
Speaker 2: between this Syrian president who was not an ally but
4:26
Speaker 2: then sort of became an ally.
4:28
Speaker 1: He was just at the White House, Yeah, he was
4:29
Speaker 1: just at.
4:30
Speaker 2: The White House and Trump but it's terrible news to
4:33
Speaker 2: hear right before the holidays, and I'm glad you brought
4:36
Speaker 2: it to all of our attention because it did get
4:38
Speaker 2: lost in the news this weekend. These are the first
4:41
Speaker 2: combat deaths since Trump took office. I guess, I guess
4:45
Speaker 2: National Guard the young woman in DC, but she that
4:49
Speaker 2: was not combat death per se.
4:50
Speaker 1: That was right, Trump posted on truth Social There will
4:53
Speaker 1: be very serious retaliation. He said, this was an isa's
4:57
Speaker 1: attack against the US and Syrian a very dangerous part
5:00
Speaker 1: of Syria that is not fully controlled by them. The
5:02
Speaker 1: president of Syria, mad al Shara, is extremely angry and
5:05
Speaker 1: disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation,
5:08
Speaker 1: and as has become his closing comment, he wrote, thank
5:12
Speaker 1: you for your attention to this matter. I don't know
5:15
Speaker 1: where this leads, because look, nobody wants a hot war
5:19
Speaker 1: in the Middle East, and nobody wants obviously more American
5:22
Speaker 1: troops in the ground. I feel like everybody's kind of
5:25
Speaker 1: united in that thought. But you also can't let stuff
5:28
Speaker 1: like this go just go right, And that's really what
5:32
Speaker 1: often is expected from Israel. Israel is expected to just
5:36
Speaker 1: you know, take it on the chin and move on
5:38
Speaker 1: a lot of the time. And I think this kind
5:41
Speaker 1: of thing brings home to Americans that you can't do that,
5:44
Speaker 1: You just can't. You have to fight back.
5:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I think the Hudis is a good example
5:48
Speaker 2: of Americans having to eventually just take out a bunch
5:53
Speaker 2: of hoo de capabilities because they were after targets that
5:57
Speaker 2: mattered to us, and specifically American targets. And eventually you
6:03
Speaker 2: have to do something about that. And if you lose deterrence, yeah,
6:07
Speaker 2: as we did during the Biden years, the price of
6:09
Speaker 2: regaining it can get really, really high. Yeah, And so
6:13
Speaker 2: taking care of this stuff quickly, I think is the
6:15
Speaker 2: preferred method, even though for some people. And I think
6:19
Speaker 2: Trump's very comfortable with it. Trump's very comfortable with like,
6:21
Speaker 2: you did something wrong, We're taking care of that. But
6:24
Speaker 2: it doesn't mean troops on the ground or nation building.
6:27
Speaker 2: That's right, that's his sweet spot.
6:30
Speaker 1: I was going to say the same thing, it's a
6:31
Speaker 1: sweet spot if Trump has one, that's it. He looked.
6:35
Speaker 1: He doesn't always handle every situation the way I would
6:38
Speaker 1: like him to handle it, and he doesn't always say
6:41
Speaker 1: the right words, but in times like this, I think
6:43
Speaker 1: he actually shines. So I will also add that just
6:47
Speaker 1: because America is not in a hot war, it doesn't
6:49
Speaker 1: mean our troops are not in danger. And this is
6:52
Speaker 1: a good reminder of that. My kids to this day,
6:54
Speaker 1: they're fifteen, twelve, and ten, they think every time they
6:57
Speaker 1: see somebody in a military hat or in uniform obviously,
7:01
Speaker 1: but also police officers, firemen, they say thank you for
7:04
Speaker 1: your service to them. And I think this is just
7:06
Speaker 1: a reminder that we might not think of it as
7:08
Speaker 1: they're in harms way all the time, but they are.
7:10
Speaker 1: They're literally frequently on the front lines of defending us,
7:14
Speaker 1: even if we don't know anything about.
7:16
Speaker 2: It, It's true. And even in cases where they are
7:18
Speaker 2: not on the front lines per se, there are still deployments.
