Are we Seeing a Dumbing Down of Our Kids?

Hi, this is Roy Jones with ManTalk Radio Podcast. Our mission is to break down the walls of race and denomination. Your chosen Truth Radio Broadcast will be starting in just a few seconds. Thank you. This is the Truth Network.

Get ready. It's one of America's most important, influential, and respected voices on cultural and political issues. An apologist, Christian political advocate, and author, here is the founder and chairman of the Citizens for America Foundation, Dr. Chris Hughes. Hello everybody and welcome to Family Friday.

This is Chris Hughes and we want to welcome you to the Christian perspective. I'm so excited because every Friday my co-host, Connie Albers, is here with me and we talk about family and family issues and things that are going to affect our family going on in the culture and around us each and every day. You know, all of us as families, Connie, we've got issues that are going on but before we get started we want to be sure to thank our sponsors, the Citizens for America Foundation.

This is the official broadcast outreach of the Citizens for America Foundation. We also want to thank Mid-America Baptist Theological Seminary because they are our host right here on the beautiful campus of Mid-America in Memphis, Tennessee where we have our home studios and we just thank them so much for being partners with the Christian perspective and we're excited to work with them. So if you have a student who's looking for a place to go to college or if you are already maybe you've gone to college maybe it was 20 or 30 years ago and now you want to go to seminary and learn more about your faith as a Christian and how you can serve the Lord in a various different areas and you don't have to be a preacher to go to seminary. A lot of people go to seminary just because they want to learn more and then apply it in their daily lives or go in the missions field or whatever it may be. So I'd encourage you to take a look at Mid-America if you're interested in learning more about your faith. Well Connie I'm always looking forward to Fridays because they are family Fridays and it's always a fun time with you because I learn so much from you each and every week so thanks for being here again today.

My favorite time of the week. It is you know as a parent because I learn so much from you with your five kids that are all grown and it's good to have now I'm going to scare you here so you're like a secret mentor to me Connie and you probably know this but it's good to have somebody who's been there before us. You're not older than me but I was very late in life having kids and so my kids are younger so I get to learn from your experiences in life but I see a lot of things going on Connie right now in our culture and in our society where it seems like our kids are really being dumbed down right now across the country.

Are you starting to see that? Yes and you know recently the CDC released their new milestone for childhood development and we're talking about young children development and so for this segment Chris it's really important as we dive into child developmental delays it's going to be more of an eye-opener to parents and it'll also be somewhat I hate to say this but sometimes when what you suspect as a parent like your child you think your child should be further along than they are or you're starting to see some issues that are concerning to you sometimes Chris it's just good to know that okay I'm not crazy it's real but what can we do about it and that's what I would love to cover in our segment today. Yeah I think that's even become more of an issue since COVID started kids are wearing masks and all that so I think that's the only thing to talk about but Connie before we delve into all that you mentioned the CDC issued a report and the CDC is a center for disease control why are they talking about parenting issues? Well it's quite alarming to me actually just because they are supposed to be focused on you know public health and safety and now they're into parenting and telling us telling parents if you go to the CDC website you can they'll give you a range of what your children should be doing from birth all the way through the teen years and what to expect and I'm thinking this isn't really the proper role for the CDC but they have taken it upon themselves and now with the CDC being in the nightly news so to speak or at least daily podcast somewhere it is something that we need to to discuss and bring up because they are noticing and I would say maybe it's a little bit of they've implemented so many changes and and disruptions and they've changed their position for the last two two and a half years they've changed their position so much Chris I do believe our children are the ultimate price of what has happened with the since COVID and the lockdowns and the shutdowns and the social distancing all of this has come at an enormous price to our children and I think it's worthy of discussion yeah I think it's almost like our children have become a social experiment in the last two and a half years and it's really pretty scary yeah unfortunately I would agree with you I was talking with the mom the other day who was with her grandchild and they went to the store the parents have been concerned about the virus and not getting the virus and so they've implemented and they really have followed the CDC and the World Health Organization I mean they've really followed those guidelines and I wouldn't say they're living fearfully they would probably stay more cautious and the result was this young two-year-old has not known what life looked like I mean he was born and is born into the middle of the pandemic and the mom finally started taking the child out and when they went to the store the sliding doors to the grocery store opened and the child was just shocked it was like how did this happen what is making this door never seen anything like it and that was such a telling aspect of child growth and development that we take for granted because usually depending on where you live I would suspect more than others because here I live in Florida and you know we have had life pretty much normal for the most part but there's a lot of things that aren't Chris and to have this little two-year-old not be able to go to the playground because the playground's been closed to not see people's smiles to not to be able to see their lip formation and understanding expressions of when the when the smile line drops or the it or the teeth are shining with joy a lot of people can't smile with their eyes they just that's just not how they smile they smile with their mouth and their eyes kind of stay the same but there's so many developmental aspects that we forget that children haven't haven't recognized and it's showing up it's showing up in several areas but you know some of their updates are simple things like