June 17, 2025 • 43 mins
Ginny Manguno, a teacher at Briarcrest Christian School, assigned listening to the podcast in her high school class. And so we decided to interview Ginny and her 15 students!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
I listen to your podcast every morning when I'm getting ready,
I'm scrolling through trying to find one. I love listening
to it, and they inspire me because when you most
every person that has done something extraordinary has had a
story of some kind. Rarely do you hear someone who's
had this perfect life. And that's the normal people. You know,
what is normal, I guess is different too, But I
(00:23):
was inspired by every time.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
And then also Wilson Society.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I do that as our service club here on campus,
and all of them have done something in their community
generally as well.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And I thought we'd be inspiring for them.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
To listen to these and see rather than me just
saying pick a podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
This way they're getting something.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
A lot of them are faith based, which was again
a great segue into what we learn in our class
as well.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach Inner City, Memphis.
And the last part somehow led to an oscar for
the film about our team. That movie is called Undefeated, y'all.
I believe our country's problems are never gonna be solved
(01:13):
by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using
big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox,
but rather by an army of normal folks. That's us,
just you and me deciding hey, I can help. Today,
we have an outside the box episode. Really, you're gonna
meet a whole bunch of high schoolers and their teacher
(01:36):
who used an army of normal folks in their class.
I cannot wait for you to meet this class from
Briarqust Christian School right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors. I know sitting here is a little weird,
(02:06):
and you're probably all like, this is kind of cool,
but kind of weird too. If you don't engage with me,
I'm gonna make you engage with me, which is more embarrassing.
So talk, engage, chill out, have fun, don't be geeks.
All right? See this is bad. See see that really
(02:29):
uncomfortable silence. We're not gonna have that sound. So here's
how this is gonna go.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Take your jacket off.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Here's how that's gonna go. We're gonna engage for about
ten minutes, and then we're going to talk about a
lot of the stuff you guys have done with your
assignment with the podcast. And I have some excerpts of
some stuff you've written. I don't know who wrote it,
so I'm gonna read it and say who wrote it?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And there you go, you who wrote it.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
No, we'll have more fun this way. We'll say that,
and I'll say, Okay, who are you? And tell me
what you were doing with it? And you got to
say your name. And this thing is going to come
around to you. You are either a passive or if
you guys are close together, you guys can pass it around. Yeah,
you just pass it around, but when you speak, don't
hold it over here while you're talking actually speaking to it,
(03:18):
so it picks it up. Because there's gonna be thousands
and thousands and thousands of people to hear this thing.
So we need Yeah, you're special, so we need we
need you to use your voice and speak up and
talk with me. The other thing is, don't talk quietly
to me because I'm deaf in my right ear and
I really can't hear you. Are you really? Wow?
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I got hit baseball last year right here, and it's like.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Okay, Well, the reason I'm deaf is because of the
same thing, except for football. I have nerve. I have
nerve damage. Actually, right now I can hear about four
percent of any noise, what brand whatever. My wife told
me to bout hang on what.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I have them too, but I don't have them in
right now.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, So it was nerve damage, right, No coke, clear implants,
nothing can fix it. You're deaf for the rest of
your life.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
It's either a broken cole a bone or permanent nerve.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So your official meat heead. Yeah, that's why it works.
All right. I almost heard everything he said. So you've
got to speak that loud or louder when you talk
with me. Okay, okay, okay, thank you so much. All Right,
you guys haven't been in a lot of these things.
I do need to tell you one other thing. This
(04:43):
guy's the producer. That's Alex Cortez. On some of the
things you've listened to. You may have heard me referred
to Alex before. That's who he is. He produces a show,
he makes it happen. Everything else. One of the things
you need to learn about show biz is producers are
complete pain in the button. They're horrible. They're not fun
to deal with. They're awful, So just ignore the weird
(05:09):
looking man in the corner and everything will be fine. Good.
I gave it to him. You see what they got.
I slept those things all the way here for him,
and I was again, you know, I out of kids,
and I'm sorry, just setting up pictures. I don't know
what you're gonna do with it. Give it your diet.
He can read it to you. Is that okay?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Good coach?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Herring can come in unbelievable. Hold on, we can't start yet.
Yeah that right there, y'all was a dog back in
the day. Y'all need to know, an absolute dog. What
was it twenty six, twenty seven when you got your
first date? Someone actually went out with a bat? Then
(05:54):
about then? I cat right there, y'all. Don't look at
the old gray hair. He could go. He was an athlete.
He was a good coache. Yeah that's right. Yeah, all right,
Well you are precious, all right, honey, we'll see you later.