7:21
Speaker 2: There are still families who pay the cost back home,
7:23
Speaker 2: and having just spent Thursday, Friday, parts of Saturday with
7:27
Speaker 2: the families who are involved with the Travis Mannon Foundation,
7:29
Speaker 2: you meet these stunning folks who sometimes didn't serve themselves,
7:33
Speaker 2: but you know, paid the full price with their spouses
7:37
Speaker 2: or their brothers and are still out there trying to
7:40
Speaker 2: serve the American people and to if you never have
7:43
Speaker 2: been or if you've never watched an army, navy game
7:47
Speaker 2: worth trying to do that at some point during your life,
7:50
Speaker 2: just because the pageantry, the commitment of every single person
7:55
Speaker 2: there on the field to sacrifice everything for your freedom.
8:00
Speaker 2: It's really something. And you know, I love my SEC football,
8:04
Speaker 2: but that is a different level of experience and something
8:07
Speaker 2: that I think everyone should try to take in at
8:10
Speaker 2: some point in some way, because it does help appreciate
8:13
Speaker 2: these things.
8:13
Speaker 1: Tell us who you root for, just tell us, Oh,
8:16
Speaker 1: I'm a Navy girl.
8:17
Speaker 2: Okay, yeah, but it's all pretty friendly, you know.
8:23
Speaker 1: Fun. I saw some people mad about some Georgia football
8:26
Speaker 1: with you this weekend.
8:28
Speaker 2: To that but separate issue. But on this one, I
8:31
Speaker 2: think we can all be friendly rivals as when it
8:35
Speaker 2: comes to Army Navy and appreciate everyone.
8:38
Speaker 1: We'll take a short break and come right back on
8:41
Speaker 1: normally with some more sad and devastating news from the
8:45
Speaker 1: last few days. Be right back all right.
8:50
Speaker 2: We are back on normally, and again the news is
8:52
Speaker 2: heavy this week. In Bondi Beach in Australia, there was
8:56
Speaker 2: an attack on a Hanukkah gathering the first night of
8:59
Speaker 2: Hannah on the beach. At least fifteen people were killed
9:02
Speaker 2: in an attack in Sydney, including a ten year old girl,
9:05
Speaker 2: a long serving rabbi and a Holocaust survivor. If you
9:08
Speaker 2: have been paying attention to the news this weekend, you
9:10
Speaker 2: saw that an incredibly brave early forties fruit stand fruit
9:16
Speaker 2: vender overtook one of the shooters who was armed while
9:20
Speaker 2: he was not and probably prevented a lot more carnage.
9:25
Speaker 2: He was shot himself, but it looks like he will survive.
9:27
Speaker 2: And just my prayers to everybody and also commendation to
9:31
Speaker 2: that guy. It was having seen the video, it was
9:34
Speaker 2: an incredibly risky and brave thing to do.
9:36
Speaker 1: Really amazing. Yeah, it was such a devastating story to
9:39
Speaker 1: wake up two on Sunday. It's just, you know, Bondi Beach.
9:42
Speaker 1: I've never been there, but it's obviously a very well known,
9:46
Speaker 1: very chill beach. Australians in general, I always found to
9:50
Speaker 1: be very mellow people. The Hanuka celebration part. My daughter
9:54
Speaker 1: had been on a beach in South Florida having a
9:57
Speaker 1: Shabbat celebration the day before. It really hard and I
10:01
Speaker 1: hate that the conversation is now turning to how much
10:05
Speaker 1: more can Australia ban guns like it? Just it doesn't work. Like,
10:09
Speaker 1: here's your evidence that banning guns doesn't work. The guns
10:12
Speaker 1: were banned, these men had.
10:14
Speaker 2: Been most banned.
10:15
Speaker 1: Yeah, and yet here were a father son duo opening fire, reloading,
10:23
Speaker 1: having absolutely no problem doing that, and no police stopping them.
10:27
Speaker 1: The police didn't do anything for ten minutes of this shooting. Uh.
10:30
Speaker 1: You know, I understand, I understand the fear and everything,
10:32
Speaker 1: But if the police aren't going to do anything and
10:35
Speaker 1: you're an armed you're leaving it to unarmed fruit stand
10:39
Speaker 1: man to help you, that's not always going to work out,
10:42
Speaker 1: even as well as it worked out here. So it
10:46
Speaker 1: just it's really bad and the fact that Islamic terrorism
10:51
Speaker 1: continues to rear its ugly head the way it is
10:54
Speaker 1: here and in a couple of other situations that we're
10:56
Speaker 1: going to talk about right now. It's just it's an
10:58
Speaker 1: ongoing thing, and so many people refuse to call it
11:02
Speaker 1: what it is. And it's not anti Muslim to say
11:05
Speaker 1: that radical Islamic ideology is propelling a lot of this.