children smiling for the first time that's delayed well why would that be delayed well that's easy if you're masked up and you're going down the street or you're out even in your own home for some time some people were even masking in their own home children weren't seeing that and we think that some of these behaviors that our children learn from early infancy they're just robotic they're just they're just going to happen no they're they're they're taught they're they're part of the environment that they are surrounded by uh waving goodbye well if you're not seeing people you're really not practicing hello and goodbye um even taking their first step this is some of the stuff the cdc just when it pertains to young children crawling walking speaking playing they're not learning how to play with other children because they've been socially distant they've been told to stay away from children and to stay away that people and their friends are can make them sick could make mom and dad sick could maybe even kill grandma and i'm not saying that those aren't legitimate concerns because i think you and i both known people that that have gotten very ill and i've known folks that have actually passed but the cost that we're doing to our children needs careful consideration so that's just children what about what about that second or third graders that they were in the middle i mean the second and first grader first and second grader they're right in the middle of learning their additions or maybe double digit addition maybe they're learning how to divide but they're not given the opportunity to have a teacher that's in person that that shows all the different manipulatives because chris not every kid learns virtually not every kid learns virtually well and some children are so kinesthetic they have to to see it taste it touch it feel it and when you are isolated or you are told to stay away from and you are not in your normal environment which has been ripped away from you it's not a surprise that these students are going to slip in their math abilities or their language ability or even their music and or art ability because so much of what we learn comes from the environment that we're surrounded by comes by the engagement from you know people that we do life with or that we see in stores or that we you know kids we play with on the playground wow you've my mind is just racing of things that you said that i had not really thought about so much of our communication is non-verbal and i hadn't really thought about that but how that would affect children you know because we grew up learning how to read people's faces and you know smirks or things we do with our lips i mean you know you know particularly within our own families you know communicating with people where you don't even have to say a word and you know if a child doesn't of course i'm no psychologist or psychiatrist but if a child doesn't develop at an early age this could really impact the communication in our society years down the road and i hadn't thought about this tremendous impact that could take place in our culture right now and their ability to engage socially i know you know i homeschooled my kids and that's one of the biggest myths about homeschooling is what about socialization well after 30 years it's already it's been proven i mean that kids that are homeschooled are highly socialized however there is a social element to being around other people and homeschoolers aren't lost in their house which is kind of funny because i know a lot of homeschoolers that they finally when the pandemic hit they felt it is a great opportunity to not have to be out and about so much because they're engaged in sport and music and art and theater there's so many ways for your child who has different learning styles different personalities different gifts and strengths and talents not everybody is a textbook learner not everybody is enjoys manipulative some people are external processors and where are they externally processed they're not and we talked about this on another episode you know they're not on their phone chatting which they would be if they were around their peer group they're on their phones which as you know a text message can be taken multiple ways because you can't see the face you can't you know you use an emoji but that doesn't necessarily capture the essence of what someone's trying to say so the social the ability to read social cues the ability to understand when somebody is making a joke because you can see not just their eyes but like you said the way they tilt their their mouth or the way they kind of smile and grin and maybe give a little wink like hey i'm just kidding all those things have been impacted even if you have a family like mine that's a large family even in that dynamic there's there's still you're used to your family and the idiosyncrasies of each personality that you have to deal with but it's not the same when you're not with the neighbor kids or you're not with you know your youth group or you're not in in a classroom all of that is is impacted and so it is something chris that we have got to discuss and parents need to be very aware of that well folks we're going to take a quick commercial break when we come back we're going to continue talking about what's happening with our children right now and particularly the dumbing down of our children and the impact of being locked down so stick around and be right back this show is brought to you by generous joe's the coffee company with the christian perspective this is the answer that christians and conservatives have been looking for a coffee company that gives back to causes you care about order your coffee today at shop generous joe's dot org and even subscribe to a subscription coffee plan and never forget the coffee you love or the causes you care about walk in the footsteps of jesus and see the bible come to life this december join nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the citizens for america foundation dr chris hughes on a life-changing trip to israel it's one of the world's oldest and most fascinating travel destinations it's one of the world's oldest and most fascinating travel destinations learning the faithful from all over the world for thousands of years visit jerusalem's religious quarters and explore christianity's most treasured religious sites like the wailing wall the dome of the rock and the via dola rosa walk with chris through the winding alleyways of nazars old city and visit ancient bethlehem the place of our savior's birth float in the dead sea visit the sea of galley and the jewish fortress of masada see firsthand where the events of the bible took place touring israel with dr chris hughes is a travel odyssey like no other visit citizens for america foundation.com and get ready for an unforgettable trip and memories that will last a lifetime do you desire to build