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Getting Free Books To Young Children The Max Rhymes Foundation With Todd Courtney · Arroe Collins Like It's Live

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Speaker 1: So me check it out yet ero dot net. It's
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Speaker 1: not just a podcast, it is several different podcast platforms,
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Speaker 1: twenty to be exact. One of them is vocal dfrag.
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Speaker 1: Come on, we're always asking everybody around us, what would
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Speaker 1: you do? How should I do it? Where should I go?
0:16
Speaker 1: Why not ask yourself the questions? But how do you
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Speaker 1: do that? That's what vocal dfrag is all about. Only
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Speaker 1: on ero dot net A R r oe dot net.
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Speaker 1: Enjoy your exploration. Hello on good morning everybody, Good morning, fantastic.
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Speaker 2: How about you doing well? Doing well? This is Todd
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Speaker 2: Courtney with the Max Rymes Foundation.
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Speaker 1: Dude, I got to tell you what we got to
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Speaker 1: talk about Max Rhymes in the way that you guys
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Speaker 1: are so actively involved with so many different generations and
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Speaker 1: growing forward that I want to put so much attention
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Speaker 1: on that so that those that are going who are
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Speaker 1: we talking about? Can stop saying that.
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Speaker 2: I appreciate that it takes a village.
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Speaker 1: We know that it really does, and you're part of
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Speaker 1: that village because I mean, you're you're really diving into
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Speaker 1: a lot of things here that activate young adults into.
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Speaker 1: From what I understand and everything that I've researched, there's
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Speaker 1: actually an ecosystem here that involves everybody's participation.
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Speaker 2: Yeah, that's exactly.
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Speaker 3: In fact, that's actually how it started because I actually
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Speaker 3: I started with myself and improving myself. And when I
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Speaker 3: saw that working, I went into the teen market. And
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Speaker 3: when I saw that working, I learned about brain waves.
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Speaker 2: And I'm going, oh my god, well.
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Speaker 3: Adults are too late. Teenagers are too late. We got
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Speaker 3: to start young.
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Speaker 2: Yep.
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Speaker 3: Jackie an elementary school teacher, and it was actually her idea.
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Speaker 3: I rejected her at first, and the rest is history.
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Speaker 1: Well, sometimes those school teachers, you know, they get they
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Speaker 1: get a bird brain idea, as my father would say.
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Speaker 1: But then again you look back on it, going mine,
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Speaker 1: that was actually quite quite good. That you really did
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Speaker 1: a great job. We just have to find inspiration to
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Speaker 1: pour into that soil.
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Speaker 2: That's exactly right.
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Speaker 3: And it came because she noticed year over year before
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Speaker 3: she retired, kids were coming less and less prepared.
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Speaker 2: They weren't being taught.
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Speaker 3: The same social norms that households were taught, which was
2:09
Speaker 3: making teaching harder, and it was more disruptive to the
2:13
Speaker 3: classroom on a whole, which means the other kids suffer.
2:18
Speaker 3: And then it just became the spiral. In fact, probably
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Speaker 3: for now, maybe two decades.
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Speaker 2: I'm going to say, wow, Wow.
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Speaker 1: The one thing that keeps coming up inside my heart
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Speaker 1: was this. My wife was part of two different charter schools,
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Speaker 1: and I would walk into the library, you know, you know,
2:34
Speaker 1: going in there, going oh my god, this is gonna
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Speaker 1: be so great. As a charter school, it's an individual
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Speaker 1: no library. I mean, if there was a library, it
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Speaker 1: was very few books. You guys are onto this, you
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Speaker 1: know this is taking place, and you're doing something about.
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Speaker 2: It, exactly right. That's how we came up with it.
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Speaker 3: When we learned, especially in low income demographics. That and
2:55
Speaker 3: we started and I'm going to back up a little bit.
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Speaker 3: We lived in San Jose, which is a hard silicon valley.
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Speaker 3: That's where my wife taught. And when I learned, well,
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Speaker 3: you know, when we were engaged, we got married, had kids,
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Speaker 3: and she kept telling me how how little resources her
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Speaker 3: school was getting. It just as mind boggling because like,
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Speaker 3: wait a minute, we're one of the wealthiest areas in
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Speaker 3: the world and these kids don't have books, they don't
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Speaker 3: have crans, they don't even have copy paper. So that's
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Speaker 3: when we decided, okay, then we learned about what they
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Speaker 3: call library deserts. I don't know if you heard that
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Speaker 3: phrase before, but there's we have areas in the country
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Speaker 3: they call library deserts where one in three hundred kids
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Speaker 3: has a book at home.
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Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 3: Now, we're not going to turn around literacy if that's
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Speaker 3: the case. And so that's when we made it our
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Speaker 3: mission to not only provide books, but provide them for
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Speaker 3: every student to take home and keep as their own.
