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Some states may consider legislating book reading in schools · Cultural Wars | America Out Loud News

• 0:23
  Well, as far as history class is concerned, today is an anniversary.
• 0:28
  It's a fateful anniversary.
• 0:30
  Yeah, today's the day that John Wilkes Booth assassinated President Lincoln.
• 0:37
  One of the most heinous acts in the history of the country, at least, maybe the history of the world.
• 0:46
  John Wilkes Booth assassinating Lincoln, who uh, you know, many believe any other man would not have been able to accomplish what Lincoln accomplished in saving the union, not only in saving the union, but in destroying one of the great evils that presented itself to the union, which which, by the way, one of the great evils, slavery was indeed one of the great evils.
• 1:14
  Yesterday was Thomas Jefferson's birthday.
• 1:20
  And so when I had the kids together in the morning, I said, uh, I just said, hey, we're gonna we're gonna play a birthday game.
• 1:28
  Let's let's let's play some Thomas Jefferson trivia.
• 1:32
  And I just went around the room and I asked for everyone to give me a Thomas Jefferson fact, and some of them gave me some good facts.
• 1:40
  One of them said uh he owned slaves, and I said, yes, that's true.
• 1:46
  He did.
• 1:46
  That indeed is a fact.
• 1:48
  However, and then this gave me an opportunity to explore uh the the truth that many people do not know, and that is slavery was a great evil.
• 2:03
  And Jefferson believed and penned in the first draft of the declaration that that great evil was brought upon the count uh continent because of the king of England, that uh he he brought a people who were not from here and who had who it not offended him, but he brought them here uh under the guise of of slavery uh and chained them.
• 2:27
  And uh Jefferson listed this and and the grievance and the list of grievances.
• 2:33
  Uh it was scratched because, and we talk about it here all the time.
• 2:37
  It was scratched because Georgia and South Carolina that you know, at the time their leaders uh were very much pro-slavery, and the declaration needed to be unanimous.
• 2:50
  Uh and I also had the opportunity to tell them that Jefferson attempted to release his slaves, but was not allowed.
• 2:58
  It was against the law because Virginia was a royal colony controlled by the king.
• 3:04
  And it was not it was not granted to him to do this, but he he believed in this evil.
• 3:12
  He did.
• 3:13
  He believed in this this one evil, and and it was it was uh Lincoln who was able to succeeded in disposing of it.
• 3:24
  As a matter of fact, FDR, and I I read this yesterday when we were talking about Jefferson's birthday.
• 3:31
  FDR, when he was dedicating the Jefferson Memorial, uh referring to Jefferson said he lived in a world in which freedom of conscience and freedom of mind were battles still to be fought through, not principles already accepted of all men.
• 3:50
  And and this is true.
• 3:52
  These weren't principles that were accepted by everybody, that all men were created equal, and they were endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights, and among them are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
• 4:04
  This uh this was a battle, freedom of conscience and freedom of mind.
• 4:11
  These were battles that that were still being fought through.
• 4:15
  And it was Lincoln who continued the fight to his death, to his doom.
• 4:22
  It it brought upon the assassination from from Booth.
• 4:28
  And today is that day.
• 4:30
  It's that fateful day.
• 4:31
  However, today is a happier anniversary, also.
• 4:35
  If you are a lover of words, if you're a lover of books, today is the anniversary, 1828, April 14th, the first edition of Noah Webster's American Dictionary of the English language is published.
• 4:51
  If you don't have a copy of the 1828 edition, get it.
• 4:55
  It is a great, I mean, it's a tome.
• 4:58
  I've got I'm looking right over at it right now.
• 5:00
  It's over there on my on my bookshelf.
• 5:03
  And it just doesn't sit there.
• 5:04
  I use it.
• 5:05
  I use it often because I want to know in many instances when there's a particular word, I want to know how the how this word was defined for the founding generation.
• 5:17
  And and this is the resource right here.
• 5:21
  Noah Webster's uh 1828 edition is uh it is just a beautiful, it's a beautiful book full of again.
• 5:30
  If you love words, if you love words and if you love history, the combination here is spectacular.
• 5:36
  I implore you, I encourage you.
• 5:39
  Get the 1828 copy of Noah Webster's dictionary.
• 5:43
  And since we're talking about words and freedom uh and and history, and and and I'm also imploring you, I implore you in like fashion and in like manner to get yourself registered for the 25010 conference this summer, July 2nd, 3rd, and 4th in Nashville, Tennessee.
• 6:04
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• 6:06
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• 6:11
  July 2nd, July 3rd, July 4th, fantastic speakers celebrating 250 years of American independence, and you can get 20% off.
• 6:22
  I'm sorry, 25% off your registration.
• 6:26
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• 6:34
  And when you are registering, use code Dean, you'll get 25% off.
• 6:38
  I would love to see you there.
• 6:40
  This event is going to be hands down.
• 6:43
  It's just going to be spectacular.
• 6:45
  I'm truly looking forward to it.
• 6:47
  I'm I'm just looking forward to being around patriots, people of like mind who feel the same way I feel about the country, about this glorious country in which we live.
• 7:01
  We do.
• 7:02
  We have the ability to go after things.
• 7:06
  Uh, even still, I know that that ability is under assault, it's constantly under assault.