family relationships that stand the test of time does creating a godly family seem like a daunting challenge you're not alone i'm connie yaupers author of parenting beyond the rules and host of equipped to be as a mother of five i understand your struggles for 35 years i have been helping families just like yours build lasting relationships i'd like to invite you to tune in to equipped to be and visit connieyaupers.com where i share useful tips and proven strategies to help you navigate the seasons of motherhood faith and life with confidence and joy. History was made on today's date stay tuned for an american minute with bill federer on this date march 18 1945 missionary john chapman died better known as johnny apple seed collecting apple seeds from cider presses in western pennsylvania he began planting nurseries from the alleghenies to central ohio giving thousands of seedlings to pioneers barefoot wearing a mushpan over his eccentric long hair and an old coffee sack over his shoulders johnny's harmony with the indians and devotion to the bible led william venable to write remember johnny apple seed all ye who love the apple he served his kind by word and deed in god's grand greenwood chapel this has been an american minute with bill federer for a free transcript call american minute at 1-888-USA-WORD welcome back to the christian perspective connie albers and i are talking today about family issues like we do every friday this week we're talking about something that really is going to affect our entire culture of the world in the next few years and really you know maybe even for an entire generation connie's brought out some good points today talking about a recent posting by the cdc of all people about developments within our children and what's happened because our children are being locked down and they're no longer seeing facial expressions and we were talking about their inability to play with others and how that is affecting the development of our children particularly our youngest children connie i don't it might have been you i don't know i talked to somebody this week that told me i think it was a cdc again that that released this or it could have been my daughter anyway somebody told me this week that the iq's of children have dropped significantly like like 20 or 25 points as a result of what's happened through covet have you heard about that i actually have and it was interesting i was looking at where does the us rank in comparison globally to education and i i found it interesting where we we fit in and what countries are exceed you know excelling and that's singapore and hong kong and russia and taiwan and finland and and of course china they're all excelling and and the interesting part to all that of why our iq in my opinion from the research that i have done and what i have read it's a lot of they're teaching core skills math science reading critical thinking the ability to research to think the ability to process thoughts and articulate those thoughts where what we have going on at least right now is a lot of social cultural issues things that things that have nothing to do with the ability to perform and live in society they're going back to our first segment they are our children are a social experiment and they're being persuaded into certain ideologies as opposed to math math is math one plus one is two you know five plus five is ten you know there's a subject and a verb and a sentence and when our kids when we don't spend the time to pursue excellence in our education it's not it should not be a surprise that we would be falling behind and i'm sure your kids are seeing this i remember chris my son when he went off to college i was concerned he was going into engineering and i was concerned because i you know i homeschooled and everybody believed at that time that oh you gotta have a degree to teach your kids and and i fell into that category at first and then i realized no you have to have a commitment you used to have we shared this before you're going to have that that internal conviction and that external commitment and then that eternal perspective of why am i doing what i'm doing but i remember when he went to his first he was in his first year of college he had he had gotten a full ride national merit commended and i started thinking oh this is possible uh you don't have to know physics to be able to prepare your child for those higher levels of you know degrees per se pursuing those degrees like you're you know one of your children is going both your kids are high achievers and i just remember him coming home one day and i think i was in desperate need of validation did i ruin you and he said you know homeschooling was actually harder than than my college than college courses and i i that just made such a mark with me chris that i thought this was this was a while ago this was several years ago and i realized the pursuit of excellence the commitment to strive and and learn and excel and become masters become excellent at a specific field or just i would say getting away from quality education which is what we hear so often your kid needs a good quality education no they need a superior education and that's our job that's the job of our school system that's the job of private school it's the job of parents to pursue whatever educational method they choose for their children it should be superior excellence not quality wow you're so now you're moving you're going to get me to start preaching here in a minute that is a big heartburn that i have with our school systems connie and i don't understand why schools don't have this pursuit of excellence and superiority in education now i'm going to make some people mad so y'all hear me out i'm not attacking uh athletes here okay believe or not i'm a short fat guy now but i i wrestled in high school although i probably could hardly move to do it now and and i played division one sports in college but and my and my wife was very athletic so i'm not attacking athletes with what i'm going to say here but you know if you're a great football player a great basketball player or some other sport then you get a lot of attention and the schools seem to be uh you know all wrapped up and oh we have this superstar player we've got this lebron james or whatever or michael jordan uh kid that plays athletics but there's not the same recognition uh for kids in the academic world or in the desire to pursue excellence in academics and i don't understand that connie um you know because i mean hopefully not everybody's gonna get old and fat like me but you know i'm not that person that was the wrestler years ago and and vicki's not the world-class athlete that she was anymore i mean age catches up with you but your education is something that's going to be with you your entire life and schools just don't seem to have that pursuit of excellence i look at some of the school systems