Bless his heart. All right, So go ready, you're gonna
(06:17):
have fun. It be a bunch of dufuses and just
sit there like knots on a law. What do you
do to your wrist? Low cross did to your wrist.
You's got to speak up. My teammate hit me in
the wrist. Oh are you kidding? Yikes? Can you still
play with that thing on? That really stinks, doesn't it? Sorry? Okay, uh,
(06:45):
all right, ready, all right, here we go. Jenny Manguno
is weird? How are you?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm good? Thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
You're weird because you emailed Alec and then you emailed
me and you said something like this. I've been listening
to your podcasts for several months, almost every weekday morning,
and I'm consistently inspired by your guest and even your story.
My story is quite similar to yours. And you went
(07:17):
on to talk about teaching a dual enrollment oral communications
class at Briercrest High School in Memphis. You invited Alex
and me to kind of discuss with you that you
actually you made your students in your class listen to
(07:38):
an army of normal folks. We found that really really interesting.
And you're also the librarian, and you're weird because you're
using a podcast in your class and oral communications, and
Alex and I thought that's cool. So for those listening today,
we are at Briercrest High School in Memphis with your class,
(07:59):
with your enrollment oral communication class, and there's one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven eight, there's about fifteen kids in here.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Say hi, kids, they're happy today.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
What in the world inspired you to say? I'm teaching
oral communications class. I'm going to make these kids listen
to an old person's podcast, which had to have been
miserable for these kids.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I think they probably thought it was going to be
miserable to start, but then they wound up loving the
assignment they do part of the curriculum that we have.
They actually did their own podcast. We have a podcast
small studio here on campus, and so they each had
to record a podcasts with a partner. One group had
a group of three. But anyhow, they were doing their podcasts,
and so I was just asking who listens to podcasts
(08:44):
and there weren't.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
A lot that before this time.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I said, then y'all need to listen to a good podcast,
and I love yours. And so that's how that came up,
as like, choose one of these, and being a teacher,
I made sure it was ones I had listened to,
so that I would know for sure if they had
done the assignment or not.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
What where do you come from. What's your story?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Does that mean?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Oh my god? Should I answer it now? Answered? It's
your wife? Answer answer on air?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh yes, sweet.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
This is my fortieth year in education, so I've been
teaching since nineteen eighty five was my first year to teach.
So I've been doing this a long time, between high school,
college and now back to high school. So doing doing
enrollment gets you to do a little bit of both.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So what brought you into teaching? Tell me how you
came up. Tell me a little bit about you. I'm
curious because you said my story is quite similar to yours.
I want to hear about that. How are we alike?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Okay, I don't know if the students know your whole story.
I don't know if they know my whole story. So
I'll just kind of share. So I grew up and
I went to high school in Pearl, Mississippi, which they know.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
All about because I asked them.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I always ask them bonus questions about my life, Like
if I say something in class and their bonus question
comes from that, like what was what was my high
school mascot?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Do y'all remember?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Now?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Pirates? Very good?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
See, like they remember pirates?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
The Pearl pirates.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yes, anyhow, so we.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Use that in the class a lot. So I'm from Pearl.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
My parents divorced when I was nine, which is unheard
of in nineteen seventy two, you know, like that just
was not something happened. And then later my dad died.
My mom was a teacher, and I thought I would
never be a teacher. She had a very unconventional life
and made a lot of poor relationship decisions that in
(10:39):
today's world would probably be much accepted, but in Pearl,
Mississippi in the nineteen seventies was a very difficult thing.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
But did that put a stigma on you as a kid?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh? Absolutely, uh And I've said this often. I have
one wonderful friend that I'm still best friends with today.
But if I invited a friend to spend the night,
it was always maybe you could come to my house instead.
No one was ever allowed to come and spend the
night at my house, which looking back, I don't blame
those parents. I mean, I'm a parent now, and I
get that.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Doesn't make a sixteen year old fillony better about it, though.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
No, no, And by that point, by the time I
was like middle school, early high school, I had a
great friend. Her name's Diane, and my mom would say
things like, find somewhere to go this weekend, you can't
be here, and so pretty much every Friday afternoon I
would just go home with Diane, and then on Sunday
about seven o'clock, my sister would come pick me up
(11:31):
and we'd go back home. And so that's who really
raised me, is my friend's mind.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
That has to make you feel alone as a kid.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I think you know, in the seventies, there was no DHS.
There was no talking about this. These aren't things that
you talk about. They're just it just was your life,
and you do it, and dare tell someone that your
life wasn't perfect, because that's not the way life was.
But there was no protect there's no foster system, there's
no DHS or nothing like that, so you just go on.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
But my mom was a.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Teacher, and of course I said I would never be
a teacher, but I had a teacher in high school.
