Speaker 1: It's Nightside with Dan Ray on WBZ Koston's Radio. Oh
Speaker 1: thanks a lot, Buddy, Dani's off tonight.
Speaker 2: It is a Friday night, and we just don't know
Speaker 2: what's going to happen around here.
Speaker 1: On WBC's Nightside, it's.
Speaker 2: Been one of those weeks. You know, I spent a
Speaker 2: week in Vegas. Then you just never know what's going
Speaker 2: to go down. If any of you don't like me,
Speaker 2: you have this man to blame. Joining me right now
Speaker 2: is educator, politician, philosopher, Beer Drinker, softball star country music lover.
Speaker 1: Have I forgotten anything? Jello wrestler Radio tak show host
Speaker 1: Rich Kimball joins us.
Speaker 2: The reason I am in this business? Rich, Welcome to
Speaker 2: night Side, Jerry.
Speaker 3: Do I have to take all the blame for them?
Speaker 1: Yes you do?
Speaker 2: Yes, Yes you do? And Rich listen. You can catch
Speaker 2: him online. He does a great job. Downtown is the
Speaker 2: name of the show that he does up in Vangora.
Speaker 2: He and Stephen King a drinking buddies.
Speaker 1: So he works at Stephen Kings Stephen King's tax right off.
Speaker 1: Is that what that ready to say? Anyway?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, what's what's the what's the website.
Speaker 2: If people want to check out.
Speaker 3: Richie Downtown with rich Kimball dot com.
Speaker 1: There you go. It's that simple. So he has great
Speaker 1: guests on and he's a good friend of me.
Speaker 3: It did, by the way, a great interview. We did
Speaker 3: an hour with Dwight Evans talking about his new book
Speaker 3: and it was great.
Speaker 1: Oh who do you write it with?
Speaker 3: Eric Sherman?
Speaker 1: Okay, I don't know him, but yeah, Doe, he's one
Speaker 1: of the best.
Speaker 2: You know, he's such a gentleman and his I don't
Speaker 2: want to get off topic, but well, who cares, what
Speaker 2: the hell? But the thing about Evans that people I
Speaker 2: think are coming to know is his off field.
Speaker 1: Life was brutal. I mean, as a parent, just brutal.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I knew, I knew that his boys
Speaker 3: had some issues, but I have no idea that you know,
Speaker 3: there were nights when he would be in the hospital
Speaker 3: all night and leave the hospital and go to Fenway
Speaker 3: for a game that was in years of that.
Speaker 2: I mean, one of my favorite Red Sox players. You know,
Speaker 2: you always have those group of players which you were.
Speaker 2: They're not Hall of famers, you know, they're not the
Speaker 2: they're not the big stars.
Speaker 1: They're not like the.
Speaker 2: Yaz or the you know, the Clemmens if you will,
Speaker 2: or those, But there's the next level guys. You know
Speaker 2: Tim Wakeful who we all loved, God bless him, we
Speaker 2: miss him. He was one of those guys, you know.
Speaker 2: And Evans was the same thing and had perhaps probably
Speaker 2: I mean you know, better than me, the greatest right arm,
Speaker 2: the greatest arm ever in the outfield?
Speaker 1: Was there any he and Clemente.
Speaker 3: I would I would say in my lifetime absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well, Richard's here to talk about educating the youth of
Speaker 2: America because he's such a great role model. And Richie
Speaker 2: and I start to have a debate on the phone
Speaker 2: the other day. We were talking about Generation gen Z
Speaker 2: and you how many years as a teacher and administrator
Speaker 2: up in Brewer Bruin.
Speaker 3: Banker thirty five years?
Speaker 1: Amazing?
Speaker 2: And I remember when you were at Boys State. That's
Speaker 2: when I first met you, when you were a role model.
Speaker 1: But you have an interesting thing.
Speaker 3: And not only was I role model, but you were
Speaker 3: selected as a future leader of America by your school.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was Mexico made. It wasn't It wasn't
Speaker 2: a hard pick. It wasn't hard I believe me. If
Speaker 2: I had lived in Rumford across the river, I wouldn't
Speaker 2: have made it. So this generation, and I've been teaching
Speaker 2: at Emerson, and this generation is getting a rap, a
Speaker 2: bad rap in the eyes of some. You may be
Speaker 2: one of not having a proper work ethic like we did.
Speaker 3: And how do you respond to that absolute nonsense? And
Speaker 3: I've told you before, I always think back on the
Speaker 3: movie The Breakfast Club when the assistant principal is talking
Speaker 3: to the custodian. He says, ah, the kids have changed.
Speaker 3: The custodian says, the kids haven't changed, deck, You've changed.
Speaker 3: You know, kids, they have different circumstances in life today.
Speaker 3: Kids are the same as they have or were. And
Speaker 3: you know, there are hard workers. There are kids who
Speaker 3: look for shortcuts. There are kids who get others to
Speaker 3: do their work for them, and then there are kids
Speaker 3: who who don't do much at all. But I haven't
Speaker 3: seen any change in the percentages of kids in each
Speaker 3: of those groups. And the hardest workers, I think work
Speaker 3: as hard as they ever did, and in some ways
Speaker 3: they're a lot better at it. And technology social media
Speaker 3: being one of those ways. I find that high school
Speaker 3: age kids much more savvy about technology and social media
Speaker 3: than their parents' generation is, and so they come with
Speaker 3: a lot of skills.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean when you're talking about obviously social media
Speaker 2: things are expertited, quickly, information, so forth on. But when
Speaker 2: you say better, in what way is there do you
Speaker 2: see other things besides the social media aspects? Basically, are
Speaker 2: you saying that they work smarter than we did?