particularly in inner cities connie or around the world but mostly in the united states where they have huge amounts of funding that are being provided to these schools and the kids can't even read uh i know you know i'm graduating i'm gonna get in trouble here because i don't remember the exact statistic but um i would look at the numbers in baltimore which is in maryland i mean that's a big city one of the biggest cities in the united states they they have a huge amount of money being thrown at education and a huge percent of their high school graduates can't even read on a fifth or sixth grade level that's pretty scary well you know it's interesting now you could get me going on the political track with that one because if you if you let me get back to your sports analogy that's a that's a great analogy and it's it's it's the same with uh a child prodigy with music or let's say dance let's uh uh you can pick a variety of topics that that analogy fits to is what does society deem worthy and and obviously you have to follow the money there's it's not the it's not the athlete that's making all this money it's the schools it's the you know the booster clubs it's and it's again not a bad thing there's nothing wrong with making money and it's at a cost and the cost is passing kids along just because they have an athletic ability that if they're not careful one tackle could tear an acl like in football and that's over it's done and what will they have they they won't have much uh to be able to fall back on so it it's a it's the fault of society and it's not the fault of the child it's the fault of society placing value on beauty or fame or power or position or prestige or platform over the pursuit of excellence in academic study the rigors of academic study and chris i find it so ironic who are the wealthiest people in america what do they do they're all in they're all what academia they're tech the tech gurus the the people that write the software programs the folks that hack the software programs the the folks that run these tech corporations those are those are very intelligent by all standards in our society means they have that their brain is wired wired in a way that they they understand technology they're left they're logical they're sequential they're reasoning they can take complex ideas and they break them down into something as simple as pushing the on button on a computer and voila you can be connected to the world um and so it is and so it is ironic that we have a society that in one side they laud and they exalt celebrity sport beauty platform and then on the other they downplay it but those are the ones that really rule and control everything information and in all aspects they they rule and control that so you know that in our next segment we should dive a little deeper into that and and what we can do as as parents as youth workers as folks in the educational world because this isn't everywhere but it is a lot of places in the u.s yeah and like our our school boards i mean we i think we probably bring up school boards every week because there's so many issues coming out of school boards but the school boards are not demanding excellence and that's really a big area where where the blame would lie is on politicians you know the elected school board can can determine what curriculum is being taught what what books are being used in the school system they can also then hire principals and teachers who are going to be committed to an academic excellence and it's going to take a movement too many times yeah i've heard people talk about oh go get a government job because you'll never lose the job and it's almost impossible to get fired and that's true uh and and when that happens there's no reward for uh excelling sometimes in your career field not to say that they're not principals and teachers i know plenty who are who care about their kids and and who work hard but there's just not a recognition i think of the need to demand academic excellence among our children and i don't buy the excuses that we hear sometimes of just because skin color i know people have conditions that you know that might contribute you know based on coming from single-parent families and that kind of thing but when when as much money is being spent on the education system is in the united states of america we should really be number one particularly in the stem areas and i think we're i think it's like 25th or something i can't remember i read something just a week or so ago connie about how far we've fallen behind in the world in our academics so why don't we take a break from here when we come back i'm going to talk more about that and you know you told me not to get you started on politics politicians i think i'm going to so so uh i'm going to tell you about something that happened in our state and you know that affected my kids and really every kid in north carolina mine are out of high school now but i would encourage other parents to look into this so that's my little teaser stick around i'll tell you about something that our legislature did in north carolina that i think is really continuing to dumb down students in our state and it's probably happening around the country too so we'll be right back with more with connie alberts it's family friday stick around the united states of america has a strong christian heritage but most americans don't know the truly important role that god in the bible played in the founding of this great nation this jew joined nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the citizens for america foundation dr chris hughes for four amazing days in our nation's capital with chris you'll embark on a journey of discovering the hidden secrets of washington dc and rediscover much of america's forgotten christian heritage your tour will include an up-close and personal look at the nation's establishment and how it's evolved over the centuries learn about the government and the men who helped forge this new kind of republic one that acknowledged the creator from its very inception know the truth about the creation of the united states of america about the faith of the founding fathers and how christian principles were used to establish this form of government visit citizens for america foundation dot com today and secure your spot to join chris hughes in washington dc this june this show is brought to you by generous joes the coffee company with the christian perspective this is the answer that christians and conservatives have been looking for a coffee company that gives back to causes you care about order your coffee today at shop generous joes.org and even subscribe to a subscription coffee plan and never forget the coffee you love or the causes you care about the conservative baptist network is a dynamic movement of southern baptist pastors churches and christians committed to standing for the sufficiency of