I don't think I've told them the story, Missus Robbins.
She was my speech teacher, my most favorite teacher. I
had her three years in a row, and she just
she was that teacher that called you out when you.
You know, she told everybody what they were doing right
and what they were doing wrong, and she didn't think
twice about it, and she was She made a big impact.
(12:25):
In fact, i'm talking with Alex I told him she's
she had three students who became speech teachers.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That's just like you count yourself as one communications.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and all taught high school and college.
It's just been af She just made a huge impact
in my life. Went to college, didn't ever plan to
be a teacher, and got certified just in case from
one of my roommates said, I think you'd be a
good teacher. You should just get certified. And I was like, oh,
I'll get certified. And then I did my student teaching
and fell in love with teaching. Never had plans to teach,
(12:57):
and I've been teaching now forty years.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
How long have you been here?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I've been full time here ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Got it? For those who don't know, my mother was
married and divorced five times. My fourth father took out
a thirty eight caliber pistol one night after finishing off
about a half gallon of US or Scotch and shot
at me down the hallway. I had to dive out
of window to save myself that night. So I was
surrounded with dysfunction trauma, and as a person your age
(13:29):
was kind of lost trying to figure out, you know,
where where do I fit in this world? And I'll
tell you something else that happens is when people come
in and out of your life consistently, and the only
thing that is consistent is inconsistency, you start to wonder
about your own value. You know, why are you not
(13:51):
valuable enough that someone is willing to invest in stay
in your life? And it has a profound effect. And
you can either come and be a victim to that
dysfunction or you can decide to be a rock that
that dysfunction breaks itself on. There's really two choices. Sure
to tell you that a teacher who passed away not
(14:11):
long ago, actually my football coach told me that who
I love, did you feel the dysfunction?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I think it's just one of those things where it's
just your life like And again, you wouldn't talk about this.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
This was the seventies. There were no TV. Every TV
show was you know, the love boat or.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
What is something fantasy island?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Fantasy Island that shows the cleaver road.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, it's just everything's.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Perfect break yeah, yeah, yeah, So you just thought, well,
it's just not the way I live.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
But you wouldn't dare talk about that.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
You're now People talk about the dysfunction in their family
and there's ways to deal with it. But I assure
you there were people who had it worse than I did,
much worse.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I coach and teach and do a lot of what
I do because I'm still a fifty six year old
fill very real about the pain ifl and I feel
like in teaching and coaching you have an opportunity to
maybe exact some measure of positive change on some people
(15:11):
who may be going through maybe not exactly what you're
doing too, but a similar amount of suffering, pain, questions, whatever.
Do you feel like that's what draws you to continue
to do this year after year.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I think I think you hope that you're making a
difference in some way. I mean, a teacher made a
huge difference for me, So you hope in some way
you're making If you make a difference in one person's life,
then you've done something.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I mean, that's so true. But then you look out
at the people you're trying to make a difference in life.
And there are a bunch of fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year old
meatheads like these people out here, and you actually wonder
if you're getting through you do sometimes Yeah, I mean
there's this kid over here at Tucker. I don't know
how you get through to that guy, this Tucker kid. Oh,
(15:57):
you're going to act right because your dad's in the room.
Now what you're gonna do. You're just gonna sit there.
We're going to take a brief intermission in the middle
of this. This is not a commercial break. Say what up? Coach?
Brandon Tucker just walked in. And Brandon Tucker is one
of the finest people on the face of the planet.
I've coached against him, I've coached with him, and I
(16:19):
love him. And his son happens to be in your class.
And so there's Brandon Tucker over there. Pretty good math coach,
pretty fair football coach, but a pretty extraordinary human beings.
Good to see you, brother, And now a few messages
from our general sponsors. But first, we're thinking about launching
(16:41):
a few local chapters of the Army this year, and
if you're interested in potentially leading a chapter in your community,
email Army at normal folks, dot us and Alex would
love to connect with you. We'll be right back kind
(17:06):
of give me and our listeners just a quick purpose
of the dual enrollment Oral Communications class. I keep having
to read it because I don't even know how to
remember all that. But what do y'all do? Well?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Because it's dual enrollment, they're getting college credit through the
University of Memphis by taking this class, so they take discounts.
They have to have a fine art to graduate from
high school, so they take my class for one semester
and then first semester they took music appreciation. My first
semester class takes theater appreciation this semester, so it just
depends on where they fall. But they're getting college credit.
(17:40):
The hope is that they don't have to take this
in college. Most of them, the seniors and the seniors
will see most of those have on their senior shirts today.
But we just did a what would you call what
I did last week? A seminar I talk about college
and try to help them learn how to do course equivalency.