• 7:11
  It's been under assault from day one, and we have to continue defending it.
• 7:17
  And that's part of our mission here is to defend it, to defend freedom and liberty, and and we do it through education.
• 7:25
  I firmly believe that that we we do our best to defend liberty and freedom and the inalienable rights granted to us by God.
• 7:36
  We we defend those here through education.
• 7:40
  We talk about them all the time, and and we talk about why it's important for people to be educated.
• 7:46
  And one of the best ways for us to be educated is to read books.
• 7:58
  It's almost too simple, you know, when we when we talk about it, and education really begins with reading and immersing yourself in in books.
• 8:11
  Uh it's not AI.
• 8:13
  AI is not the education, contrary to popular belief, contrary to the opinion of many of our beloved politicians.
• 8:21
  And I and I mean that.
• 8:23
  Some of them are beloved, but they are you know, they're being swept into the um the torrent of technology being the the end all be all save all.
• 8:36
  And AI is not that, it's not the end all be all save all.
• 8:40
  It's not the thing that's going to catapult Americans and American youth and the country uh at large, it's not gonna uh catapult us into into first place educationally, academically, it's not gonna do it.
• 8:57
  You know what is gonna do it?
• 8:59
  Reading.
• 9:00
  That's what's gonna do it.
• 9:01
  Reading great books, that's what's gonna do it.
• 9:05
  Putting yourself on a reading schedule.
• 9:07
  Now, this is I'm gonna get into this this article here.
• 9:11
  Um, that right now there is legislation being floated in some states that would require uh students, middle school students and high school students to read four full books a year.
• 9:26
  Um, which doesn't seem like a lot to me, it seems like.
• 9:30
  And I'm not sure I'm on board 100% with legislating this.
• 9:36
  Uh I don't know how I feel about that, about about forcing us to read.
• 9:42
  Um I you know, I don't know.
• 9:45
  You know, when the government starts, you know, forcing things, uh, that just kind of that rubs me wrong a little bit, so I don't know where I where I fall into that.
• 9:55
  I'm not I'm not quite on board that.
• 9:57
  I do agree though that we should be reading.
• 10:00
  And I'd like to put this out there.
• 10:02
  I would just like to put out a challenge.
• 10:06
  You know, at the start of the year, we we uh physical fitness is the dominant thing.
• 10:14
  That is the top priority in our list of goals or our list of resolutions.
• 10:20
  Physical fitness.
• 10:22
  We want to we want to get in shape and we we've got to get in shape for summertime.
• 10:26
  By golly, summer's gonna be here in four or five, six months, and we gotta look good.
• 10:31
  I mean, that's pretty much the the thing, right?
• 10:34
  The mantra.
• 10:36
  Uh and here we are.
• 10:37
  We just hit 100 days, by the way.
• 10:40
  Last few days ago, April 10th.
• 10:42
  I just counted it out.
• 10:43
  April 10th was our hundred days.
• 10:45
  And we, you know, we we judge uh presidents by their first hundred days.
• 10:51
  And I don't know if you remember this or not.
• 10:53
  But at the start of the year, when I was talking about, you know, resolutions and goals and that type of conversation that we have in January.
• 11:01
  I mentioned uh let's pay attention to 100 days.
• 11:06
  Let's see where we are a hundred days from now.
• 11:08
  Let's see if we still are in the same mode mentally that we were uh a hundred days ago.
• 11:15
  Because a lot of times mentally we start the year and we don't finish it in that same mental frame of mind.
• 11:21
  And I suggested that maybe we pay attention to the hundred day mark and we kind of see where we are.
• 11:27
  So this is a this is a good opportunity to throw out this challenge.
• 11:32
  It's a challenge that I gave to my students a couple days ago.
• 11:36
  And I said, I want you to tell me five books.
• 11:38
  You don't have to tell me now, but I want you to think of five books that you want to read between now and the end of the year, December 31st.
• 11:48
  You know, some hands went up and some kids could rattle them off to me right away, but others, you know, wanted to put put some thought to it.
• 11:54
  And I did have some students come to me and say, I don't, I don't know any books.
• 11:58
  I just I don't know what I want to read because I I don't know what's out there.
• 12:03
  And I was so grateful for that for that conversation, because it then gave me an opportunity to say, well, here, if if you want some advice or some input, I I've got a whole list of books that I want to give to you.
• 12:18
  And readily they were very uh accepting and very appreciative.
• 12:22
  And they said, Yeah, I was kind of hoping you'd you'd give me some books.
• 12:26
  And so we we just started going through some classic.
• 12:30
  And what I'm not gonna drop on them is Aristotle and Socrates and uh the Republic and uh you know, philosophy, because I I don't want to turn them off.
• 12:42
  I don't want to shut them down.
• 12:44
  And if you're not used to reading, if reading is not your favorite thing to do, I don't think you should start out by reading Thomas Aquinas.
• 12:53
  I just I just don't.
• 12:54
  I don't think that's I don't think that's beneficial.
• 12:58
  I I think we've got to start out in baby baby chunks.
• 13:02
  Ultimately, really, if you if you want to find a good place to start, you know, this question came up a few weeks ago.
• 13:09
  And uh, you know, what's uh if I want a classical education, uh, where do I start?