Speaker 3: I think so, and and I think it's because they've
Speaker 3: spent their entire life having technology as a part of things,
Speaker 3: and so they learn to prioritize, they learn to I think,
Speaker 3: use their time more efficiently, and they also have pretty
Speaker 3: good BS detectors, whether it's in terms of seeing things
Speaker 3: on a social media site that they know are just ridiculous,
Speaker 3: but also in terms of, and I think in a
Speaker 3: good way, questioning what they're taught. I worked with a
Speaker 3: teacher a number of years ago who was teaching students
Speaker 3: in a high school class to memorize state capitals, and
Speaker 3: I said, why why are you doing that in the
Speaker 3: twenty first century? Unless they're going on Jeopardy next week?
Speaker 3: Why are we spending time on find on their phone
Speaker 3: in ten seconds? Because it's not all about we're not
Speaker 3: supposed to be teaching rote memorization. Now there's some of
Speaker 3: that that can be a building block of education, but
Speaker 3: we want to teach skills that can translate into the
Speaker 3: contemporary world. We want to teach them problem solving and
Speaker 3: let's not bog them down with the memorization of facts
Speaker 3: that they can find easily using technology. And kids saw
Speaker 3: through that. Kids are like, yeah, why do I really
Speaker 3: need to know that? And if I do, I can
Speaker 3: find it pretty quickly somewhere else.
Speaker 2: Well, yes, you can use that information either on Jeopardy
Speaker 2: or on Thursday Nights trivia nights for free pitches of
Speaker 2: beer at the Orinoco.
Speaker 3: But you know that was that would come in handy.
Speaker 3: But yeah, maybe that's why. Maybe that's why I'm here
Speaker 3: because I was really good at that, you know, the
Speaker 3: memorization of facts. Man, that was my week.
Speaker 2: You were unbelievable. No, Kimball, Kimball, you were freaky. No, no,
Speaker 2: you you are often No, no, no, you're scary.
Speaker 1: I mean the.
Speaker 2: Trivia stuff, like for people Richie and I we had
Speaker 2: a we worked at radio stations music trivia. Dude, you
Speaker 2: I don't know what planet you're from.
Speaker 1: I mean, you knew everybody no.
Speaker 3: And some of that stuff is stuck, which is a
Speaker 3: little scary. Like I'll hear a song from the sixties
Speaker 3: or seventies or the eighties, and with reasonable accuracy, I
Speaker 3: can not just tell you who recorded it, but how
Speaker 3: high had got on the chart. Oh yeah, and maybe
Speaker 3: who wrote it wrote it?
Speaker 1: Oh, that's no time.
Speaker 3: But I can't find my way home at night, so maybe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well that's trade off. There's a trade off. Rich
Speaker 2: Kimbell is our guest here, educator and TAKS show host,
Speaker 2: and yes, the reason I'm all here a guy gave
Speaker 2: me a job in college talking about the youth of today. Well,
Speaker 2: you just mentioned the BS meter, and you are one
Speaker 2: hundred percent right, because with my kids at twenty two,
Speaker 2: in nineteen and thirteen, I can't. I can't do it,
Speaker 2: and that they don't. They'll sniff it out on a heartbeat,
Speaker 2: especially the thirteen year old. She just knows if I'm
Speaker 2: full of crap, and she'll tell me. And I don't
Speaker 2: know what that is. I don't where that courage came from.
Speaker 2: I don't want to call it a lack of respect,
Speaker 2: but I would never at that age have said something
Speaker 2: to my parents or somebody else's parents or I never
Speaker 2: would have thought that an adult was wrong, right.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And that's I think the difference. I mean, I
Speaker 3: think we've always kids have always had that ability to
Speaker 3: see through things, but for generations you would never say anything.
Speaker 3: And I'm sure there are people who view that as
Speaker 3: a sign of disrespect, and it can certainly be delivered
Speaker 3: in a disrespectful way. But I think it's great to
Speaker 3: have young people that question, why am I, Why am
Speaker 3: I learning this? Why do I have to know this?
Speaker 3: How is this going to serve me going forward? Because
Speaker 3: particularly in education, you know how it is, We've still
Speaker 3: got some people and some schools that operate the way
Speaker 3: they did fifty seventy five, one hundred years ago, and
Speaker 3: that doesn't work for a lot of kids today. And
Speaker 3: I think it's great to have young people that advocate
Speaker 3: for themselves and say, I'm not sure I need to
Speaker 3: know this. Could we maybe focus on some things that
Speaker 3: I can actually use in college, out in my career,
Speaker 3: whatever it might be.
Speaker 1: Well, we want to get into some of those things.
Speaker 2: Rich Kimboler is our guest educator and talk show hosts
Speaker 2: joining me from the great state of Maide right here
Speaker 2: on wbz's Nightside Gary Tangley for Dan Ray More coming
Speaker 2: up on WBZ right after this.
Speaker 1: Now back to.
Speaker 3: Dan ray Line from the Window World.
Speaker 1: Night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 2: Educator talk show hosts Rich Kimball joining us here Gary
Speaker 2: Tangwing and for day tonight, Richie and you can check
Speaker 2: him out of Downtown with Rich Kimball dot com, and
Speaker 2: you really should. He's got he always has some terrific
Speaker 2: guests on there. Uh So, let's let's develop a curriculum. You,
Speaker 2: you and I are going to educate America. Like we
Speaker 2: talked about how they need to learn things that they
Speaker 2: can apply and education has to catch up with the youth.
Speaker 2: There's no doubt. And I'll give you some of my
Speaker 2: thoughts coming up. But at the high school level, what
Speaker 2: do you think needs to be done? What is the
Speaker 2: curriculum that needs to be in place?
Speaker 3: Well, the answer is I think that it's not one curriculum,
Speaker 3: that it's different for everybody. We always stay in education.
Speaker 3: We need to meet the students where they are. And
Speaker 3: then I was thinking about it during the break here
Speaker 3: that you know when I said kids are doing working
Speaker 3: as hard as they ever did and doing well and
Speaker 3: smart and capable, and that's true for the high flyers certainly.