So if I took this class in high school, how's
it going to help me in college?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
How's it going to transfer.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
So we have a lot of dual enrollment classes, but
this is just one that they can take. And so
we follow the curriculum from the University of Memphis and
then I do a high school portion of that as well.
And they've learned how to do an informative speech. Yesterday
they did elevator pitches. I think that may have been
their favorite. They're like, no, no, they did the persuasive podcast.
(18:25):
Help me out what else they impromptu speeches? They're just nodding.
There a lot of communications, all communications skills, all right.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
So in the context of understanding the class and soon everybody,
we're going to talk to these kids, and I expect
that's going to be fun or maybe it'll be awful,
depending on how big a goofballs they are. We'll find
out there's four hundred there's four million, five hundred podcasts
on the face of the planet. How inside are the
construct of the class? Do you decide to I'm an
(19:01):
army of normal folks as part of the curriculum. That's weird.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
That's why I said you were wor you said I
was weird, Well, because I listened to it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Weird in the fondest sense of Okay, okay, I.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Listen to your podcast every morning when I'm getting ready,
I'm scrolling through trying to find one. I love listening
to it, and they inspire me because when you most
every person that has done something extraordinary has had a
story of some kind. Rarely do you hear someone who's
had this perfect life, and I guess that's part of them.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
There's no such thing.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, and that's the normal people.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
You know, what is normal? I guess is different too.
But I was inspired by every time. And then also
Wilson Society. I do that as our service club here
on campus, and all of them have done something in
their community generally as well, and I thought I would
be inspiring for them to listen to these and see
so almost very rather than me just saying pick a podcast.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
This way they're getting something.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
A lot of them are faith based, which was again
a great segue into what we learn in our class
as well, which.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Is interesting, by the way, all of our listeners and
you guys in here, it is interesting that a lot
of our guests end up evoking faith during their conversations.
But we are not a faith based podcast. I'm a Christian,
but we are not a faith. I'm certainly not going
to tell somebody don't speak about your faith, but we
(20:23):
don't ask people to speak about their faith, but it
is it has become very interesting d alex in me
that I don't know what the percentage is, but four
out of five probably end up evoking faith in their
conversation and all the time that faith is not necessarily
just their Christian faith. But it is interesting to me
that as we talk about a group of quote normal folks,
(20:47):
that the vast majority of them evoke faith when they
talk about the work that they do to serve their community.
Which it's interesting you picked up on that, and it's
not it's not part of the context of the show,
but it almost invariably comes out, which I think is
interesting when people talk about themselves. I think it speaks
(21:10):
to the power of faith in what we do in
our lives. Does that have a component of what you
do every day?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yes, so our career.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I mean all we teach is faith based here, you know, everything,
we want everything to come from a Christian worldview. So
hopefully when these seniors leave that they they're solid in
their faith and they know what they believe, and they
believe it because they believe it, not because their parents
believe it, and so when they get out into the world,
they are able to make the decisions that are going
to support their faith.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Okay, So the assignment was listen to pick any episode
off of the catalog of an army normal folks, listen
to it, and then do.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
What write a essay about it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Okay, So the first one, I don't know who did what.
I just got a bunch of students looking at me,
and I have a small piece of what each of
you wrote. So I like this one. This is what
(22:18):
was part of what was said. We're going to go
over all these, but I'm going to start with this
one because I think it speaks to goofy sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen year olds. I went into this project not wanting
to do it. I love that, but I came out
enjoying it. I've learned that podcasts do not have to
(22:40):
be strictly business. Talking about stuff that the average person
can relate to makes it more enjoyable for the listener.
I honestly did not know this is who wrote this,
but I guess it fits. So who went into this
not wanting to do it? East I love the honesty
(23:01):
admitted that they didn't want to do it. Uh, oh,
speak up, No, it's on, you got to speak Okay,
who is.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Mem Hudson Tucker?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
What Hudson Tucker? Hudson Tucker didn't want to do this? Okay,
so before we go on to what Hudson had to
write about, who else in here? Honestly raise a hands.
Really didn't want to do this.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The whole class, Okay, their seniors and out bloom them
and tomorrow is their last day of school.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
They are not wanting to being a senior in high
school and classes ending. You're getting college fever. You're thinking
about where you're applying to and what's next and everything else.
And then you, uh, you got to listen to some
old dudes podcast. What were you well, you actually like
rolling your eyes and at your teacher, going come on,
(23:54):
it's late in the year. This is a bunch of
crud pretty much.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And they're long too, just so you know, they're not
like ten minutes long. That was that was their other complaint.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah, we make them, we know how long they are.
We have to listen to these things. Yeah, so you
didn't want to do it?