11:09
Speaker 1: I have Muslim friends who agree that radical Islamic ideology
11:13
Speaker 1: is propelling a lot of this. So I don't know,
11:18
Speaker 1: I don't know where the West goes from here. Leah
11:20
Speaker 1: Libowitz had a great piece in Tablet Today where he
11:24
Speaker 1: talks about, you know, the Jews are going to be fine,
11:26
Speaker 1: We're going to lick our wounds, take care of each other,
11:29
Speaker 1: move on. It's Western civilization that we all have to
11:31
Speaker 1: be concerned about. And that's what I'm most afraid for.
11:34
Speaker 1: And I think I've said it on here before, but
11:36
Speaker 1: I'm not worried about Israel. I'm worried about America. I'm
11:38
Speaker 1: worried about where we're going and the paths that we
11:42
Speaker 1: are following. And I just don't want us to end
11:45
Speaker 1: up like Europe or like Australia, and it sometimes feels
11:49
Speaker 1: like we're heading in that direction.
11:51
Speaker 2: Five men were also arrested in Germany, suspected of being
11:53
Speaker 2: involved in a plot to drive a vehicle into a
11:55
Speaker 2: Christmas market. So it is not just the Jews, and
11:58
Speaker 2: I bet you can guess the ideology that drove that plot.
12:02
Speaker 2: Thank goodness it was broken up. But I think you're right, Carol,
12:06
Speaker 2: that unless we are honest about what is happening here
12:09
Speaker 2: and take practical measures to make sure that the people
12:13
Speaker 2: you're welcoming to your country are not either already radical
12:17
Speaker 2: or becoming radicalized. While they're here, You're going to run
12:21
Speaker 2: into more and more of this everywhere. And if it's
12:25
Speaker 2: politically incorrect or frowned upon to even point that out,
12:29
Speaker 2: we have a serious problem. And as we talked about
12:32
Speaker 2: in one of our last episodes, if you don't have
12:34
Speaker 2: the cultural self confidence to say our way of life matters,
12:39
Speaker 2: our Christmas markets matter, our public Monora lightings matter, you
12:43
Speaker 2: are not allowed to attack them in the name of
12:46
Speaker 2: your radicalized religion. You're not going to be able to
12:50
Speaker 2: protect yourself.
12:51
Speaker 1: Yeah, you have to name it before you could do
12:52
Speaker 1: anything about it. As we're recording this, Cassia Kiva posted
12:57
Speaker 1: that the FBI stopped a terror attack planned for New
12:59
Speaker 1: Year by the left wing pro Palestinian group Turtle Island
13:03
Speaker 1: Liberation Front. Turtle Island is an indigenous term from North
13:07
Speaker 1: America adapted by radical leftists who reject the continent's name
13:11
Speaker 1: as colonialist. It's not going to be just Jews. No,
13:15
Speaker 1: people need to wake up and see that this continues
13:18
Speaker 1: to be an attack on Western civilization in general. One
13:21
Speaker 1: of the victims on Bondi Beach is Habad Rabbi Eli Schlanger,
13:26
Speaker 1: and I just want to note he has been and
13:28
Speaker 1: I had a couple of friends posts about him on Instagram,
13:31
Speaker 1: particularly welcoming to my community of ex Soviet Jews who
13:36
Speaker 1: moved to Australia around the same time that I moved
13:39
Speaker 1: to America. Really an extra sad loss for my people.
13:43
Speaker 1: Let's say, he was apparently a real force in welcoming
13:47
Speaker 1: the people that moved to Australia and making them feel
13:50
Speaker 1: Australian part of the Australian Jewish community. And that's so important.
13:55
Speaker 2: Oh, it's terrible. Just the range of victims. One guy
13:59
Speaker 2: was there is like a free lance photographer. It's just
14:03
Speaker 2: terrible as always, And like you said, it will immediately
14:07
Speaker 2: pivot to banning.
14:08
Speaker 1: Gun already doing it.
14:10
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not sure how much more illegal you can
14:12
Speaker 2: make murder to begin with.