god's word in the face of a culture of compromise the passion and prayer of the conservative baptist network is that god would help southern baptists stay bold for the gospel so that we might see revival in america and the world reached for christ visit our website today at conservative baptist network.com to learn how you and your church can join and support this exciting movement welcome back to the christian perspective it's family friday and like every week my co-host connie owers is here with me and you know i want to encourage y'all she's going to kick me for telling you all this but i tell you what if your church or your school group or your home school group is looking for somebody to come speak on parenting and family issues there's really nobody better in the nation in my opinion than connie albers and she has a heart for the lord she has a heart for families and children and you can learn more about connie you can reach her at connie albers.com that's connie albers.com she has a weekly podcast i remember just a few weeks ago we celebrated her 100th episode of her podcast it's called equipped to be and she's an author too there's just so much knowledge connie i'm so blessed that you're part of our team here at citizens for america and that you come on here co-host with me on the christian perspective and and so i just i'm not always good at telling people thank you so in front of the whole world today uh and when vicki hears this she's going to fall out because she's like you never thank anybody for anything so connie thank you so much for what you do we appreciate you thanks for allowing me to reach out to your audience well it's our audience and i appreciate you so folks we're talking today about the dummy down of our children and and i as i do probably every week with connie she was going somewhere with covid and and mask and how that's affected kids and now i drug her back in the world of politics uh to talk about how our politicians are i think are uh to blame now parents also so i'm going to go two areas let me jump on parents first connie and then i'll get on the politicians but parents uh you know we like to complain about what's happening in our education system but if you never go to a school board meeting uh if you don't even vote for who's on your school board or know who they are if you don't go to your school where the teachers know who you are and feel comfortable communicating with you a lot of the blame uh falls on us as parents and so now let me step on the church's toes connie um i would challenge uh those of you in the church are you praying for your school board members can you name any of them can you name one of them one of them usually there are about five school board members in every county or every school district we should be praying for our school board members by name every day and so i would challenge you as christians and pastors i i encourage you to to get your churches to be praying for school board members and for teachers and and connie every school has something kind of like a they call them different things right now um but they might have a parent teacher organization or teach parent teacher fellowship or in our high school they just called it because it was our county is whataga and the schools will talk to high school they just called it friends of whataga but that was the parent group uh they got involved and got to know the teachers let the teachers you know know that you love them too and that you're praying for them but here it goes i'm gonna jump on politicians now connie my favorite group to jump on is um so i live in north carolina and i know you are uh live in florida and things are very different in florida um mainly because of the philosophy of your governor and your legislature you you've basically had republican although you you almost ron disantis who's funny who's now kind of considered as america's governor almost lost his election for governor and can you just imagine what um i'm going down a major rabbit trail here but can you imagine and you don't like talk about politics so much so you don't have to say if you don't want to but just imagine if uh if ron disantis had lost and the guy that ran against him was a former mayor of tallahassee which for those of you all that don't know is the state capital of florida and he was extremely extremely liberal and and and boy your state would have looked very different through covet if he had won but in north carolina connie um when my kids were in high school uh so they call their state legislature in in north carolina the general assembly which is made up of a house and a senate like in every other state where they call it the general assembly so the general assembly in north carolina i don't know four or five years ago and this was under the radar um most people listening probably even in north carolina that are listening to show right now probably don't know this but you know connie when you and i went to school um academic excellence was recognized um at least in the form of the person who graduated from high school with the highest grade point average which we call a gpa um was recognized as the valedictorian and then i won't say the second smartest but the person who had the second highest gpa was named as the salutatorian and usually they give a speech at graduation it was a way to recognize and honor academic excellence because you know like we said people aren't sitting at a football stadium or a gymnasium watching academic excellence like they do the athletes and again i have nothing against athletes but i just think we should recognize academic excellence as well but anyway the general assembly in north carolina in their great wisdom and knowledge decided that it was offensive to people who were not as intelligent as the valedictorian salutatorian so they decided in north carolina i think in 2018 was the last year that there was ever a valedictorian named in any high school in the state of north carolina and that is shocking to me and also across the country yeah that's that's happening across the country in the name of fairness and inclusion and equity and you know the heart of wanting to shine a light on others is to be commended i i don't have a problem with that but at some point when you get to the everyone gets a participation award then what do you end up with you end up with what we're seeing right now which is lower standards lower standards not just in our state our counties our cities our states our country but national and around the world we start seeing the entire educational standards drop because you have to have that happen if you if you have this level of excellence excellence and and others aren't meeting that same level then you have to lower that level of excellence in order to make the ones that are struggling seem closer to it uh that's that's the hard part i i didn't mean to interrupt you