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Huh, I did not know, sir.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
But tell me what you found out. What would you
listen to?
Speaker 6 (24:15):
And I listened to God's million dollar Company and how he.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Donated Alan Barnhardt fifty.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
Of his profits. Yes, sir, and then I really enjoyed.
Just like at first I didn't want to listen to it,
and then as I started listening, it was just like
it wasn't like it was all business. You were just
having a good time, just talking about life and how
he kind of was able to use his platform too.
Everyone told him wasn't going to work, that he was
going to lose money in the end, but he ended
up just like trusting in God and having faith and
(24:41):
he was able to actually give money to a lot
of people to help him out.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Hudson, would are you a senior, No, sir, I'm a junior.
You got one more year left, yes, sir? All right.
Did listening to that podcast and that episode in any
way make you think more deep deeply about what you're
gonna do in your life or how you're gonna approach
(25:04):
your life.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
It kind of made me just like realize that like
God has a plan and then like it's not gonna
be my plan, like he everyone was telling him that
it was not gonna work, not gonna work, and then
he kind of just had faith in God and then
it all worked out for his good. And so I
just think that going into my senior year and then
going into like the job search, that it's just gonna
(25:26):
work out. Just got to keep living in him and
the right path be made.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
What do you think about a guy that has a
business that does a billion dollars a year in sales
and still doesn't pay himself much more than one hundred
and six thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
I think that's, uh, it's pretty impressive. Definitely, not too
many people that would not give themselves a lot of money.
And I think it speaks as him as like a man,
mister Allen, and like how he really cares about other people,
and how his whole life is just revolving around other
people and people around him.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Do all you guys know the story that this guy
built a business from nothing, decided with his brother that
every year they were going to give away fifty percent
of their earnings, and only a couple of years ago
his business did a billion dollars, y'all, and he gave
the company away, didn't take one Dollar gave it away.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Yes, yeah, so name, My name is Lance Bryant, but
Alan Barnhart, that name popped up. I didn't listen to
the episode, but my dad is in a group called
C twelve. It's a Christian CEO group, and Alan Barnhart
is actually in it. So my dad has actually told
me a lot about him, and so I thought that
(26:47):
was really cool that my dad is in a group
with a guy that you did a podcast with.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It's pretty cool, all right. Next one Joe and Kelly Carson.
I learned a lot about how easily, how easy it
really is to live in a sort of comfortable bubble.
Inspired me to look beyond my life and to see
what the norm is for other people who might not
have as much as me. I also learned that it's
(27:14):
very possible for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. That
storytelling is very powerful way to get the message across.
In a podcast, who wrote that, Oh my gosh, so
tell me about it.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
So you know, I listened to that podcast and it
really stuck with me that like their son went out
and did something and it actually changed their mindset. So
like he went out and he lived on that flat
in Chicago for a year, and he spent that weekend homeless,
and you know, it was really inspiring to hear that.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Like his parents kind of realized that.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Like through him, that they were kind of living in
ale and their their dentistry and stuff, and they realized
that God did want them to sell their business and
go try to make some things happen, and so God
kind of paid the path for them, and that was
really inspiring me.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
For those of you in the class, the takeaway here
is this guy not much older than you. Part of
his requirement was to go to a thrift store and
get some ragged clothes and with no money in his pocket,
go on the streets of Chicago and be homeless and
have to ask for his sustenance to truly experience what
(28:39):
homelessness feels like. Can you imagine doing that?
Speaker 6 (28:46):
Now?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Do you remember what his experience was when when he
was on the street. Yeah? Yes. And remember now, this
is a guy who comes from a background just like
each of you, a fluent, nice place.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
He was I believe he was a student at Baylor,
wasn't he when he took this year off?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You don't remember that from the that's right?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So what was his experience.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
So this part actually really stuck with me.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
So he was he was asking these people for money,
and this this one lady that that he had asked
for money, she said, uh, you know, you go get
a job whatever. And I think she actually ended up
giving him to three dollars or something and she said, Oh,
you're probably just going to go spend this on alcohol
and drugs. I don't know why I'm giving you this
(29:32):
money anyway, And Kelly Carson was like, Uh.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
She got on the call with her son at the
end of the week.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I think they get one call a week, and he
told her about that and she started thinking.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
She was like, I've done something similar to that before.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Like and now he met me on the street that day.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Yeah, she said, he met me on the street that day,
and so that really got her to thinking and then
she made some change from that.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
It's a pretty cool story, pretty cool takeaway. It's easy, y'all,
coming from affluence or relative safety when you're driving around
in some of the more urban areas to see someone
(30:17):
that is slovenly and be dragged and on the street
with their handout. It is pretty easy to sum up
based on popular narrative what that person is an alcoholic,
a drug addict, a loser, whatever. But it's a reminder
(30:41):
that every face has a story. And since we're in
a Christian school, you might remember that Christ didn't show
up to a place that looks like Briarcrest. He surrounded
himself with fishermen and hookers. So the question is, is,
(31:03):
young Christian folks, who are you called to interact with
if you are in fact to be christ Like. I
think there's a big takeaway there. We'll be right back,
(31:31):
all right. What I learned is no matter what someone
has done to get themselves into prison, they still have
aspirations and they want to achieve. I just thought that
once you're in prison, that's it, and that you just
have to put your life on pause until you get out.