14:15
Speaker 1: That's always the question, how much more can you make
14:18
Speaker 1: murder illegal? I also want to note Arson Ostrowski, who
14:21
Speaker 1: is a Twitter friend of mine for a long time.
14:25
Speaker 1: He had recently moved from Israel to Australia, was on
14:28
Speaker 1: the beach the bullet grazed his head. He posted pictures
14:32
Speaker 1: of himself bleeding profusely, but he looks like he's going
14:36
Speaker 1: to be okay. He's was lighting Candles in the hospital
14:40
Speaker 1: last night, and we're obviously praying for Arson.
14:45
Speaker 2: I want to note also we do not know the
14:46
Speaker 2: motive of it yet. The Rhode Island shooting at Brown
14:51
Speaker 2: University another place where guns are very very very banned,
14:55
Speaker 2: and Rhode Island in general has very strict rules. Two
14:58
Speaker 2: students died at Brown and and at least one there
15:01
Speaker 2: was in an economics study session. One of the shooting
15:04
Speaker 2: victims is Ella Cook, who was the vice president of
15:06
Speaker 2: the Republicans club. And again we don't know exactly what
15:10
Speaker 2: motivated this, but apparently the professor was Jewish. This woman
15:14
Speaker 2: was a leader of a Republicans club on campus. There
15:17
Speaker 2: are very few conservatives on Brown's campus. She was a
15:22
Speaker 2: visible one. They do not have this shooter yet as
15:26
Speaker 2: we are reporting, so we don't know a lot here.
15:29
Speaker 2: But I do think those things are notable. And another
15:32
Speaker 2: tragedy to see a nineteen year old killed at this
15:35
Speaker 2: stage in her life, who clearly was a leader, who
15:36
Speaker 2: clearly was gifted. And we will find out more about that.
15:40
Speaker 2: But very very low percentage of conservatives on campus.
15:43
Speaker 1: Right, it's odd if that is a coincidence. Amy Swearer,
15:47
Speaker 1: who is at the Heritage Foundation, and she's a senior
15:50
Speaker 1: legal fellow there. She's brilliant, especially on the issue of guns,
15:54
Speaker 1: but on basically everything that she writes. But she pointed
15:56
Speaker 1: out the shooting occurred in the classroom of Professor Rachel Friedberg,
16:00
Speaker 1: who is Jewish, part of the program in Judaic Studies
16:03
Speaker 1: and whose research focuses on the intersection of economics and
16:06
Speaker 1: Jewish studies. That seems like it might be incredibly relevant.
16:11
Speaker 1: It could be random, but doesn't sound like it.
16:14
Speaker 2: Many of these facts are worth considering, and then when
16:17
Speaker 2: we know more, will know more. Also, as always, it's
16:20
Speaker 2: worth being careful about people you name in the wake
16:23
Speaker 2: of these things. The person of interest's name was out
16:26
Speaker 2: and picture was out and he was later released.
16:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I had his names and I didn't release
16:33
Speaker 1: it because it wasn't one hundred percent and I had
16:37
Speaker 1: it at like high nineties and it's still I was like, Okay,
16:40
Speaker 1: let's let's hold off on this. But yeah, it's scary
16:44
Speaker 1: actually that they don't have him yet. Y also like,
16:46
Speaker 1: how could they not have him? I'm hearing from kind
16:48
Speaker 1: of normy friends being like, I don't get it. How
16:51
Speaker 1: is there not aren't there security cameras? Everywhere, Like we
16:54
Speaker 1: see the cameras everywhere. How could they not have this
16:56
Speaker 1: guy yet?
16:57
Speaker 2: The press conferences are not with local folks, are not
17:00
Speaker 2: inspiring a ton of confidence at this moment. They say
17:02
Speaker 2: that they're just warn't a lot of cameras in that building.
17:05
Speaker 2: They are asking the public for more information and hopefully
17:08
Speaker 2: we will have more progress to update you with in
17:10
Speaker 2: the future. But sad news again.
17:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, sorry to bum everybody out for our second segment,
17:16
Speaker 1: but had to talk about the big stories from the
17:19
Speaker 1: last few days.
17:20
Speaker 2: We'll be right back.