• 13:15
  I mean, let's say you're an adult and you never had a classical education, and you hear me talk about classical education all the time, and maybe you're interested in educating yourself classically.
• 13:26
  I I think that's legitimate.
• 13:28
  I think as adults, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 year olds, 70, 80, 90.
• 13:35
  I think we still have an opportunity to educate ourselves classically.
• 13:39
  And if we never have, where should we start?
• 13:42
  Well, I think we should go back to the beginning.
• 13:44
  Something simple.
• 13:45
  Aesop's Fables, for example.
• 13:48
  Yeah, seriously, Aesop's Fables is part of a classical education.
• 13:54
  We read them in the elementary grades.
• 13:56
  Um, and I I think we start there.
• 13:59
  I think if you want to, if you want a place to start, read the fables.
• 14:03
  You can get a book of them.
• 14:05
  I mean, they're out there.
• 14:07
  Uh, you know, that's that's one example of a place you could start.
• 14:11
  And and then I I mean, I tell these kids though, let's let's find a novel that's fun.
• 14:18
  Uh maybe one where that they've made a movie about, and maybe you've seen the movie.
• 14:23
  Uh, the Count of Monte Cristo is a glorious place to start.
• 14:26
  It's a tome, though.
• 14:28
  I don't know, it's thick.
• 14:29
  I don't know how many pages it has.
• 14:31
  I'm in the middle of it right now.
• 14:33
  I'm about a third of the way through it.
• 14:35
  I don't know, it might have six, seven, eight hundred pages.
• 14:37
  Quite frankly, I've not counted yet.
• 14:40
  Or, you know, maybe we start it at Dracula or Frankenstein.
• 14:43
  You know, it's a different genre.
• 14:45
  Uh, maybe the three musketeers, uh, maybe the man in the iron mask, maybe um uh, you know, uh something like that.
• 14:55
  Let's start there.
• 14:56
  And and maybe if we don't like to read, maybe this would kind of help the enjoyment along if we read something, something like that.
• 15:04
  Aesop's fables to, you know, to Dracula to Frankenstein.
• 15:09
  There are uh there are many places to start.
• 15:12
  I mean, you don't have to start at these places, but someplace simple.
• 15:16
  If you want to begin educating yourself classically, start it, start somewhere simple, and then and then let's go after it.
• 15:24
  So I asked the kids, I've just five books.
• 15:26
  That's all I need is five books.
• 15:28
  And I'm gonna put this challenge out to you.
• 15:30
  What five books would you like to read between now and the end of the year?
• 15:34
  Now we are you know, four and a half months into the year now.
• 15:41
  So I don't know.
• 15:43
  We're looking at uh eight months left, seven and a half months left.
• 15:46
  I mean, surely you can you can down five books probably in seven months.
• 15:52
  I mean, that what is that?
• 15:53
  A book uh I mean uh it's a little more than five books, I mean a book a month, and you know, with a couple of months to to kind of offset.
• 16:02
  I mean, you think you could do a book in 30 days?
• 16:04
  I mean, you couldn't do the count of Monte Cristo in 30 days, unless that's all you did was read it.
• 16:09
  I don't know, maybe you could.
• 16:11
  So maybe we start with something a little lighter, maybe Aesop's Fables, maybe you know, something a little a little smaller, you know, Dracula and is certainly smaller than the Count of Monte Cristo.
• 16:21
  Uh Doomist, who also wrote The Three Musketeers and The Man on the Iron Mass, those books are thicker.
• 16:27
  Um, they're they're more tomish, so maybe you're not gonna get through one a month.
• 16:31
  Um but it would just be a good place to start.
• 16:34
  List five books that that you'd like to read.
• 16:38
  Uh certainly uh Tolkien would be up there.
• 16:42
  C.S.
• 16:42
  Lewis would be up there.
• 16:43
  I mean, you could you could certainly read the the Chronicles of Narnia.
• 16:47
  There's seven books there.
• 16:48
  You could get through that between now and the end of the year.
• 16:51
  Yeah, those books are smaller.
• 16:54
  Uh the story moves moves quickly.
• 16:57
  That would be a great place to start.
• 16:58
  The Chronicles of Narnia.
• 17:00
  Um, you know, but uh I I think if we set this goal, again, I referred to setting the goal physically at the start of the year here at the hundred days.
• 17:10
  Why don't we go mentally?
• 17:11
  Let's help ourselves along mentally.
• 17:15
  And let's let's pick five books and let's make that a goal.
• 17:20
  Let's go after it.
• 17:21
  I'm encouraging my students here to do it, and I encourage you also to do it.
• 17:26
  Let's go after five books, and let's just read.
• 17:30
  And then at the start of next year, up the ante.
• 17:33
  You know, I would I wouldn't double it.
• 17:36
  I mean, you could double it, but I'd say, you know, if you read five books this year, maybe go six or seven next year.
• 17:42
  Maybe go eight, maybe go.
• 17:43
  Now, I I tend to be a slow reader.
• 17:46
  To me, the quantity is not the thing.
• 17:49
  It used to be.
• 17:50
  The quantity used to be the thing.
• 17:51
  I used to be like, I want to, I want to read 50 books this year.
• 17:54
  And I had a list of books I wanted to get through.
• 17:56
  And I just I'd plow through them.
• 18:00
  That was not quality reading, though.