on your your story you're making a great point well i i just don't understand and again i don't have a problem with an athlete you know our i mentioned i was a wrestler you know don't look like it but our wrestling team we were undefeated in state champions two years in a row i was happy for that so i don't have anything against uh academic academic i mean athletic achievement but i don't understand why it's offensive for somebody to be recognized as being intelligent but not being uh it's not offensive for them to be recognized for throwing a ball around and and again i'm gonna i'm gonna get emails for this uh people are gonna get mad at me for what i'm saying but i'm just saying you know some kids don't have athletic ability but they're smart and and you know for i guess you know 100 years or more i don't know maybe throughout all of history whenever they started having schools and graduations you know valedictorians i'm an old guy you know we had them i wasn't the valedictorian of my school by any means but um but you know there's so that sends a message to some kids you know well why why do you need to work so hard because they're they're athletes who will compete because they want to be all state or all county or whatever and they want to be uh considered for the opportunity to get a scholarship for their athletic achievement and then you have kids who now don't have that goal so you know i'm not saying everybody's like this but there might be some kids out there like well you know if i'm if i can't be number one or i can't try to to work towards that i'm just not going to try at all or as hard as i used to be the other frustrating you don't aim at anything what do you yeah you have a child has to have something to aim for whether that's mastering their multiplication tables whether it's mastering the periodic table of elements in chemistry whether it's being MVP for one game just one game they had an exceptional game and they were recognized for that excellence that they had that they had maybe that's the only game they ever it just had that type of game for but it is something that they're forever proud of same with our academics and you know i i've often used this analogy and i know you'll you'll relate to this when i go to the doctor i i just want to know that doctor is very proficient in what they're about to do especially if they're going to give me an injection and put me out i want to know that i am going to wake up i want to know that they weren't fluffing around in school and just you know doing you know the bare minimum to get by we have as a society and and the lord tells us to do excellent in all that we do so as as a christian we should be teaching our children to pursue excellence and chris it doesn't matter and i know you believe this it doesn't matter what our school board what our elected officials what the world says we have a responsibility to teach and train our children and whether those standards have been dumbed down our standards and how we teach our children don't have to be dumbed down we can still teach our children truth of give it all you've got leave nothing you know like we our kids used to play sports and we used to tell them you're playing for an audience of one you go out and do whatever it is you're doing whether it's throwing newspapers which i know that's not done anymore and ours didn't do that whether you're bagging groceries whether you're on on the on the court kicking a soccer ball playing in a recital whatever it is you do it to your the best of your ability and if you're sick you're not going to do that great today that's okay but at the end when you walk off that court when you walk off that field when you walk out of that act or sat which i know there's a movement now to kind of eradicate the act and sat because it's really not fair um for pete for some students who are academic minded to be able to excel because it makes people feel bad um but we still should be teaching our children pursue excellence whether anybody's looking whether you ever get an accolade you never get an award you're never recognized you do it because that's what god says we're supposed to do and i think that's paramount to knowing what's going on in the culture knowing what your kids are facing with their peer group knowing what their teachers or school board leaders are or aren't doing knowing what society expects or doesn't expect that god expects us to give it our absolute best and our our best chris like you were saying i would you know i may never have been this our best may have not been a michael phelps and winning numerous gold medals but if we teach our children chris and we should do this in the next section if we teach our children to understand how they are uniquely gifted with talents and strengths and we help them develop those they will be dynamic influencers and contribute greatly to society and that's a good place to end for our commercial break and when we come back you're not going to miss how connie tells us how to identify problems in children and spots issues that are coming up and how we can help those struggling children we'll be right back a brand is a design name symbol or any other feature that sets an organization or individual apart bringing that brand to life can be difficult but digs design is here to help you take that next step or re-energize your current situation we can handle logos social media graphics cards weddings clothings prints photo editing and much more give us a call today at 704-984-2432 or connect with digs design on social media in a world crowded with viewpoints and voices critical condition after asa i believe the message of this financial problem only one voice matters gods at the college at mid america and mid america seminary we equip leaders to think from a biblical worldview online or on our memphis campus check out the college at mid america and mid america baptist theological seminary at mabts.edu and be equipped to light the way this show is brought to you by generous joe's the coffee company with the christian perspective this is the answer that christians and conservatives have been looking for a coffee company that gives back to causes you care about order your coffee today at shop generous joes.org and even subscribe to a subscription coffee plan and never forget the coffee you love or the causes you care about do you desire to build family relationships that stand the test of time does creating a godly family seem like a daunting challenge you're not alone i'm connie yaupers author of parenting beyond the rules and host of equipped to be as a mother of five i understand your struggles for 35 years i have been helping families just like yours build lasting relationships i'd like to invite you to tune in to equip to be and visit connieaupers.com where i share useful tips and proven strategies to help you navigate the seasons of motherhood faith and