Speaker 3: I had a kid who graduated last year brilliant. He
Speaker 3: was at Gates Foundation scholarship winner, full boat to Stanford,
Speaker 3: did the Seeds of Peace program with international students. He's
Speaker 3: an actor, a singer, and a songwriter.
Speaker 1: Doing it all sounds annoying.
Speaker 3: Imagine doing oh very much. He was great. But we're
Speaker 3: also finding this, and I think it was exacerbated by COVID.
Speaker 3: All schools are seeing this around the country. Attendances dropped,
Speaker 3: We're seeing more and more students who miss more school
Speaker 3: and miss school on a regular basis, and I think
Speaker 3: we've got to find ways to reach those students in
Speaker 3: the middle that maybe don't always have a connection, that
Speaker 3: don't want to go to college, aren't looking for a
Speaker 3: four year degree. I know, on our school system and
Speaker 3: some others in Maine, we've taken a different approach to
Speaker 3: things that we started with I think five or six
Speaker 3: other schools around the state something called the Construction Academy
Speaker 3: in the summertime, where students go off and work on
Speaker 3: construction sites and work with professionals in the industry, again
Speaker 3: supervised by teachers, with a regular curriculum but getting some
Speaker 3: real world skills. Yeah. I had a student a couple
Speaker 3: of years ago who could I think he could go
Speaker 3: out in the parking lot and take a part of
Speaker 3: car and put it back together again. But before he
Speaker 3: could start working on vocational education, you know, he had
Speaker 3: to struggle through the regular curriculum and learn some things
Speaker 3: that a he wasn't interested in and be that he
Speaker 3: would struggle with. But he was brilliant in other ways.
Speaker 3: But we have an outdoor education program that I think
Speaker 3: teaches some groups of students more than they would ever
Speaker 3: learn in a classroom, being independent, planning for a trip, organizing,
Speaker 3: being leaders, and so I think we've got to find
Speaker 3: different pathways for kids if we can and get them
Speaker 3: there sooner. Doesn't mean you have to decide at fourteen
Speaker 3: what you want to do with your life. But I
Speaker 3: think we've got a lot of young people that know, hey,
Speaker 3: I want to work outdoors. I'm not interested in going
Speaker 3: to get a liberal arts degree somewhere. Can we point
Speaker 3: them in a direction sooner, and that's also likely to
Speaker 3: keep them in school and maybe cut down on the
Speaker 3: number of students that drop out or just plunk out.
Speaker 2: Well, there's no doubt about because I've discussed that with
Speaker 2: people in my town and the town that I happen
Speaker 2: to live in. It's assumed, which I think this is gross,
Speaker 2: that every kid is going to college. And I've said
Speaker 2: this to people I go that discuss me because you're
Speaker 2: putting pressure on kids that if they don't go to college,
Speaker 2: they're failures. Where if you go to trade, if you
Speaker 2: go to a trade school, dude, you know me, I
Speaker 2: can't screw in a light bulb. I can't get a plumber.
Speaker 2: There is a need in the trades without question. Where
Speaker 2: you don't have the school loan right you go to
Speaker 2: work right away. I mean the plumber I had forever
Speaker 2: before I had to find a new one. He was
Speaker 2: an accountant. He went to Bentley, did it for a year,
Speaker 2: hated it, but because he'd worked as a plumber in
Speaker 2: the summer, just started his own plumbing business. So there's
Speaker 2: a tremendous opportunity in what I would call the non
Speaker 2: collegiate avenue. And there's a huge void to fill because
Speaker 2: on the other end, rich when you have people coming
Speaker 2: out of college.
Speaker 1: There's a glot. There's too many kids and not enough jobs.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah. I remember years ago I had a student
Speaker 3: make a disparaging comment about one of the kids going
Speaker 3: to the vocational school, and I said, yeah, yeah, the
Speaker 3: big difference between between him and those people are going
Speaker 3: to go get a liberal arts degree. He's going to
Speaker 3: get a job when he gets out, there's no question.
Speaker 3: And some others of you will have a four year
Speaker 3: degree going welcome to Walmart Man, I help.
Speaker 2: You, there's no question. And you're going to owe two
Speaker 2: hundred and fifty thousand dollars in school loans if your
Speaker 2: parents weren't able to pay it, and you.
Speaker 3: Know, doing it non traditionally. I was a good enough
Speaker 3: student in high school. I was a terrible student when
Speaker 3: I started college. I hadn't really learned how to study
Speaker 3: when I was in high school, and you know, as
Speaker 3: you know, I was working radio and TV a million
Speaker 3: hours a week. That was fun, and they were giving
Speaker 3: me money, and the classes were not so fun, and
Speaker 3: I was having to give them money for it. And
Speaker 3: it took me a while to figure out how to
Speaker 3: be a good college student. And it was only when
Speaker 3: I went back after several years and had to finish
Speaker 3: up my degree to become a teacher at twenty nine.
Speaker 3: I was a good college student at eighteen. I wasn't.
Speaker 3: And it's not for everybody, and not everybody is ready
Speaker 3: at that age.
Speaker 2: Well, the value of college is always a huge debate,
Speaker 2: and it's becoming one now because it's so damn expensive
Speaker 2: where you have universities that are charging eighty ninety thousand
Speaker 2: dollars a year, and I look at it even in
Speaker 2: my own household, and I'm like, wait a minute, Wait
Speaker 2: a minute, wait a minute.