• 18:03
  I mean, yeah, it was great for me to say, I read 50 books this year, and let me tell you which ones they were.
• 18:09
  I'll go through the list, and you're gonna be, you're gonna be you're gonna stand in amazement at the fact that I read these 50 books.
• 18:18
  And what good is that?
• 18:21
  That doesn't do any good except inflate my ego momentarily.
• 18:25
  It didn't take me long to come to the conclusion that that's not helping anybody, especially me.
• 18:31
  And the objective here is to help me.
• 18:32
  That's why I'm reading, to help me, to help me get better.
• 18:36
  I mean, it's the whole point of self-help.
• 18:40
  And so I uh I've just I've knocked it right down.
• 18:44
  I'm happy with 10 a year, maybe 12 a year.
• 18:48
  I might get through one a month.
• 18:49
  But like I said, right now I'm reading um I'm reading Monte Cristo, and I'm not, it's probably gonna take me four or five months to get through that book.
• 18:58
  And I read a little bit every night.
• 18:59
  Cindy and I, it's part of our routine because it makes us sleepy and it and we like to go, we like to fall asleep sleepy.
• 19:09
  Um you know, I'm not gonna get through the the count in in a month.
• 19:16
  Qualitative reading is more important to me.
• 19:18
  I don't care about how many books I get through.
• 19:20
  That's not the point.
• 19:21
  The point is that you read.
• 19:24
  Uh, and that that you you read qualitatively, that you comprehend, that you take it in and comprehend.
• 19:30
  I've got a book here.
• 19:32
  I'm looking at it right now, it's called How to Read a Book.
• 19:35
  That's the title of it.
• 19:36
  I've got a book called How to Read a Book.
• 19:38
  It's a classic by Mortimer Adler.
• 19:42
  And you know, if you're interested on how to read a book, you know, pick up the book on how to read a book.
• 19:48
  Um because it again, it tells us and instructs us and kind of things that we already know, but it's it's it's enlightening to to some degree anyway, that you know, read to comprehend.
• 20:00
  Slow it way down and then just go after it and enjoy it.
• 20:04
  Take it in and enjoy it.
• 20:05
  The whole point of reading to me is that I'm going to like it, that I'm going to enjoy it, that I'm going to comprehend something from it.
• 20:13
  I don't read to comprehend, actually.
• 20:15
  I read to enjoy.
• 20:16
  And Adler says, uh, you should, you know, that's one of the aspects, read to enjoy, but that's not the highest.
• 20:21
  The highest is read to comprehend.
• 20:22
  And which, you know, that's fair, read to comprehend, but I think you should read for enjoyment.
• 20:28
  Now, I should say this.
• 20:29
  I'm also reading Aquinas at the moment, and that's more read to comprehend, I think.
• 20:35
  Uh, if we're gonna if we're going to be true to it, I do enjoy it because I'm interested in it, because I want to know what he thought.
• 20:42
  But it's not as much reading for enjoyment as much as it is comprehension.
• 20:47
  I don't know, it's just it's one of those things.
• 20:49
  All right.
• 20:49
  Uh, tell you what, let's pause here.
• 20:51
  I'm looking at the clock.
• 20:52
  I want to jump into this article on the other side of this break regarding the push to make kids read again.
• 20:59
  And maybe we should also take advantage of this push and cause ourselves to read again.
• 21:05
  All right, we're gonna dive into it after this break.
• 21:10
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• 21:10
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• 24:58
  Okay, so I want to get into this thought, this idea here of legislating the uh the book reading requirement and schools.
• 25:11
  This is being floated right now, even as we speak for middle school and high school students.
• 25:18
  Uh it's coming out of uh Florida is really, which we're not surprised because you know, Florida's very much uh geared towards this sort of thing academically.
• 25:32
  Uh Stanley Kurtz is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, and Mark Bauerleen is a trustee at New College in Florida, and they're introducing model legislation requiring students in grades six to twelve to read two books per semester.
• 25:54
  This would be four books per academic year.
• 25:57
  So in that nine-month, that 10-month window of schooling, we're looking at four books.
• 26:05
  Uh Kurtz expects to discuss the books act with state lawmakers in the months ahead.
• 26:11
  So these two guys are uh spearheading this this effort.
• 26:17
  He says it's too early to get into detail, but I do think we'll see legislation inspired by this model introduced in at least a few states in 2027, maybe more if we're lucky.
• 26:31
  He told this to the epoch times in uh um in an email.
• 26:36
  Now, again, I don't know where I stand here regarding the legislation of of a book number, a book count.
• 26:47
  Uh to me, this is this is low.
• 26:50
  It's not um this isn't high.
• 26:55
  Four books a year.
• 26:56
  I mean, for example, when we uh let me just consider our freshman class here.
• 27:03
  Our freshmen historically, they are in um old world history, and so we're we're reading text from the old world.
• 27:13
  I mean, we're talking the the the Iliad, the Odyssey, uh the Aeneid.
• 27:19
  Uh, we will read those three at least four.
• 27:23
  We'll we'll get through um we got through the um Oedipus cycle.
• 27:30
  There's three there.
• 27:31
  Um we will get through one of the Shakespeare books.
• 27:37
  Again, this is just ninth grade.
• 27:38
  I'm looking at three, six, seven, eight.
• 27:41
  We will probably double this count.