life with confidence and joy the united states of america has a strong christian heritage but most americans don't know the truly important role that god in the bible played in the founding of this great nation this june joined nationally syndicated radio host and founder of the citizens for america foundation dr chris hughes for four amazing days in our nation's capital with chris you'll embark on a journey of discovering the hidden secrets of washington dc and rediscover much of america's forgotten christian heritage your tour will include an up close and personal look at the nation's establishment and how it's evolved over the centuries learn about the government and the men who helped forge this new kind of republic one that acknowledged the creator from its very inception know the truth about the creation of the united states of america about the faith of the founding fathers and how christian principles were used to establish this form of government visit citizens for america foundation.com today and secure your spot to join chris hughes in washington dc this june welcome back to the christian perspective connie albers and i are just looking into the situation right now across our country how our kids are being dumbed down and connie got it going on the right track where we're talking about mask and how it's affected the development of our children their inability to learn facial expressions the inability to learn how to play with other children how to share so many things that will affect them as they're developing into young adults and then adulthood as well and and probably those problems caused by the dumbing down of america right now are going to be something that affects us for generations to come and then if you were listening you know i got off on a tire speed because it really frustrates me how politicians and school boards across the country are not stressing academic excellence when we spend so much money on education and then you look at the outcomes of homeschool children who in many cases perform much better academically academically and their parents are not getting any federal or state funding to homeschool their kids in fact they're paying the taxes as if the kids go to a public school and they're not getting any help with that but many times homeschool kids outperform other children academically at least so connie to get back to where we kind of started with this with the dumbing downs of kids and kids and the impact of being locked down and isolated how do we as parents spot a child who might be struggling and might be behind developmentally because of the things that are going on right now well just know that it is real it is common most children even depending on your state the the back and forth with in-person learning virtual learning homeschooling back in school the disruption every time we move our children or there's an abrupt change anytime of disruption that always impacts the education because a child never starts where they were prior to when they were last removed so we know children lose several months of education at least six weeks during their summer break that that was just a typical teachers would spend four to six weeks just kind of doing remedial work to bring children back to the level the grade proficiency level that they were in and with all the back and forth every teacher has a different scope and sequence they have a different tool that they're trying to work through parents you're trying to pick up you're trying to pick up the slack and figure out okay what do i need to focus on well there are some awesome some excellent resources that you can get virtually online you can get lots of workbooks and and and helps and tools there's there's even teacher sites that have principles for your child but the most important thing in developmental delay is the hope of knowing your child can catch up now it is more difficult if you have a 15 16 year old and they're they're really trying to focus on getting their test scores up or their test taking ability up or even learning higher level concepts that maybe you don't know maybe you don't know chemistry maybe you don't know physics or calculus but yet you see your child going to that direction there are many online resources that have virtual academies that have physical like teachers that will teach live courses and and it is a lot of those are free right connie some of those are free but there is also a big move of parents that are doing it because they own blogs and website and that's part of how they are are giving back to to students the other thing is connect is ask your friends ask your friend group this is something we did and it was very helpful now we should get four or five kids together and teach a course it doesn't have to be in a classroom it can be just at somebody's house it can even be in the backyard or at the park and you have one person let's just say that person is has a science mind and they love science and they're passionate about science well they could easily get four or five kids together and teach this concept on a weekly basis or bi-weekly basis as far as math and and english math is a repetitive skill right we learn by repetition the more you do it the more gets ingrained through the brain the brain starts to remember it and you build upon each developmental aspect of say math english is more challenging just because the rules are you know they're confusing even to the best of english majors but read aloud to your kids read aloud ask them questions what do you think happened next what do you think this character is going to do why do you think this character got into so much trouble um what what do you think might happen if if they would have made a different decision simply reading aloud and chris people parents say but you don't understand connie i'm so busy i've got work to do we've got so many things going on trying to pay the bills because we can't even fill the gas tank anymore where am i going to do this it doesn't take a lot it just takes intentionality and consistency and that's what i really want parents to hear read every day even if it's 10 minutes in the afternoon or it's right before bed and or it's one chapter of a chapter book have the little ones listen in there they can play with their toys while you're reading aloud and then they can also learn to be quiet which is an important social skill for your older older students you can have them assign them something to read let them find some books from the library or get them online there's a lot of get some used books there's a lot of free resources available just for even reading books but the ability to read literature and comprehend what it's saying and what the writer is trying to say and then just point out who the characters are and what did they do and when did they do it when was the book written what was the custom what are the culture what