Speaker 3: Well, yeah, we always used to say, you know, being
Speaker 3: having a college degree can add a million dollars to
Speaker 3: your income over the course of your life. But if
Speaker 3: you spend three hundred to five hundred thousand dollars on college,
Speaker 3: now you go in debt, and of course your interest
Speaker 3: is going to make it much higher than that, and
Speaker 3: you've delayed your earning by four or five years. I'm
Speaker 3: not sure who makes out better in that deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I mean, and I've had I've had this
Speaker 2: discussion with administrators because I am teaching at Emerson. When
Speaker 2: I teach at Emerson, I told them, look, I'm not
Speaker 2: an out of the book guy. Now I do have
Speaker 2: some intro courses this semester, so it's going to be
Speaker 2: a little more elementary because the kids they're freshmen and
Speaker 2: you need that. You need a base, right. But I
Speaker 2: teach based on my experience, and the kids also teach
Speaker 2: me because I'll tell you rich when you go in
Speaker 2: and they say, well, Gary, you've been on TV and
Speaker 2: blah blah blah blah blahlah blah blah blah, and then
Speaker 2: I you know, twenty five out of the twenty seven
Speaker 2: students don't listen to radio.
Speaker 1: They don't really care.
Speaker 2: You know, do you have a TikTok account, mister tangwy,
Speaker 2: I go never when don't.
Speaker 1: Come each time?
Speaker 3: There are people that don't listen to radio. What is this?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean look even I mean at WBZ, I know,
Speaker 2: I know I'll take crap for this, but our podcast,
Speaker 2: I mean this.
Speaker 1: I always say to build my boss. Here I go.
Speaker 2: We do this show so you can upload it and
Speaker 2: people can listen to when they want.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's yeah, that's what we do.
Speaker 3: That's what you do days, right.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's what you do. That's what we do.
Speaker 2: I mean people might be listening to me now, but
Speaker 2: they're going to be also listening tomorrow when they're on
Speaker 2: the treadmill or whatever. That's that's just the way of
Speaker 2: the world right now. So you know, even as a teacher,
Speaker 2: I have to get up to speed with it. And
Speaker 2: you know, when you look at the price of college,
Speaker 2: you know, it's a big debate. Man, it's a do
Speaker 2: you go into debt? And the thing that still hasn't
Speaker 2: changed for the networking and also if you're not a
Speaker 2: trades person and you do want to do certain things,
Speaker 2: you still need the college degree because you have to
Speaker 2: prove that you.
Speaker 1: Have the aptitude to do it.
Speaker 2: I mean that that hasn't changed, correct, I mean you're
Speaker 2: not walking into corporate America without a degree.
Speaker 3: No. But I think we need to put more funding
Speaker 3: into things like community college programs where it can be
Speaker 3: affordable and where students can go for a couple of
Speaker 3: years or so. Did you know, Well, I think you
Speaker 3: probably did. But I know a lot of people when
Speaker 3: they start college, they don't know what they want to do.
Speaker 3: I think i'd change majors about four times. If you
Speaker 3: can go to community college for a couple of years
Speaker 3: and until you've got a bit more direction, transfer some
Speaker 3: of those credits and then go to a four year school.
Speaker 3: But to make it more affordable and more reasonable for people.
Speaker 3: And I think, you know, particularly state universities find a
Speaker 3: way to bring tuition back into the ballpark where where
Speaker 3: middle income people can afford that and not have to
Speaker 3: be in debt until there.
Speaker 2: For you, well, it all comes down to what I've
Speaker 2: experienced riches, It all comes down to it's the networking.
Speaker 2: I've talked to parents. Now, I go, why are you
Speaker 2: paying X to go to any They'll say the network.
Speaker 2: You know, I've experienced somewhat with my kids in some
Speaker 2: levels where their their school background. I won't get into specifics,
Speaker 2: but because of where they went, there's a.
Speaker 1: Huge there's a huge wall street like an action, you know.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, do I have to pay two hundred
Speaker 1: twenty fifty thousand dollars or whatever so my kid can
Speaker 1: get an internship? And some will say yes, or to
Speaker 1: get your foot in the door? You know that.
Speaker 3: Well now I used to say, and maybe maybe it's
Speaker 3: not true anymore. I used to say to students that
Speaker 3: college is all about you. If you're getting a bachelor's degree,
Speaker 3: it's what you put into it. You can get a
Speaker 3: great education at a whole lot of places. A state
Speaker 3: school or an IVY League school. And I don't know
Speaker 3: that a lot of employers maybe they do now, I
Speaker 3: don't know that a lot of employers differentiate when they
Speaker 3: see those applications come in and go, oh, oh you
Speaker 3: went you went there? Okay for a master's degree. Yes,
Speaker 3: where you're really honing in on something specific that you
Speaker 3: want to study, then I can see it making a difference.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's changed. I don't honestly know if that's the
Speaker 3: case anymore.
Speaker 2: My experience as a parent of dealing with education is
Speaker 2: the IVY do matter. H don't matter if you want.
Speaker 1: To go to law school.
Speaker 2: They they do still have some weight, But that's it
Speaker 2: as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 1: Maybe some nest cat schools.
Speaker 2: But like you know, if it then to me, I
Speaker 2: think it's all the same. Then you come down to well,
Speaker 2: the Michigan people hire Michigan people, you know, the BC people,
Speaker 2: I BC High higher, BC High people, you know, things
Speaker 2: of that nature.
Speaker 1: I used to have bad I rich, you know.
Speaker 2: I used to get so pissed off when I would
Speaker 2: come here to Boston because I was dealing with all
Speaker 2: my Syracuse cronies, you know, and I.
Speaker 1: Went, oh, excuse excuse me. I just went to um
Speaker 1: zero kiss my, you know what?
Speaker 3: So me.
Speaker 1: Oh, I had battles, believe me.
Speaker 2: And especially when I was working a Channel four and
Speaker 2: the Syracuse interns would come in and I'd say to
Speaker 2: the boys, okay, their mine, all right, I'm gonna I'm
Speaker 2: taking care of this this because it was a noxious
Speaker 2: you know, and it probably gave me a chip on
Speaker 2: my shoulder.