17:21
Speaker 1: With more on normally and hopefully not a topic that
17:24
Speaker 1: makes us want to just lose it. Be right back
17:31
Speaker 1: all right, we are back on normally. I wouldn't say
17:34
Speaker 1: that this is a happy topic either, No, but it's close.
17:37
Speaker 2: It's pleasure.
17:37
Speaker 1: Yes, there's no death involved here, which is already a plus.
17:41
Speaker 1: Apparently kids no longer read books at all, and this
17:46
Speaker 1: you know, you and I have been talking about this
17:47
Speaker 1: for so long that that reading has become something that
17:51
Speaker 1: is just not done, and especially full books is unheard of.
17:56
Speaker 1: It's awful, what a tragedy. And I don't understand how
18:00
Speaker 1: English teachers go along with it, and they don't make
18:03
Speaker 1: the kids read entire books.
18:05
Speaker 2: Yeah, here's the New York Times reporting on it. And again,
18:07
Speaker 2: we've talked about this a lot, but it is helpful
18:08
Speaker 2: to have the New York Times backing up of this
18:12
Speaker 2: kind of stuff with reporting It says in America high schools,
18:15
Speaker 2: the age of the book may be fading. Many teenagers
18:17
Speaker 2: are assigned few full books to read from beginning to end,
18:20
Speaker 2: often just one or two per year. According to researchers
18:23
Speaker 2: and thousands of responses to an informal reader survey by
18:26
Speaker 2: The New York Times, twelfth grade reading scores are historic lows,
18:29
Speaker 2: et cetera. I mean, even in at elite colleges kids
18:32
Speaker 2: are getting they're not having read books. Karen Vates, who
18:35
Speaker 2: is a great follow on Twitter. Vates is Vai Tes.
18:39
Speaker 2: She follows this stuff and follows curriculum and how they
18:43
Speaker 2: shape what we teach kids. And she says, what's disturbing
18:46
Speaker 2: to me is what she says is that this is
18:48
Speaker 2: something that everyone in K twelve education knows, of course,
18:52
Speaker 2: but the info hadn't gotten to the normies until recently,
18:56
Speaker 2: because normies assume, of course, you read books in school.
19:00
Speaker 2: Doesn't read books, right, But that is not the case,
19:02
Speaker 2: they do not read books in school. And as much
19:05
Speaker 2: as you know, I think it's easy to clown on
19:08
Speaker 2: college students who turn out not great work. They're like, oh,
19:11
Speaker 2: you can't read any books. It's like, well, if they
19:13
Speaker 2: were never asked to do that, right, what do you
19:16
Speaker 2: want they have learned to do it?
19:18
Speaker 1: Yeah. I would just say, if your a kid is
19:21
Speaker 1: not made to read books in school, make them read
19:25
Speaker 1: them at home. I just don't understand this whole, Like, well,
19:28
Speaker 1: they don't have to read it in school, so that's it.
19:30
Speaker 1: I don't know. Are we really heading towards a book
19:32
Speaker 1: free world? A bookless world? That sounds so sad.
19:36
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, that's what I said. Not only is it
19:37
Speaker 2: a joy, but you learn to read tougher and tougher
19:41
Speaker 2: things as you go. Here's Karen's reporting on this earlier,
19:44
Speaker 2: which went pretty viral at the time. Says Hillary is
19:47
Speaker 2: a sixth grader in Connecticut. For the last five years
19:49
Speaker 2: she has been given an English language arts curriculum selected
19:52
Speaker 2: by her district. Wonders, published by McGraw hill in twenty twenty.
19:56
Speaker 2: We all know McGraw hill from growing up in schools.
19:58
Speaker 2: Wonders includes no actual books for Hillary sixth graders. The
20:03
Speaker 2: Wonder's grade six curriculum includes only short texts and excerpts.
20:07
Speaker 2: The average length of those texts is seven points three pages.
20:10
Speaker 2: The longest text is just eighteen pages. Those pages, those
20:14
Speaker 2: page counts include some full page illustrations, so it's actually
20:17
Speaker 2: more like thirteen pages. And that's sixth grade. And she
20:21
Speaker 2: notes that many kids who are hitting chapter book level,
20:24
Speaker 2: which would be about fourth fifth, sixth grade even earlier,
20:27
Speaker 2: they're not getting introed to smaller chapter books. And I'm
20:30
Speaker 2: with you, Carol. The uplifting part about this story is
20:33
Speaker 2: that you can correct it in your own home right.