did they eat where did they live and you you find a map you you know you pull out that wonderful device that you have always in your hand and you show them where the story was written and that's geography and the time period and that's history and who were the leaders and what were they facing and what did the children do for play chris there are a plethora of ways to bring your children back up to an academic level that they may be lagging in just by a little bit of intentionality from the parents or caregivers you can help them with their speech delay behavior issues they might be having of not not sitting still or not saying not responding or or interrupting the motor delays when you have them act out a scene perhaps if you have young children what do you think they dance like or what do you think they ate like or or cooking a certain meal well that's math and that's science and that's safety and that's nutrition i mean there's so many things rolled into just one act and i know you talk about how you love to cook and stuff but there's so many elements of what we do in daily life that can be incorporated and called school technically that we think it has to be categorized and compartmentalized when it doesn't that's such great advice connie as we're as we're talking here about how to regain some of the learning that's been lost through the covid lockdown and wearing masks and things are going on in schools i would have thought about i know that it's important to read your children but like you're pointing out any book you teach many subjects when you take the time to sit down with your kids i love how you said that you ask questions i was reading a book just earlier this week it was talking about the importance of asking questions because it then it helps the person that you're asking a question of to begin to learn how to think critically and i think that's something that is missing in many classrooms across the country today a lot of kids just can't think critically anymore and that's why they're lowering the expectations on the sat and other standardized tests and so we're not teaching our kids really how to think but when you do what you just said and you're reading a book and then you ask them and they get to learn about geography and it doesn't even seem like school anymore it becomes fun um you know you mentioned cooking i'm sitting here thinking of the times when i would have my kids come cook with me the same thing i mean you're one you're interacting so there's a social skill and but like with cooking they're learning different skills but they're also there's a lot of math involved you know you got to have a cup of this and a quarter cup of that and then we got to cook it for so long so how long do we need to cook this if it takes this part you know 20 minutes and that one 15 or whatever so there are ways to take what we're doing anyway you know when you mentioned parents being so busy um you know whether it's cooking or working in your shop if you're somebody that you know maybe has a shop in your home or mowing the grass i mean it can all become a learning experience where we can help our kids and i do think that we need to find ways to start socializing our kids with other people again because they have been locked up for too long and we've got to get kids around other people as well so connie also when we identify we're talking about how to identify some of these issues a few minutes ago are there things that parents should or should not maybe say when they identify problems with their kids yeah don't ask your kid what's wrong with you why aren't you getting it why are you getting behind don't put don't ask it in a negative light ask them how you can come alongside them ask them what they're struggling with if you hear your child say i hate math i think that's a common occurrence i mean math is a is a complex subject right especially for some children art artistic children or language children that are going to be future writers they just need to know hey how do i balance my checkbook or how do i make sure i get paid the right amount but when your child expresses enormous frustration i hate math i can't do this i don't know what a subject is whatever the question is i don't care about how the dolphins swim and play i don't want to know anything about that that's a great opportunity for grandma grandpa for a caregiver for someone who's an educator parents to ask them what are you struggling with the most and you know chris what parents and what educators often find out it's just it boils down sometimes to just simple explanations oh sweetie let me help you let me show you or asking would you like me to show you how to take these m&ms and divide four by two and what does that look like and use abstract objects ask your children specifically what frustrates you the most everything i just hate it all i think you don't hate it all but there's definitely something you're struggling with and i love to be able to help you with that because i think we can help solve the problem or you know what i see that you struggle with math but boy you can sure communicate your thoughts and feelings very well i think that's a gift so praise the attributes of your children that you see them excelling in beyond just you look pretty or you're so smart but i see that you really do you really seem to be able to figure out how to spell and then you look for how and ways that you can come alongside your struggling learner and encourage them you know what i realize it's a struggle right now but it won't be later you'll understand it we'll keep working on it because that's what learning is learning school and learning is obtaining knowledge you don't have if you already knew it it would be easy but some things you're trying to learn they're just hard because it's new information it is it is well connie we've reached the end of our hour and it's just getting so good and as always you give us such great advice folks we were talking today about the dumbing down of our children if you want to learn more go to conniealvers.com connie's got great information she writes a lot on a lot of different subjects and and you can also link there to her podcast that comes out every wednesday called equipped to be so please check out connie's website conniealvers.com connie thank you so much i can't wait till next friday because you always bring so much knowledge to the show folks god bless you thank you for listening to our show please tune in here every day on your local radio station to listen to christian perspective and it also is released in podcast form every day as well share with your friends and we can't wait to see you again next week now let's go impact the culture for jesus thank you for listening the christian perspective with chris hughes learn more about impacting the culture for jesus visit citizensforamericafoundation.com this is the truth network