Speaker 1: But I would deal with that, you know.
Speaker 2: I don't I don't know, you know, but I do.
Speaker 2: I did have a friend who's whose father this is
Speaker 2: the way he did it. Guy's a doctor on the
Speaker 2: Cape and he's he's wealthy. Money wasn't a problem, and
Speaker 2: this is probably why money wasn't a problem. And he
Speaker 2: said to his kids, he said, the first two years
Speaker 2: you're going to Cape Cord Community College and you're getting all.
Speaker 1: Your basics, which is what you're saying.
Speaker 2: And he goes, then you're gonna tell me what you
Speaker 2: want to do. And two of his kids did that.
Speaker 2: Then they went to Tufts and became doctors. Right now,
Speaker 2: I see that as a good point, But then does
Speaker 2: that take away from the college experience, because I will
Speaker 2: tell you, along with working with you at you know,
Speaker 2: the radio.
Speaker 1: Stations we worked at. The biggest education for me was this.
Speaker 2: Very naive kid out of you know, Rumford, Maine who
Speaker 2: went on to become the social chairman of his fraternity.
Speaker 1: A social adjustment for me was huge, huge, right right.
Speaker 2: You know, So I don't know how you replicate that
Speaker 2: if you don't if you don't experience it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and you know, and I missed out on that
Speaker 3: because I was I was a commuter student going to
Speaker 3: the University of Maine, working radio and TV while I
Speaker 3: was going to school, and so I missed out on
Speaker 3: a chunk of that. I think I experienced more college
Speaker 3: life when I went back to finish up at twenty
Speaker 3: eight and twenty nine, and I was ten years older
Speaker 3: than some of the freshmen. But I've spent more time
Speaker 3: on campus and having more fun because I wasn't working
Speaker 3: one hundred hours.
Speaker 2: Well, I think you made it to du once or twice,
Speaker 2: so you were fine, okay, shop, I do want to
Speaker 2: talk about writing, being the lost star at the attention
Speaker 2: span and how we deal with that.
Speaker 1: I have some more issues I want to get in
Speaker 1: with you. Rich Kimberl is our guest.
Speaker 2: Check them out at Downtown with Rich Kimball dot Com,
Speaker 2: WC and ZO and Radio out of Bangor, a longtime
Speaker 2: educator and basically a friend of Gary. That's why he's here.
Speaker 2: We'll continue the conversation next on WBZ.
Speaker 1: You're on Night Side with Dan Ray on Boston's news radio,
Speaker 1: Very Tanguay for Day of Tonight.
Speaker 2: Rich Kimmel joining us here educator and Tasha host from
Speaker 2: the Great State of Maine. Richie, I don't know if
Speaker 2: you have the exact number, but when you were in the.
Speaker 1: Trenches with the kids, did you ever have any.
Speaker 2: Stats in what the attention span was and was it
Speaker 2: longer than ten seconds?
Speaker 3: Well, I like to think so. I always felt like this,
Speaker 3: this weird dual career of being a teacher and a
Speaker 3: broadcaster helped me a little bit in Bold because I
Speaker 3: had a loud voice. I would move around the room.
Speaker 3: I thought mostly history, civics, things of that sort through
Speaker 3: the years, and did it through storytelling and engaging kids
Speaker 3: and discussions. So I'd like to think maybe the attention
Speaker 3: span was a little longer than most and I was
Speaker 3: too loud for kids to be able to fall asleep,
Speaker 3: so maybe it was a little different in there. But
Speaker 3: I'm sure there were kids.
Speaker 1: You engaged with that tuned down, but but you engaged.
Speaker 3: Try to and that Look, that's the key. That's the key.
Speaker 3: I always say, Look, if they look forward to coming
Speaker 3: to class, that's half the battle. And if they're I
Speaker 3: don't want to say entertained, because that that diminishes from
Speaker 3: the teaching. But yeah, if they're engaged, if they're following along,
Speaker 3: hey you might learn a little bit just by accident,
Speaker 3: by hanging in there and participating in the discussion.
Speaker 1: Well that's my concern because of the attention span.
Speaker 2: And even you know, I was with my son and
Speaker 2: I don't know if you heard earlier, but we made
Speaker 2: we had a little guys trip to Vegas and we
Speaker 2: were watching one of my friend, Tory Champaign's doing a
Speaker 2: documentary on the Grateful Dead in sports. Wait, it's in
Speaker 2: mid it's going to be great. It's you will love
Speaker 2: it being a music guy in a sports guide. It's
Speaker 2: coming out a minute in August on ESPN. But even Van,
Speaker 2: you know, he was really into it. He was in
Speaker 2: at the dock watching it and he still had to,
Speaker 2: you know, look at his phone. You know, he would
Speaker 2: still look down at his phone and That's why, you know,
Speaker 2: when it comes to entertainment. Now, why the by Instagram stories?
Speaker 2: You know people look at those because fifteen second clubs.
Speaker 1: That's my biggest dis is the attack.
Speaker 3: You just brought up, the you brought up the you know,
Speaker 3: the thing that's sending off alarms throughout education. I know
Speaker 3: in our school district, in our neighboring school district, and
Speaker 3: I think in a lot of a lot of districts
Speaker 3: around the country, schools are seriously considering banning cell phones.
Speaker 3: Have to do it, have to do it. I understand
Speaker 3: we didn't quite know at first what it was like,
Speaker 3: but they are the single biggest obstacle to education in
Speaker 3: America right now.
Speaker 2: And because we live in such a crazy world, in
Speaker 2: a sick world, because of the school shootings, then people
Speaker 2: who we've been concernedable, I want my kid to have
Speaker 2: a phone because I want to know that they're okay.