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Speaker 2: That's when we'll start making a dent this problem.
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Speaker 1: See, the thing that I've always learned and have fallen
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Speaker 1: witness to, is that that one book they may have,
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Speaker 1: which can become several, is theirs. It's not somebody that
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Speaker 1: they have to take back to a library. I love
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Speaker 1: me some libraries, but you have to take it back.
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Speaker 1: You fall in love with the book, and you've got
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Speaker 1: to take it back. That's what I love about what
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Speaker 1: you guys are doing. It's theirs. They can take it
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Speaker 1: with them through the rest of their life.
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Speaker 3: Well, you hit the nail on the head because even
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Speaker 3: parents were shocked that they didn't have to give the
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Speaker 3: books back. And not only that, think about this, many,
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Speaker 3: probably most of these kids in low income demographics are used,
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Speaker 3: and they've been programmed to get hammy downs when they
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Speaker 3: get something brand new that is theirs to keep. And
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Speaker 3: even if they have a sibling that comes up the
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Speaker 3: next year, the second year behind them, that sibling's going
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Speaker 3: to get their own books to keep as well.
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Speaker 2: They're coveted. Hey what do they do?
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Speaker 3: They want to read them NonStop And that's to our ears, Todd.
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Speaker 1: You're going to think I'm a freak. Many many, many
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Speaker 1: of these ya books that I'm gifted with from the
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Speaker 1: authors and things. What they do is they send them
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Speaker 1: to me. And what I like to do is I
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Speaker 1: like to give them to the parents and I say,
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Speaker 1: I want you to read this book to them. These
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Speaker 1: words are too big for them right now. But if
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Speaker 1: they hear your inflection and they hear your storytelling, you
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Speaker 1: have a connection there. And I just so believe it
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Speaker 1: in my heart that it's got to be a connection
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Speaker 1: between the two.
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Speaker 3: That's okay, that's crazy you say that. So Elizabeth Dowell,
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Speaker 3: she's our director of education. She's out of North Carolina,
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Speaker 3: and really she's the one who has been really the
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Speaker 3: driving force behind expanding max Rives and that is something
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Speaker 3: she has hammered home in me that there has to
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Speaker 3: be a home school connection.
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Speaker 2: Yep.
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Speaker 3: And so all the resources we provide, everything on the
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Speaker 3: website is free for teachers, but it's also free for parents.
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Speaker 3: So and what we did is we took it a
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Speaker 3: step further and we created Max Rhymes interactive videos. So
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Speaker 3: they're kind of a cross between an ebook and a
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Speaker 3: cartoon where the characters move, they walk, and they talk,
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Speaker 3: but we.
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Speaker 2: Have it narrated.
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Speaker 3: And so we have our own road coup channel called
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Speaker 3: Max Rhymes, and all the books are on there, no commercials,
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Speaker 3: no garbage.
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Speaker 2: Just that.
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Speaker 3: And that's really helping kids at home because a lot
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Speaker 3: of these younger families, they don't have cable.
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Speaker 2: They just streams, and.
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Speaker 3: Those road creup TVs are cheap, so that's what most
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Speaker 3: of them have.
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Speaker 1: Wow, I've been doing some research and you brought up
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Speaker 1: North Carolina. You realize that North Carolina is one of
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Speaker 1: the top states when it comes to what you're talking
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Speaker 1: about and with the interaction, the social development, the awareness.
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Speaker 1: I mean, you guys have a game that is just spotless.
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Speaker 1: I love the way that you continue to just outreach
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Speaker 1: so much to everybody.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I know you're right and it was again. I
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Speaker 3: got to give kudos to Elizabeth. She found me out
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Speaker 3: of the blue. She literally called me out of the blue.
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Speaker 3: She said, this was like five six years ago, and
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Speaker 3: she said, I, I'm in receipt of your books.
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Speaker 2: A friend of mine gave them to me and they fit.
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Speaker 3: And while backtrack here, she said she's been trying to
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Speaker 3: fulfill a state law in North Carolina for social and
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Speaker 3: emotional learning products for early learners kindergarten, first graders pre ks.
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Speaker 3: But she's like, she has not been able to fulfill
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Speaker 3: that law for two years because there were no products
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Speaker 3: out there until she found ours. Now, we didn't know
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Speaker 3: even Jackie, she was the retired teacher at that point,
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Speaker 3: so we didn't even know the phrase social and emotional learning,
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Speaker 3: which is now the catchphrase across the United States in schools.
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Speaker 3: Apparently we just stumbled onto that and oh no, she's
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Speaker 3: taken it and she's created a whole program which is
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Speaker 3: on the website for all teachers and homeschool parents to use.