The podcast showed me that it's possible to continue to
live while incarcerated, and that there are people out there
(31:51):
that don't immediately need to be judged. Yes, hi name
and loud, Hey Hannah, tell me about it.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
I thought it was interesting how he like didn't really
know what he was doing it first, and then he
just felt called to get like a degree in ministry.
And then somehow I pulled into like the like jail scenery,
and then like he decided to actually do something with
it and not just like teach them like how to
actually be something more than like just like their time
(32:24):
like in jail, and how like that how he taught
other people and that there the people that he taught
like continue to teach others like it was like a train.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Don't say anything, Hannah. What's your name, Zachary? When you
think of the people in two oh one Poplar, I
want straight talk. When you think when you think of
the people in two oh one Poplar with a rap sheet,
tell me what you envision quickly. And I picked him
for everybody listening, I just picked Zachary out of the group.
(32:56):
He's this was not planned By'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 8 (32:59):
Well, I actually do know a guy that went into
a one popular for getting in a street fight. He
now is permanent brain damage and he lives with his
mother full time.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Now.
Speaker 8 (33:06):
He's from Binghampton, but he he is a very kind
guy now that he learned his lesson, But going into
it he was angry and just probably scary interesting guy
to talk to.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
I can forget him macro level, I.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Would say, very scary.
Speaker 8 (33:22):
You know, well, I wouldn't want to surround myself with
them life losers.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Yeah, you, sir, deserved what they deserved, what they earned
most likely, yes, sir, you break the law, you go
to jail, and when you're in jail, you know, to
a one poplar people are dying in that place. The
doors don't even lock. They've got six people in a
cell built for two because it's overcrowded. There's not good food.
Do you or people around you have the mentality that, well,
(33:48):
that's what they get. They don't want to deal with that,
don't break the law.
Speaker 8 (33:51):
I mean, yes, sir, I think it's you know, right
that we separate them from society so that way they
just don't harm it even more.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
But as a group of people, is it fair to
say that your first instinct just kind of say too
bad and look down your nose? Hannah, tell us why
we have to from what you learned, tell us why
we have to be careful with that judgment.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
I think it's because like we all were like born,
like we're all the same, like no matter like where
we come from, we're all human. And like the people
in jail, like they didn't they weren't born a criminal, Like, yes,
they chose to like make the decision to get in jail,
But that doesn't like mean that they're just like forever
a bad person. Like there is like redemption in that,
(34:37):
and like I just think that there's like like that
can be any of us at like any time, and
like you never know if like you're gonna have to
make a decision that's going to get you in jail,
and like there's like no need just to judge to.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Judge, Hannah, where were you born?
Speaker 7 (34:52):
Memphis?
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Where Caryville? That's not Memphish? Do you understand what I mean? Yes, sir, Okay,
tell everybody who's listing that's from all over the world
where Caryoville is like.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
A suburb outside of Memphis suburb?
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Right? Are there shacks out there? No? What are there houses?
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Like?
Speaker 3 (35:11):
What kind of houses?
Speaker 7 (35:12):
Big houses?
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Are there? Hoopedies riding up down the road very often?
Speaker 7 (35:19):
What kind of cars like audis like nice cars?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah, BMW's. Are there many households out there that refrigerators
are empty? No? Do most households have at least one
college graduate in it? Maybe two? How many households do
you think have non high school graduates, not a lot,
(35:44):
very few. It is the police department pretty robust and
doing a good job, I think. So is it safe?
Speaker 7 (35:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Have you ever experienced a drive by?
Speaker 7 (35:55):
I had a gum pulled on me one time in Caryville.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, Okay, that's fird, but but in general it's.
Speaker 7 (36:09):
Nice, Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
What if you were born in Orange Mound.