20:36
Speaker 2: And I think I stumbled on doing this for my
20:39
Speaker 2: kids when schools closed, because I did them out of
20:43
Speaker 2: the Zoom school and because I didn't know how to
20:46
Speaker 2: do anything else. I said, we're going to read, right,
20:49
Speaker 2: And so we read a ton of books. And I
20:52
Speaker 2: have readers now as a result. They love to read books.
20:56
Speaker 2: I know your kids to two.
20:58
Speaker 1: Two out of three, you know, well, what are you
20:59
Speaker 1: going to do?
21:01
Speaker 2: That is a pretty good person.
21:03
Speaker 1: The third one reads books like he doesn't like it.
21:06
Speaker 1: He sets a timer for his twenty minutes like you know,
21:09
Speaker 1: but he does it. And he finishes them. And he
21:12
Speaker 1: you know, he has a certain number of books he
21:14
Speaker 1: completes every month. I don't even understand the Oh he doesn't.
21:18
Speaker 1: They don't. They just don't read whole books. No, he
21:20
Speaker 1: reads whole books again under duress, but nevertheless he does it.
21:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, this is one of those things that I think
21:26
Speaker 2: can creep into curriculum and into K twelve schools in
21:31
Speaker 2: such a It's such a horrible idea. It was a
21:34
Speaker 2: bad idea from the start. It creeps in and this
21:36
Speaker 2: confluence of the school's not wanting to admit they're not
21:40
Speaker 2: doing their jobs, plus parents wanting to just see a'son
21:42
Speaker 2: report cards without pushing their kids. Hey, gets you in
21:45
Speaker 2: this really bad position where suddenly, oh, an entire generation
21:49
Speaker 2: can't read books. That does seem bad.
21:52
Speaker 1: It seems really bad. And it will give such a
21:55
Speaker 1: distinct advantage to the kids who can read whole books.
21:58
Speaker 1: It helps you in a variety of ways. To be
22:01
Speaker 1: able to hold your attention throughout a whole book is
22:03
Speaker 1: something that the kids that are just swiping along and
22:05
Speaker 1: never reading full books will never have. And I'm telling you,
22:09
Speaker 1: the book readers will succeed ahead of them. It's inevitable. Yeah,
22:12
Speaker 1: read your guys. Yeah, when you're on vacation in the
22:16
Speaker 1: next few weeks. If you have any time off, read
22:18
Speaker 1: a book like It's very good for you. It feels great,
22:22
Speaker 1: makes you smarter, enjoyable, the whole thing. But I will
22:25
Speaker 1: do better than TikTok.
22:26
Speaker 2: I will do my annual recommendation. By the way, I
22:29
Speaker 2: read aloud a book called The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
22:32
Speaker 2: to my children. It's like ninety five pages long. It's
22:35
Speaker 2: a novella written in the mid seventies, maybe early seventies.
22:40
Speaker 2: The prose is hilarious. The book is great.
22:43
Speaker 1: It right now.
22:44
Speaker 2: Kids will love it. It has some politically incorrect funny
22:48
Speaker 2: stuff in it.
22:49
Speaker 1: Perfect. It is a.
22:51
Speaker 2: Blast and I cry at the end every year because
22:53
Speaker 2: it's so beautiful. So enjoy that with your kids.
22:56
Speaker 1: If you say the name one more time, the Best.
22:58
Speaker 2: Christmas Pageant Ever. And actually, I'm wondering that's a movie
23:02
Speaker 2: of it last year.
23:03
Speaker 1: You haven't watched the Oh, I watched the movie. You
23:06
Speaker 1: watch it, okay, but I read the book.
23:09
Speaker 2: It's our tradition. Okay.
23:10
Speaker 1: I thought you were saying you heard Netflix made it,
23:12
Speaker 1: but you haven't seen.
23:13
Speaker 2: No. I was trying to remember who read the movie
23:16
Speaker 2: all right.
23:16
Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on normally. Normally airs Tuesdays
23:19
Speaker 1: and Thursdays, and you can subscribe anywhere you get your podcasts.
23:23
Speaker 1: Get in touch with us at normally theepod at gmail
23:25
Speaker 1: dot com. Thanks for listening, and when things get weird,
23:29
Speaker 1: act normally