• 27:43
  I would say eight.
• 27:44
  I think we'll probably get to eight.
• 27:46
  I mean, that's decent.
• 27:48
  Uh, you know, there's you know, four, I I guess it's a good place to start again.
• 27:53
  I just I think schools should be doing this on their own.
• 27:56
  I don't know that it would that it should require legislation.
• 28:00
  I would think academically that we would want to do this.
• 28:04
  And maybe these guys are thinking it's not happening, so maybe we should legislate it and make it happen.
• 28:10
  It needs to be happening, and if the schools aren't going to do their job and take education seriously and start reading actual books, then um maybe we need to legislate it.
• 28:23
  So I I understand that that that point of view, and I get that stance.
• 28:28
  I just, you know, when the government starts legislating things that you have to do.
• 28:33
  I don't know.
• 28:34
  I'm I'm just you kind of see where I'm I'm I'm waffling across the the fence here.
• 28:41
  Uh this article refers to the common core standards that that really became a thing during the Barack Obama presidency.
• 28:51
  Uh the the Common Core, if you recall anything about them.
• 28:55
  They were a set of academic benchmarks.
• 28:58
  Uh 41 states, by the way, adopted them, uh, including uh Washington, DC.
• 29:05
  And the point was to establish comparable standards for math and English language arts between the states, at least this is what we were told.
• 29:15
  Okay, we want comparable standards.
• 29:17
  We want to we want to compare California scores with New York scores and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
• 29:22
  This is what we were told.
• 29:25
  Um, and so teachers would extract key concepts from uh excerpts, and uh this was the point that we could just take concepts from from this book and this book and this idea and this idea, and then and and then we can we can cover more ground.
• 29:44
  We can cover more works by more authors without requiring students to read entire books.
• 29:51
  That was the caveat.
• 29:53
  Seriously, this is what this is what Common Core did.
• 29:56
  It took away the the quote.
• 30:00
  Quote unquote need to read books.
• 30:01
  Well, we don't we don't actually have to read books anymore.
• 30:06
  Why we um well we're just gonna have the teacher give give excerpts from this and that and and the other, and and then we can cover more ground.
• 30:16
  We can it's it's more like an an anthology, as it were.
• 30:21
  And this is what it did.
• 30:23
  And um we stopped reading books.
• 30:28
  People point, by the way, they they point to the Obama years of this decline in in nape scores.
• 30:36
  Well, and there's some truth to that.
• 30:38
  The nape did decline coming out of the Obama years.
• 30:43
  Um, I mean, the napes have never been good.
• 30:45
  They've been declining uh in a free fall since 1962, 63 when we ushered morality out of the schools.
• 30:53
  I've got the receipts on that.
• 30:54
  We've talked about it here.
• 30:56
  If you've listened to me for any length of time, you know where we stand on that.
• 31:01
  But it is true after the Obama years that then the scores continue to plummet and dip.
• 31:08
  Uh the word text, since we're just talking about common core and the common core standards, the word text itself, T E X T appears more than 180 times within the Common Core standards for K12 English language arts.
• 31:26
  By contrast, the word books appears nine times.
• 31:32
  180 times for the word text, nine times for the word books.
• 31:39
  The word novel, that occurs five times.
• 31:44
  Uh and and both books and novel are referenced mostly to contrast the genres, stories, poetry, fiction, graphic or or historical novels, rather than uh a specific book or a specific novel.
• 32:01
  What do you think about that?
• 32:03
  Even the in this article cites that even the scholastic aptitude test, the vaunted SAT, which is used for college admissions, was modified in order to include shorter passages or texts in the verbal section.
• 32:20
  Anyone know what that modification is?
• 32:23
  It was it used to be a range of 500 to 750 words.
• 32:30
  You want to know what the range now is.
• 32:32
  I think, don't quote me.
• 32:35
  I think the range is 25 to 175 words.
• 32:39
  That's the range.
• 32:41
  Are we are we dumbing it down?
• 32:43
  And and and they'll tell us, well, it's because that's what those are the amount of words that kids use when they text back and forth.
• 32:51
  So we have lowered the standards.
• 32:55
  And you know, you know, way back when, decades ago, we lowered the standards, and kids kids rose to that lowering.
• 33:03
  If there's an oxymoron for you, they met those standards that we lowered.
• 33:09
  And now their standards don't even meet the standards that we lowered it to, and because they're texting, and now we are lowering our standards to them to meet them where they are.
• 33:19
  Well, you gotta meet them where they are.
• 33:22
  You can't expect them to.
• 33:23
  I mean, they only they only text 25 words.
• 33:26
  I mean, you can't expect them to write 750.
• 33:30
  Why they they can't, they don't have enough thought power to put 750 words strung together in a sentence.
• 33:37
  And so we we lower ourselves to meet them.
• 33:42
  And that's that's not the answer.
• 33:44
  I'm telling you right now.
• 33:46
  Matter of fact, I've got a I've got another article over here that uh is talking about the SAT versus the CLT, the CLT, as you know, is the classic learning test.
• 33:59
  It's what we take here at Waterbrook.
• 34:01
  We don't take the SATs.
• 34:03
  We take the CLTs, and many universities are uh also accepting the CLT.
• 34:10
  Uh the goal out of the CLT, by the way, and this isn't a piece from CLT.