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Speaker 3: And the results that she's received with these kids, most.
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Speaker 2: Of them double digit improvements.
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Speaker 3: And just find that was a five that was a
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Speaker 3: five week summer school program.
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Speaker 2: Double digit improvements. In almost every category.
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Speaker 1: Please do not move. There's more with Todd Courtney from
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Speaker 1: the Max Rhymes Foundation coming up next, the Max Rhymes Foundation.
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Speaker 1: Let's get back to Todd Courtney. This is on Max
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Speaker 1: Rhymes Educators dot org. Right, is that what we're talking about. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: it is such a great tool for everybody that's involved
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Speaker 1: in I love how you just make it open and
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Speaker 1: make it available.
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Speaker 2: Well, that's what we found was necessary.
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Speaker 3: When we originally started writing these books, we entertained looking
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Speaker 3: and talking to publishers, but when we found out how
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Speaker 3: that industry works and that they could really just oh,
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Speaker 3: we'll write you a five thousand dollars bonus check and
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Speaker 3: we may shelve your project for two years and it
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Speaker 3: may never see the day light a day. All Right,
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Speaker 3: that's not going to work, right, And so we just said, no,
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Speaker 3: there's got to be a way to get these into
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Speaker 3: the hands of kids, and.
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Speaker 2: We just did grass rates. We literally pounded on doors.
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Speaker 3: Schools started in Oakland and San Jose, which is in
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Speaker 3: our backyard. And Oakland's a real true gritty inner Citywaday's got.
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Speaker 2: Both and that's how we started.
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Speaker 3: But it was just purely grassroots, and then more and
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Speaker 3: more people have found us. We're throughout Texas, all through
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Speaker 3: North Carolina, Oakland, San Jose, going into the Sonoma, Napa
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Speaker 3: Valley area.
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Speaker 2: Los Angeles. We're expanding into.
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Speaker 3: Because people are finding out that it's something that works
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Speaker 3: and there's no catch' it's free.
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Speaker 2: There's no catch.
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Speaker 3: We're not trying to get anything from you. We're not
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Speaker 3: trying to capture your emails, we're not trying to capture
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Speaker 3: your cell numbers, absolutely nothing, and there's just that which
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Speaker 3: is in today's world.
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Speaker 1: Right, yeah, it's right away. My mind is going in
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Speaker 1: so many different directions because with with young adults and
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Speaker 1: readers seven years old and older, their whole entire world
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Speaker 1: is nothing but news after news after news, and what
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Speaker 1: the books that you're offering gives a child the opportunity
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Speaker 1: to dream and to fantasize. My god, that's that's definitely
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Speaker 1: taken from the pages of when I was a kid.
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Speaker 1: Get back to those moments where you can dream and fantasize.
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Speaker 3: It's funny you mentioned that dreaming because we got one
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Speaker 3: of the titles this day Dream with Max and Molly
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Speaker 3: and again I'm gonna throw Elizabeth name out there because
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Speaker 3: that's her favorite book as a teacher.
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Speaker 2: That's her favorite.
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Speaker 3: Book, and it's when we wrote that, Jackie and I.
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Speaker 3: The objective was to get kids to be in a
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Speaker 3: park or be in nature, sit under a tree and
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Speaker 3: a dream day dream and through the rhymes that we have,
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Speaker 3: through the affirmations that we're right, and the messages there
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Speaker 3: and at the end of the day, these are really simple.
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Speaker 3: But that's why they work. Because they're simple. We didn't
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Speaker 3: overthink it. We probably probably fell into how how good
11:14
Speaker 3: they work. I think maybe was an accident, if you
11:17
Speaker 3: could call it that, because we didn't.
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Speaker 2: Really know how well they were going to work.
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Speaker 3: But yeah, no, you're you're exactly right, and we've got
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Speaker 3: to get kids off screens.
11:26
Speaker 2: I don't know I read an article.
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Speaker 3: I don't know I saw this, but I think it
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Speaker 3: was Sweden that said they're removing all tablets from from
11:34
Speaker 3: from elementary schools.
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Speaker 2: They're they're going back to books.
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Speaker 3: And what they found is these kids need the tactile,
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Speaker 3: they need the paper, they need the pages, they need
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Speaker 3: to hold it. All of that is part of the experience.
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Speaker 3: It's not just simply learning how to read. It's it's
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Speaker 3: the feelings, it's the touching it's the listening, it's all
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Speaker 3: of it combined, and so hopefully we start doing the
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Speaker 3: same and I think we will as a as a whole.
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Speaker 1: Well, I'm totally with you on this, and the reason why, Todd,
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Speaker 1: is because I am what I call a paper pig.