Speaker 3: I will I will go back Tomber eleventh, two thousand
Speaker 3: and one, and in my own school, I could have
Speaker 3: probably counted on one hand the number of students with
Speaker 3: cell phones that morning. By the end of the month,
Speaker 3: I bet it was three quarters of the school. And
Speaker 3: we would explain to parents, we can get in touch
Speaker 3: with your son or daughter. We have a phone in
Speaker 3: every classroom. No, no, I need I need to be
Speaker 3: able to talk to them myself if anything happens. So
Speaker 3: it was hard to battle that, but I think now
Speaker 3: it's been you know, it's been twenty years of this
Speaker 3: and it's not going well. And in a high school,
Speaker 3: I've seen students who've had their phones taken away, who
Speaker 3: have an emotional breakdown in the office because and with
Speaker 3: hands shaking, because they are so addicted to checking that phone,
Speaker 3: even if it's in their pocket. They feel that buzz,
Speaker 3: you know, they know they've got a notification and they
Speaker 3: have to go to it, and that's it's bad. It's
Speaker 3: bad for education, it's bad for their social skills. Yeah,
Speaker 3: I've got you know, I got a ten year old
Speaker 3: and we've had that discussion already. When do we give
Speaker 3: them a cell phone? And my first thought would be
Speaker 3: never as good, that's impractical, But yeah, we need to
Speaker 3: get rid of those in schools.
Speaker 1: It's tough to argue with you right now.
Speaker 2: Rich My daughter just went to a week long workshop
Speaker 2: for ballet and that was the rule, you know, no
Speaker 2: cell phones. And I've seen situations now where I think
Speaker 2: you know me, I can't remember where I was reading.
Speaker 2: But schools will shut off the cellular capability. But if
Speaker 2: you needed to email somebody, or if you needed to
Speaker 2: get an email home, there was another way to contact
Speaker 2: your parents, or if there was something along that nature.
Speaker 2: So in order to get to the point where you
Speaker 2: take cell phones out of the school to get some
Speaker 2: parents off the ledge, you might have to meet halfway
Speaker 2: some Well, I.
Speaker 3: Think what we've talked about is, you know, they sell
Speaker 3: these little phone holders that you can put on the
Speaker 3: wall in the classroom, and so students walk in the room,
Speaker 3: they put their phone in there, they grab it at
Speaker 3: the end of class and go. You still allow them
Speaker 3: maybe to use them at lunchtime, maybe in the hallways,
Speaker 3: I don't know, but just you can't have them in
Speaker 3: the classroom. It's too much temptation. And I've said this
Speaker 3: for years. You give very mature technology to immature people
Speaker 3: and the results are rarely good.
Speaker 2: What do we do about the fact that this generation
Speaker 2: cannot write?
Speaker 3: Is that true? Do you think they can't write?
Speaker 2: That's the perception and that's what I've seen. Am I wrong?
Speaker 2: I hope I'm wrong? Tell me, I'm wrong.
Speaker 3: I think it's like we were talking about before. I
Speaker 3: think the high flyers can write as well as ever,
Speaker 3: maybe better, because they're exposed to more through the Internet.
Speaker 3: That's the paradox of it all. But I think there
Speaker 3: are others that Here's what I think. I think the
Speaker 3: problem with writing is reading that people read. Students read, heck,
Speaker 3: adults too read less than they did before. I know myself,
Speaker 3: as a kid, I was pretty good at spelling. Why
Speaker 3: was I good at spelling because I read a lot
Speaker 3: and I knew what words looked like. I knew just
Speaker 3: my feel. If I wrote something down to look at
Speaker 3: it and say, yeah, that looks wrong, that feels wrong
Speaker 3: to me because I'd seen it somewhere else. And I
Speaker 3: do think that's an issue that we don't see students
Speaker 3: reading as much, certainly not reading for pleasure like they did,
Speaker 3: because they have too many other distractions. I'm sure that
Speaker 3: has impacted writing. And I think, Wait, it's tougher than
Speaker 3: ever to teach. I taught English my first year as
Speaker 3: a teacher. That's hard work. There's a lot of correcting
Speaker 3: in that, a lot of reading, some of it not
Speaker 3: very good. How in the world do you teach people
Speaker 3: to write with the presence of AI, Now, how do
Speaker 3: you know what's read? It's a challenge and a half
Speaker 3: more so than ever. It used to be tough checking
Speaker 3: for plagiarism in an essay. Now you have to worry
Speaker 3: about AI.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: I had that experience in teaching at the college level,
Speaker 2: and you know, I turned to one kid and I said,
Speaker 2: I'm sorry, but Ernest Hemingway died.
Speaker 1: I was like, wait a minute.
Speaker 2: You know, come on, but you know what happens is
Speaker 2: you can't win. You just go, oh my god, you
Speaker 2: know you am I going to go around and police
Speaker 2: every student and check their computer and whether they're using
Speaker 2: AI or not.
Speaker 1: I've had this discussion with my wife.
Speaker 2: She's in the corporate world and she goes people using
Speaker 2: the corporate world all the time because it saves time.
Speaker 2: But I said, yes, but she's a phenomenal writer. But
Speaker 2: I said, you could write because yeah, I don't have
Speaker 2: time now, so I'll just do this. I go, well,
Speaker 2: the problem is is that people that don't know how
Speaker 2: to write are doing it, and that's the issue. But
Speaker 2: then the question is rich do they need to.
Speaker 3: Well? And that yes, absolutely, that is the next question.
Speaker 3: And you know, I don't know. Is that like my
Speaker 3: earlier question about state capitals, that when you and I
Speaker 3: were kids, maybe you needed to know that because it
Speaker 3: was one of your building blocks, not as skill one
Speaker 3: has to have. In twenty twenty four, is writing going
Speaker 3: to be the same? I don't know. I don't know
Speaker 3: the answer to that. I hope not. I hope that
Speaker 3: we find the balance somewhere along the way, But I'm
Speaker 3: not sure that I have the answer yet.