• 34:15
  This is out of the the epoch times.
• 34:17
  It's a commentary out of the epoch times.
• 34:19
  Uh the CLT's goal is to connect students with truth, goodness and beauty.
• 34:24
  It's poised to become the number one college entrance exam.
• 34:31
  And it's focused on goodness, truth, and beauty.
• 34:35
  So the the in this article, uh, the person says, I don't see his name on here.
• 34:41
  I want to give him credit.
• 34:42
  I don't see his name.
• 34:44
  He says, Reading the the SAT practice test number 10.
• 34:48
  I find myself learning about the obscure painter Jacob Lawrence, whose modernist paintings would be passed over by 99% of Americans as nothing more significant than a weird high school art project.
• 35:02
  We are left to assume that Lawrence's prominent location on the SAT is derived from the fact that he's an African American, but shouldn't we be judging his paintings to paraphrase Martin Luther King Jr.
• 35:16
  The content of their character, not the color of their skin?
• 35:20
  Okay, so there's a question on the SAT that refers to this dude's paintings.
• 35:26
  I mean, no one knows who he is.
• 35:27
  Is he just on there because he's a black man?
• 35:30
  Presumably, because his his paintings aren't that great.
• 35:35
  Shouldn't we be including questions on our tests that refer to paintings from the masters?
• 35:42
  I mean, from from actual works of art that are just mind-blowing.
• 35:49
  I mean, this guy describes uh Lawrence's paintings as nothing more significant than a weird high school art project.
• 35:59
  Michael Angelo's paintings are certainly uh beyond a uh a weird high school art project.
• 36:07
  He says the next question on the test I'm taking, which again is practice test number number 10.
• 36:15
  He says the next question just happens to be about the first Hispanic woman to go to space.
• 36:20
  Why are these questions highlighting people we've probably never heard of?
• 36:25
  These must be questions about art, history, American history, or astronomy, you might be thinking.
• 36:30
  No, these questions are testing ordinary vocabulary, and he just goes on and on and on about uh what's happened to the SAT and how it's really made itself irrelevant.
• 36:44
  But then he says uh he could starts comparing it to the classic learning test.
• 36:49
  Uh, as an alternative, as an alternative to the SAT.
• 36:53
  He says the CLT seeks to make education about learning built upon a classical foundation, the way that education has been done successfully for thousands of years.
• 37:04
  If the SA team measures its success in predicting how well students will fare in college, the CLT takes its most fundamental goal as helping students become better human beings, more connected with truth with goodness and with beauty.
• 37:21
  And I can tell you that.
• 37:23
  I wonder if he talks about the uh the the writing here in terms of how many words they I don't see it.
• 37:31
  I'm just kind of perusing as we go.
• 37:33
  He's talking about the novels that the CLT refers to.
• 37:38
  I don't see the the right of the segment, but the SAT, it's true.
• 37:43
  It has uh it has modified itself to include shorter patches of passages, and a lot of that is because coming out of uh the common core standards and and the Obama administration, this is what was delivered.
• 38:00
  The kids were not required to do any more reading.
• 38:04
  I I shouldn't say it that way.
• 38:05
  I shouldn't say the kids weren't required to do any more reading.
• 38:09
  I take that back.
• 38:10
  They weren't required to read books, they weren't required to read novels.
• 38:15
  I I found this the other day.
• 38:17
  I I this was a meme.
• 38:20
  Uh so I I'm not I'm not I guess I'm not restating it based upon its uh factualness.
• 38:31
  I mean, I don't know, it it might be a fact.
• 38:33
  I just I'm I'm pulling it up because it would struck me as funny.
• 38:37
  Uh Harvard fell off.
• 38:39
  It says Harvard circa 1700s.
• 38:44
  Okay, this was the founding, our our nation's oldest university.
• 38:48
  And in its um governing documents, listen to this.
• 38:53
  It says no student shall be admitted unless they can translate Greek and Latin authors such as Toli, Virgil, the New Testament, and Xenophon.
• 39:03
  Harvard circa 2026.
• 39:05
  We can't assign whole novels anymore.
• 39:09
  And my how they've how they have fallen.
• 39:13
  Again, this this is this has come about on purpose.
• 39:17
  I mean, this isn't accidental, nothing accidental about it.
• 39:22
  All right, uh tell you what, my friends, let's pause here because I'm running out of time uh and I want to save us more time in the third segment to get back into this article.
• 39:30
  We'll pick it up on the other side of this break.
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  All right.
• 42:38
  Let's get back to this push to make kids read again.
• 42:44
  Uh we we ended that the the last segment talking about the the scholastic aptitude test and how they've even modified their um the the texts and their verbal section to include shorter passages.
• 43:00
  And it's disappointing, it's upsetting because we've lowered the bar and now we are lowering it even lower.
• 43:07
  Education policy experts say these changes cost students cognitive persistence and the ability to follow ideas and narratives over time.
• 43:20
  Now, with concerns about record low test scores and short attention spans, they're calling for the return of entire books to public schools, bring them back, bring the books back.
• 43:31
  We we're done with this experiment.
• 43:34
  We are seeing uh the abysmal effects.
• 43:37
  Let's bring back books, actual books.
• 43:41
  Doug Lemoff is the founder of the nonprofit education consulting organization called Teach Like a Champion.