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Speaker 1: In other words, the texture of that paper is so
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Speaker 1: important to me. And when I get one of these
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Speaker 1: books in the first thing that I do is I
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Speaker 1: put my fingers all over it because if they took
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Speaker 1: the time to put great textured paper inside these books,
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Speaker 1: that means a lot to me as a reader, because
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Speaker 1: that's what I'm holding, that's where my mind is while
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Speaker 1: I'm reading and allowing myself the security to go into
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Speaker 1: a different world as set by the writer.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I agree, because I tried the Kindles for myself.
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Speaker 3: I just don't like it. I just I don't like
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Speaker 3: looking at a screen.
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Speaker 2: So I'm I'm right there with you.
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Speaker 3: I don't care if it's a newspaper, which I don't
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Speaker 3: read much anymore, but when it comes to books, now,
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Speaker 3: I need the paper.
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Speaker 2: It feels different.
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Speaker 3: And that's just me and I know some people are
12:53
Speaker 3: the opposite. But what we do know is the last
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Speaker 3: decade and a half that we shoved tablets and computers
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Speaker 3: down these kids' throats. Yep, we lost a generation. It
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Speaker 3: didn't work. The ro oi has been atrocious.
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Speaker 1: Well, here's another area that really needs to be kind
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Speaker 1: of restrengthened, and that is is that we love our teachers,
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Speaker 1: but we also know that teachers are real people that
13:18
Speaker 1: have got to survive when a student loses a teacher,
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Speaker 1: because they've got to move on. We've got those books
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Speaker 1: that they can hold on to, they can still call
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Speaker 1: their own. So in other words, it's like, yes, the
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Speaker 1: teacher is gone, but the atmosphere of your room because
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Speaker 1: your books are still there. And that, to me is
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Speaker 1: what Max Rhymes is doing. You're putting those books there,
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Speaker 1: and in a very invisible way, you're giving them that
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Speaker 1: sense of security and comfort that, yes, my teacher's not
13:42
Speaker 1: here today, maybe she's out ill, but I have my books,
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Speaker 1: I have my anchor.
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Speaker 3: I love how you phrase that, because quite honestly, I
13:50
Speaker 3: never even thought about it that way.
13:51
Speaker 2: But you're right.
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Speaker 3: I mean, we go in when we adopt a school
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Speaker 3: for the first time, we'll go in and saturate all kindergarten,
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Speaker 3: first since second grade, and even third grade students if
14:03
Speaker 3: they feel the third graders need it, and because most
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Speaker 3: elementary schools go to fifth grade, it only takes two
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Speaker 3: to three years. And we have saturated all of those kids,
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Speaker 3: every classroom, every kid, child student has all those same
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Speaker 3: books at home and access to the same materials and
14:23
Speaker 3: access to the Roku channel. It's through that saturation that
14:28
Speaker 3: I think you hit the nail on the head. It
14:30
Speaker 3: provides comfort, yes, because change is inevitable, and especially in
14:36
Speaker 3: today's world of teaching, these teachers are leaving in droves
14:39
Speaker 3: and I don't blame them, but it is very disruptive
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Speaker 3: to the kids. So the one content they can have
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Speaker 3: in their life is Max Rymes.
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Speaker 2: That's it.
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Speaker 1: Oh my god, Where can people go to find out
14:49
Speaker 1: more information about you? So that we can get this
14:52
Speaker 1: talk in growing mode? Just keep it growing, keep it
14:54
Speaker 1: pushing forward.
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Speaker 3: So we got two websites, Max Rymesfoundation dot org that
15:00
Speaker 3: basically gives the background and the history and the books
15:03
Speaker 3: and what we do. And then the educator site, which
15:06
Speaker 3: is four teachers and also four moms and four dads
15:10
Speaker 3: at home. As you said before, Max RAN's Educators dot org.
15:14
Speaker 3: So we got the Foundation dot org and we got
15:16
Speaker 3: educators dot Org and they can find everything right there.
15:21
Speaker 1: You got to come back to this show anytime in
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Speaker 1: the future. We can't make this a one time thing
15:24
Speaker 1: a year. It's got to be throughout the year and
15:26
Speaker 1: especially during those moments when they're in class and they're
15:29
Speaker 1: looking for something to do on a teacher's work day.
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Speaker 3: Amen, that would be great, especially probably in the fall,
15:35
Speaker 3: like right at the beginning of the wool year, when.
15:38
Speaker 2: It's on the tip of everybody's mind. Absolutely absolutely put
15:42
Speaker 2: that on the calendar.
15:42
Speaker 1: Mister, let's make it happen, all right, don will you
15:46
Speaker 1: be brilliant today?
15:47
Speaker 3: Okay, I appreciate it, Naro, thank you for your time. Huh.