Speaker 2: What do we do for the teachers, because I think
Speaker 2: the teachers there's an enormous fatigue. I think that the
Speaker 2: curriculum needs to be changed up, not only for the students,
Speaker 2: as you mentioned, but for the teachers as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah. Well, you know, we lost We lost a lot
Speaker 3: of people in our school district after COVID. That was
Speaker 3: the last straw for a whole lot of people. It
Speaker 3: was a challenge. I don't know. I know better, at
Speaker 3: least I can only speak for Maine better. Starting pay
Speaker 3: would be a good thing. Finding ways to take veteran
Speaker 3: teachers who maybe have burned out a little bit on
Speaker 3: the classroom, but use their knowledge and expertise in other ways,
Speaker 3: whether it's observing and evaluating or mentoring younger teachers. But
Speaker 3: I don't know how we do it. It's not really
Speaker 3: like you can do flex time with school. It's not
Speaker 3: like you can work from home. I don't know the answer,
Speaker 3: but I think part of it too, and this sometimes
Speaker 3: gets me in trouble with teachers. But we also we
Speaker 3: need to find ways to get people out of the
Speaker 3: profession if they're not good at it. That's part of
Speaker 3: the problem too, is that some people do it and
Speaker 3: nobody wants to be a bad teacher, but there are
Speaker 3: still people that are, and we need to work closely
Speaker 3: with I think administration partnering with teachers, unions, professional associations
Speaker 3: first of all, trying to get people to get better,
Speaker 3: but if they can't do that, then to ease them
Speaker 3: out and find a job for them that don't impact
Speaker 3: as many young people.
Speaker 2: Well, the reason I couldn't do it is because I
Speaker 2: couldn't deal with the parents. And I've seen that where
Speaker 2: parents automatically think it's a teacher's fault and not the kids.
Speaker 1: And it was so the other way around.
Speaker 2: You know, if you got to if you've got a
Speaker 2: note home from the teacher or my parents got win
Speaker 2: that I did something wrong at school? I mean, did
Speaker 2: they were siding with the teacher like I didn't. I
Speaker 2: did not have a day in court, right, But and
Speaker 2: that is a.
Speaker 3: Change that has I've seen that change in my time
Speaker 3: on education. When I used to be an assistant principal
Speaker 3: and I would my job was to call home when
Speaker 3: students weren't in school. And I called a mom one
Speaker 3: day and I asked about her son. Yeah, he's home sick.
Speaker 3: And I said, oh, did you you think that the
Speaker 3: bag of chips in the mountain dew and the walk
Speaker 3: in the fresh air would make him feel better? Long
Speaker 3: pause on the phone, I said, because I just saw
Speaker 3: walking down the street doing just that. And she was
Speaker 3: a hesitation and she said, well, yeah, I told him
Speaker 3: to take a walk. And I said, I may be
Speaker 3: out of line here, feel free to tell me if
Speaker 3: I am. But when you were his age, if you
Speaker 3: had done something wrong, would your parents have defended you?
Speaker 3: And she said, oh no, no, I'd be in even
Speaker 3: bigger trouble. I said, didn't that work. I hear what
Speaker 3: you're saying. I understand, but it it's tough. I'm a
Speaker 3: single mom and it's a challenge, I said. I understand
Speaker 3: I was raised by a single mom. I know it's hard,
Speaker 3: but it's only going to get harder if you don't
Speaker 3: start doing it now. Yeah, but I was shocked at that.
Speaker 3: I was shocked that someone would kind of lie to
Speaker 3: protect their kid in that situation because it never would
Speaker 3: have happened when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, no way.
Speaker 2: And the problem now, and this is a whole other
Speaker 2: topic for a whole other time, is that it's okay,
Speaker 2: our kids will love us.
Speaker 1: We have to realize sometimes they're not going to like us.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's not our job to be their best friend.
Speaker 1: It's not our job. I'm telling you. I've been through
Speaker 1: that a million times.
Speaker 2: And I can be the most popular dad, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, when I pull like the discipline thing,
Speaker 2: they look at me like I got three heads.
Speaker 1: Like what happened to you?
Speaker 2: You know, They're like, well, kind of, this is the
Speaker 2: way it is, guys, this is the way we need
Speaker 2: to do it. And after the thirty seconds they kind
Speaker 2: of come out of shock. But that's the problem with
Speaker 2: parenting today. And I will call all of us out.
Speaker 2: We want to be our kids' buddies, we want to be.
Speaker 3: You know, yeah, And don't you think this, Gary, And
Speaker 3: I think this applies to a lot of areas. I
Speaker 3: think we see it in the world of youth sports.
Speaker 3: Parents are busier than ever. You know, when I was
Speaker 3: a kid, I don't know what the percentage of moms
Speaker 3: who worked was, but it wasn't that high. And now
Speaker 3: both parents are working. If you have both parents at home,
Speaker 3: people are tired. They don't spend as much time with
Speaker 3: their kids as they like to, and so they don't
Speaker 3: want to spend that time fighting over every little thing.
Speaker 3: So you have to choose your battle along the way.
Speaker 1: There's no doubt, Rich, There's no doubt.
Speaker 2: And that's like, Look, when I got done, I said,
Speaker 2: I'm gonna stay home a while. You know, I'm gonna
Speaker 2: be the mister mom. And I do not regret it
Speaker 2: one bit. My wife does at times, but I do
Speaker 2: not regret it one bit. I got some final questions
Speaker 2: for you coming up. Rich Kimball's our guest check them
Speaker 2: out of Downtown with Rich Kimball dot com w Z.