• 43:50
  He told the Epoch Times, he said it it takes time and work to enter a book.
• 43:55
  And by entering the book, he he's referring to reading it, actually going into it.
• 44:00
  Takes time and work, and that's actually important for students to achieve and that persistence.
• 44:12
  You got to dive into the story.
• 44:14
  It's not going to be resolved in 30 minutes.
• 44:17
  It's not like a 30-minute sitcom.
• 44:20
  And the problem isn't taken care of.
• 44:22
  It's not going to be resolved in a you know, in a two-minute video.
• 44:29
  Um he said this uh during uh an American Enterprise Institute panel discussion.
• 44:37
  He's making these comments, and he went further.
• 44:40
  He said they live in a world of instant gratification, meaning our students now and today.
• 44:45
  They live in a world of instant gratification.
• 44:48
  But the book teaches you that if you persist and you struggle, you're rewarded with the depth of thought and insight you don't get from any other media.
• 44:59
  And I I don't know that that young people today realize that.
• 45:04
  I don't know that they're experiencing that.
• 45:08
  Well, I can tell you right now they're not.
• 45:09
  They're not experiencing it.
• 45:11
  Uh, the most recent uh NAPE progress report, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
• 45:20
  Uh, it's it's based on all the state's test scores.
• 45:24
  The most recent indicated that only 35% of high school seniors are at or above proficiency levels.
• 45:33
  And this is the most recent is from the 2024 testing.
• 45:38
  35% of high school seniors are reading at grade level.
• 45:44
  This is down from 40% in 1992.
• 45:50
  So when they first really started recording the nape.
• 45:54
  Um they did it differently before we we've got the nape.
• 45:59
  They they um they scored this stuff differently.
• 46:04
  The reason they changed it has everything to do with David Barton and wall builders because they did this research that showed from 6263 when morality was kicked out of school, test scores from that point, 6263 test scores tanked, and the only common denominator was that the Bible and prayer was no longer allowed in schools, and so then we get in the early 90s, and they're like, we we gotta change how we're recording this.
• 46:33
  So all of the nape, it it goes back to 92, but even from 92, we're down um 40 percent.
• 46:44
  I mean, it was 40 percent in 1992, and and we're down now at 35 percent high school seniors reading at grade level.
• 46:52
  It was horrible in 92.
• 46:54
  It's it's even worse now.
• 46:58
  Um, 69 percent of fourth graders are at reading level.
• 47:05
  70% of eighth graders are at reading level.
• 47:09
  So I mean you it's pretty close.
• 47:11
  Fourth and fourth grade and at the eighth grade benchmark, they're right there.
• 47:14
  Then when you get to the senior level, when they're seniors, that benchmark.
• 47:18
  It's it's it's more than cut in half.
• 47:22
  The disfluency epidemic, this is what uh Limoff calls it.
• 47:27
  The disfluency epidemic, he says, is growing as students increasingly read less outside of school.
• 47:35
  And worse, he said, with the intrusion of cell phones and the screen.
• 47:40
  Young people are reading or learning to read in a constant state of distraction.
• 47:45
  We know this.
• 47:46
  We talk about it all the time.
• 47:48
  Their attention is being fractured.
• 47:50
  Limoff continued and said a part of the human brain is dedicated to speaking, but that organ, the brain, doesn't have a natural space for reading through quality repetition.
• 48:02
  Parts of the brain that are naturally built for some other process are absorbed into reading.
• 48:10
  How you fire is how you wire, he said.
• 48:13
  Um, so you know, here we are trying to get books back into the classroom, and really it's the parents who can lead the way on this.
• 48:24
  It's the parents who can set the example.
• 48:27
  And an uh an analysis of the U.S.
• 48:30
  Bureau of Labor Statistics reported by the Science Academic Journal.
• 48:35
  Uh the labor uh U.S.
• 48:38
  labor statistics indicates that only 16% of Americans aged 15 and up read for pleasure regularly, only 15%.
• 48:51
  This this came out of a 2023 report.
• 48:54
  This is down uh 28% from 2004.
• 49:01
  It also said that only, and this is the part that just grabbed me right here.
• 49:06
  2% of the survey participants read with their children on an average day.
• 49:13
  2% of parents read with their kids.
• 49:17
  Now we just had a conversation yesterday with uh a couple of wonderful ladies uh from an organization, uh, heart to heart that is that they're interested, they're they're really truly driven to encourage fathers, really, to read with their kids.
• 49:37
  And we're talking about this program and and how to uh how to encourage dads to to read with their kids.
• 49:45
  And I'm honored honored to to climb on board with these two and to promote this program.
• 49:52
  Uh, and I'll I'll be talking more about it and and the days and weeks to come.
• 49:57
  I've I've mentioned it a little bit and just to kind of
• 50:00
  Of drop little teasers here.
• 50:01
  I'll be talking about them more.
• 50:03
  But with only 2% of parents reading to kids, we need this percentage to climb.
• 50:10
  I mean, 10% would be impressive.
• 50:13
  20% would amaz would be amazing.
• 50:15
  50% would be unbelievable.
• 50:17
  Could you imagine?
• 50:19
  If we had half of the parents in this country, I mean, it really should be 100%, but statistically, that's impossible.
• 50:27
  But right now it's only two.