Speaker 7 (36:13):
That's like a whole different area, that's completely different. I
feel like I wouldn't be me if I was born
in Orange Mound.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
What if you had one parent in the household who
did not even graduate from high school, and that is
what the entire block and neighborhood you lived in looked like.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
That wouldn't be like good, I guess like it wouldn't
be like like.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
I don't know the word.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
So my question is if you were hungry and you
had no future, and you had no hope, and you
were just enfranchised, you think it's possible that Hannah from Caryoville,
in a completely different atmosphere might have ended up into
a one popular for sure. Would you want a second chance?
Speaker 7 (37:04):
I think everyone wants a second chance, and I think
everyone deserves a second chance.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
So when you say you learned it no matter what
someone has done to get themselves into prison, they still
have aspirations that they want to achieve. Did you ever
win listening to that? Try to put yourself in that position.
Speaker 7 (37:23):
I don't know if I tried to like put myself
in like the mentality of being in jail, because like
I don't want to go to jail, like that's scary,
but like I think if I was in that position,
like I would definitely like try my best to like
act like like get on parole, I guess, or like
just get out as soon as possible. And I mean
there were some people in that story who didn't have
(37:44):
that option. Then we're like in jail for life, but
they still like did something and we're like and had
like dreams and still achieve stuff while being in jail.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
So jail, after all, isn't full of society throw away
zombies that we shouldn't care about. They're still human beings.
Next one, I learned how easy it is to make
an impact. Monica worked hard, but she framed the story
in a way that was encouraging to those who see
a wrong in the world that they want to make right.
Who wrote that? Who wrote that?
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You know that maybe Finley and she she had to
take a test today.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yes, okay, well she's fired next she had ap test.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Oh whatever, she's a loser for not being here. The
content was interesting as it gave me an insight into
the into a life that I do not experience. I
think the speakers were able to connect to the audience. Personally,
I cannot relate to what they're talking about, but there
are people out there who did. The student also talked
in class about the alarming rate of students who can't
(38:48):
read and cited the statistics. It made an impact. Who's that?
That was me? Okay, who's you? My name is Hans Solomon,
all right, tell me about it. So the Nanodkas Khalil
Sweeney klise.
Speaker 9 (39:00):
When the main podcast was the boxing gym, that were
no one boxes, which I found found very interesting because
he realized that there was a need for helping kids
graduate high school. Uh he was, I believe in the
high school, maybe his only twenties before he learned how
to read, and someone took him in and taught him
how to read.
Speaker 10 (39:21):
His childhood growing up was very rough.
Speaker 9 (39:24):
He did not grow up with his parents, and so
that was interesting how he realized that. I assume it
was mostly young men who he was focused on because
that's what the boxing gym comes in, And so he
talked about how he had to find something to get
the young men in there, because if he has had
(39:45):
a reading and writing center, no one would show up.
Speaker 10 (39:48):
But if he had a boxing center, He's.
Speaker 9 (39:49):
Like, I will teach you how to box if you
show up and do your homework first, which I found
very interesting.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
He kind of had a hook, didn't he, And yes
he did. Now I read your comment it said personally,
I cannot relate to what they were talking about, but
there are people out there who did. Has anybody ever
heard of coaching for literacy? All right, Well, there's a
guy in town named John Wilfong. If you were a
(40:17):
little older, you'd remember him. He was the shooting guard
for the University of Memphis back in the day when
the University of Memphis was always in the sweet sixteen
Elite eight. He's now a financial advisor. His son was
a pretty fair basketball player, ended up playing at SMU
and coming up John coached aau basketball with his son
(40:38):
and a bunch of kids, and there was a kid
on their team named Frank Big Frank. He ended up
playing football and playing football at LSU. But back when
they were twelve thirteen years old doing au ball, every
time they'd go to a restaurant after the games, Big
Frank would just order whatever john Son ordered. So if
(41:02):
they were at Applebee's and John said, so I want
the chicken figures or fries and some ranch, Frank would say,
that's what I want. They thought at first was because
just Frank and John were tight, but what they found
out was Frank was eleven and couldn't read.
Speaker 10 (41:16):
They would talk about that in the podcast.
Speaker 9 (41:18):
I'd forgot about that until you just mentioned that, but
he talked about how lonely you feel when you can't
read them in you and you're going out and you're like,
oh man, let's get what you have.
Speaker 10 (41:28):
And so I'd forgot about that. But that is another
part of it.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
So when John found out out his son and he
started this thing called Coaching for Literacy. And if you
ever see a coach football or basketball coach in pros
and college wearing a little lime green ribbon kind of
like the breast cancer ribbon, but this one's lime green.
That's a coach supporting coaching for literacy. And here's the demographics.
(41:55):
A kid who does not read on grade level by
third grade is sixty five percent more likely by his
eighteenth birthday to be incarcerated third grade. They can actually tell,
going unto the fourth grade by the ability to read
(42:16):
whether or not this child is going to have a
job or be in prison. So how important is the
work that he's doing to teach kids to read.