Speaker 2: I went up there in Bangor, Maine, educator and radio
Speaker 2: talk show talk show host, and we're gonna do a
Speaker 2: little bit and ask Rich about the presidential situation. I'm
Speaker 2: not gonna get too crazy, but a couple questions coming
Speaker 2: up here on WBZ. Now back to Dan Ray live
Speaker 2: from the Window World night Side Studios on WBZ News Radio.
Speaker 1: All right, Gary Tank Way for day tonight.
Speaker 2: Rich Kimberle our guest talk show host and educator downtown
Speaker 2: where Rich kimball dot com is where you can check
Speaker 2: it out. Okay, Richard, I gotta ask you a couple
Speaker 2: of political political things here. Okay, So coming up on
Speaker 2: the nineteenth, you have the Democratic Convention. You and I
Speaker 2: have had this discussion, so Harris is and she's gonna
Speaker 2: have all the delegates and you know, it's another party,
Speaker 2: it's another coronation like the Democrats, and I just think
Speaker 2: it's a waste of money.
Speaker 1: But you know whatever, nobody listens to me.
Speaker 2: But are you surprised how quickly she caught up? Because
Speaker 2: I'm not, because like it's neck and neck now, and
Speaker 2: what has it been? Has it been two weeks?
Speaker 3: No? No? Because I think what was missing clearly with
Speaker 3: Joe in there was some level of enthusiasm and I
Speaker 3: think I think they did some smart things while people
Speaker 3: were trying to persuade the president to step aside. I
Speaker 3: think behind the scenes, the Harris people were working very
Speaker 3: hard to make sure all their ducks were in a
Speaker 3: row because what they couldn't afford to do. I believe
Speaker 3: this fully. They could not afford to have a convention
Speaker 3: fight and a splintered party. They needed to get behind
Speaker 3: a candidate and do it quickly. And she was to me,
Speaker 3: the only choice you could have made maybe convention.
Speaker 2: And I'm talking about for Gary's entertainment purposes. Only if
Speaker 2: you had the convention and it's done on the twenty second,
Speaker 2: and you've made a choice, right, So for three days
Speaker 2: it would have been nuts, or four days it would
Speaker 2: have been crazy.
Speaker 1: Right, you made a choice by September first, if it
Speaker 1: was her again, you could have been tied.
Speaker 2: I guess that's what I'm saying is it's just does
Speaker 2: it matter whether you made a decision now or August
Speaker 2: twenty second because of the immediacy of the media and
Speaker 2: the way things happen so quickly.
Speaker 3: I hear what you're saying, but I think the last
Speaker 3: thing you needed to see was anything from the Democratic
Speaker 3: Party that resembled disarray, because we have never had a
Speaker 3: president drop out or even a likely nominee drop out
Speaker 3: this late in the race, and so I don't think
Speaker 3: you could afford to have a month of confusion, the
Speaker 3: appearance of disorganization. I mean that the Democrats specialize in
Speaker 3: being disorganized, but this is the wrong time for that.
Speaker 3: And that's why I think that smooth transition was the
Speaker 3: only way to go. And clearly it's paid off and
Speaker 3: so anyways, were also she's raised what three hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty million dollars in a week?
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, Look, and Trump I said this at the
Speaker 2: opening of the show. He should just keep his mouth shut,
Speaker 2: because I think there.
Speaker 3: Can you just say that. But here's the thing. He's
Speaker 3: not going to lose any votes no matter what he says,
Speaker 3: because his people they don't they don't write a policy.
Speaker 3: It's a cult of personality. And frankly, most of the
Speaker 3: things he says, they're like, yeah, yeah, that's my guys.
Speaker 1: True.
Speaker 3: I wish I could. I wish I could say those
Speaker 3: things to people.
Speaker 2: But there were some moderates I believe wanted to vote
Speaker 2: with the perception of their pocketbook that might have gone
Speaker 2: his way if he just kept his mouth shut. I
Speaker 2: think there were some undecided he could have got You're right.
Speaker 1: The Trump people are never that's not going to change.
Speaker 1: But I think there were some people up for grabs
Speaker 1: that he may miss out on.
Speaker 3: See I think the only undecideds out there were and
Speaker 3: still are, the people who are disappointed. Rightly so with
Speaker 3: the two party system, certainly a whole lot of people
Speaker 3: that didn't want to vote for either Trump or Biden.
Speaker 3: That's why I think. I just saw a poll yesterday
Speaker 3: that said, I think three weeks ago registered voters fifty
Speaker 3: four percent expected to vote, which is a pretty low turnout.
Speaker 3: Now it's up to sixty two percent. Try I believe
Speaker 3: this sixty percent, I believe is the number. If there's
Speaker 3: a sixty percent turnout, then Harris probably wins in a
Speaker 3: close race. You get close to sixty five, it has
Speaker 3: the potential, at least in terms of the popular vote,
Speaker 3: to be a landslide. And so the more people that vote,
Speaker 3: the better it is for her. Because I don't think
Speaker 3: there are Trump people. There are Biden slash Harris people,
Speaker 3: and then there are a whole lot of people that
Speaker 3: have been disinterested and just disgusted. And if you can
Speaker 3: get some of those people off there but to participate,
Speaker 3: many more of them I believe will support Harris, then
Speaker 3: we'll support Trump. And also, I think people, and we're
Speaker 3: already seeing in the polls people who said they were
Speaker 3: for Kennedy will bail like crazy. He'll end up getting
Speaker 3: two three percent.
Speaker 2: I think, Richie, it's been great talking to you. Thanks
Speaker 2: for coming on downtown with Rich Kimball dot com check
Speaker 2: him out, folks.
Speaker 1: We'll talk to you soon.
Speaker 3: Rich Always a pleasure. Gary.
Speaker 1: Thanks all right, ta for news on WBZ.
Speaker 2: Good stuff coming up in the next two hours, including
Speaker 2: the conviction of Lionel Rayway Williams one decade