• 50:28
  So there's there's there's growth.
• 50:30
  There's room for growth here.
• 50:33
  Uh it is it's imperative, really, that this happen.
• 50:40
  The the iScience report here out of the U.S.
• 50:43
  Bureau of Labor Statistics stated that people have a finite amount of leisure time and limited cognitive ability, resulting in an intent and attention economy, whereby activities are in competition.
• 50:59
  And that's true.
• 51:00
  Our leisure time is in competition.
• 51:04
  Uh, you know, there's there's all sorts of competition available to us when it's leisure time, both for us and our kids.
• 51:12
  But this has got to become a priority, I think.
• 51:14
  And it doesn't have to be time consuming.
• 51:17
  10 minutes, 10, 15 minutes, really.
• 51:20
  I mean, I spent years reading 10, 15 minutes uh to my son Joshua before bedtime.
• 51:28
  I mean, for years.
• 51:29
  This went on for years.
• 51:31
  And that there were days where he would say, Hey, I want to go down uh to the basketball court in town and I'm gonna shoot some baskets, but can you come with me and can you read?
• 51:42
  Because this is the part of the book that's really good.
• 51:45
  And we did that, and we would go, and I guess normal dads, I'm not normal, but normal dads would be down there shooting hoops with their son.
• 51:52
  My son's shooting baskets, and I'm I'm down there reading a book doing.
• 51:56
  No, there were times where I would put the book down and we would we would play basketball, but um you you can s my point is you can squeeze it in, and if you if you start doing it as parents, if you start reading to your children, eventually they are well, I shouldn't say eventually, they're gonna love it.
• 52:13
  They're gonna love the attention, they're gonna love that that you're reading to them, and it's not going to be difficult to find the time to squeeze it in.
• 52:23
  So, yes, people have a finite amount of leisure time and limited cognitive ability, but you can do this, telling you your children need you to do this.
• 52:33
  A March 23rd Ed Week Research Center report based on a nationwide survey of 693 teachers, principals, and district level school leaders found that 72 percent of educators at the secondary level, grades uh grade six to twelve, would like to see parents more involved in their children's reading progress.
• 52:57
  72 percent of teachers said, Yeah, I would love it if if parents would would read to their kids.
• 53:04
  Additionally, 58 percent of those surveyed indicated that more than one quarter of their middle or high school students struggle with basic level reading.
• 53:16
  I mean, obviously, that's uh that's factual when the meet comes out and says that you know we're only at 69 percent of middle school students reading at grade level.
• 53:33
  Um I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I got that, I said that wrong.
• 53:38
  69 are not reading at grade level, which means only 30 are.
• 53:45
  Um this is I mean, this is not um, these numbers aren't great, they're not great at all.
• 53:54
  And it parents uh I think when we when we take the time and and show our our children the importance of reading and reading to them, it's gonna go far.
• 54:08
  Uh Guimar Mills is executive director of the college achieve Patterson K-12 Public Chartered School District in New Jersey, and he said he began phasing in an intensive book reading curriculum in 2023.
• 54:25
  He said, The reason I did this is because many of my students come from low-income households where parents rarely read for pleasure, or they have limited vocabulary, or they struggle with English.
• 54:37
  Students in grades six to nine are reading novels in his classroom 150 minutes per week, and they're spending 100 minutes each week discussing the books.
• 54:49
  Students in grades 10 to 12 are expected to read more outside of school, but they also have more freedom, he said, to choose which which books they like, and he noted that test scores have surged in recent years with at least three-quarters of students in the district achieving above proficiency level, not to mention higher sat scores, expanded vocabulary, noticeable improvement and research skills.
• 55:18
  And again, I said I said the other day that it's not being proficient in AI that's going to bump us ahead.
• 55:27
  It's not, it's reading.
• 55:29
  This is it right here.
• 55:30
  It's reading.
• 55:30
  Reading is what is going to put us ahead.
• 55:33
  I know right now AI is the talk, it's the sweetheart of all the politicians out there.
• 55:39
  When fact it's just simple, it's good old fashioned basic reading.
• 55:45
  It's just, you know, getting down to the nuts and bolts.
• 55:48
  Reading is fundamental.
• 55:50
  And we we need to start it.
• 55:52
  Again, I don't know that uh legislating it.
• 55:56
  I don't know that I'm on board with that.
• 55:58
  Um, I don't know, maybe I will be.
• 56:00
  Uh, you know, maybe it is important if schools aren't going to do it, maybe we do legislate that it happens.
• 56:06
  Uh ultimately, though, it's got to happen.
• 56:09
  We um we need to bring back books.
• 56:11
  We need to bring back the love for books.
• 56:14
  So again, I started with the challenge to you, an adult.
• 56:18
  What five books are you gonna read this year before the year is out?
• 56:22
  Pick five and just go after it.
• 56:25
  I got my five.
• 56:28
  Uh, I should be done with the count of Monte Cristo by July.
• 56:32
  I'm shooting, I'm shooting for July.
• 56:35
  All right, my friends, that is it.
• 56:36
  That's all the time we we have for today.
• 56:39
  Thank you for joining me.
• 56:40
  I love that you're a part of this audience.
• 56:43
  Encourage your friends and family to get on the dean's list.
• 56:46
  Let's unite to renovate the age.