Speaker 9 (42:27):
Uncountable. I mean, it's truly amazing what he was doing,
what he's doing. And so they talked about in his podcast,
but I think the age twenty one, you had like
an eighty percent chance if you can read by grade three,
to be incarcerated or dead by the age of twenty one.
And so he talked about going back to like loneliness
growing up. He was he did what he felt like doing,
(42:50):
which could lead to prison. Things like that, because he
already knew, or felt like he knew, his life was set.
He was going to be dead or in prison by
twenty one. And so him getting people into the boxing gym,
getting their homework done. It may not be like straight a's,
but you're teaching kids how to read, which is getting
them into the job. Field and keeping them out of
(43:10):
prison or keeping them alive.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
And that concludes Part one of my very cool conversation
with a bunch of kids and their teacher from Briar
Crust Christian School. And I'm telling you what, don't miss
Part two. It's now available to listen to it. Together. Guys,
we can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see in Part two.
I listen to your podcast every morning when I'm getting ready,
I'm scrolling through trying to find one. I love listening
to it, and they inspire me because when you most
every person that has done something extraordinary has had a
story of some kind. Rarely do you hear someone who's
had this perfect life. And that's the normal people. You know,
what is normal, I guess is different too, But I
(00:23):
was inspired by every time.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
And then also Wilson Society.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
I do that as our service club here on campus,
and all of them have done something in their community
generally as well.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
And I thought we'd be inspiring for them.
Speaker 1 (00:35):
To listen to these and see rather than me just
saying pick a podcast.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
This way they're getting something.
Speaker 1 (00:41):
A lot of them are faith based, which was again
a great segue into what we learn in our class
as well.
Speaker 3 (00:50):
Welcome to an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney.
I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, I'm a father,
I'm an entrepreneur, and I've been a football coach Inner City, Memphis.
And the last part somehow led to an oscar for
the film about our team. That movie is called Undefeated, y'all.
I believe our country's problems are never gonna be solved
(01:13):
by a bunch of fancy people in nice suits using
big words that nobody ever uses on CNN and Fox,
but rather by an army of normal folks. That's us,
just you and me deciding hey, I can help. Today,
we have an outside the box episode. Really, you're gonna
meet a whole bunch of high schoolers and their teacher
(01:36):
who used an army of normal folks in their class.
I cannot wait for you to meet this class from
Briarqust Christian School right after these brief messages from our
general sponsors. I know sitting here is a little weird,
(02:06):
and you're probably all like, this is kind of cool,
but kind of weird too. If you don't engage with me,
I'm gonna make you engage with me, which is more embarrassing.
So talk, engage, chill out, have fun, don't be geeks.
All right? See this is bad. See see that really
(02:29):
uncomfortable silence. We're not gonna have that sound. So here's
how this is gonna go.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Take your jacket off.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Here's how that's gonna go. We're gonna engage for about
ten minutes, and then we're going to talk about a
lot of the stuff you guys have done with your
assignment with the podcast. And I have some excerpts of
some stuff you've written. I don't know who wrote it,
so I'm gonna read it and say who wrote it?
Speaker 1 (02:53):
And there you go, you who wrote it.
Speaker 3 (02:56):
No, we'll have more fun this way. We'll say that,
and I'll say, Okay, who are you? And tell me
what you were doing with it? And you got to
say your name. And this thing is going to come
around to you. You are either a passive or if
you guys are close together, you guys can pass it around. Yeah,
you just pass it around, but when you speak, don't
hold it over here while you're talking actually speaking to it,
(03:18):
so it picks it up. Because there's gonna be thousands
and thousands and thousands of people to hear this thing.
So we need Yeah, you're special, so we need we
need you to use your voice and speak up and
talk with me. The other thing is, don't talk quietly
to me because I'm deaf in my right ear and
I really can't hear you. Are you really? Wow?
Speaker 4 (03:40):
I got hit baseball last year right here, and it's like.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Okay, Well, the reason I'm deaf is because of the
same thing, except for football. I have nerve. I have
nerve damage. Actually, right now I can hear about four
percent of any noise, what brand whatever. My wife told
me to bout hang on what.
Speaker 5 (04:08):
I have them too, but I don't have them in
right now.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Yeah, So it was nerve damage, right, No coke, clear implants,
nothing can fix it. You're deaf for the rest of
your life.
Speaker 4 (04:17):
It's either a broken cole a bone or permanent nerve.
Speaker 3 (04:22):
So your official meat heead. Yeah, that's why it works.
All right. I almost heard everything he said. So you've
got to speak that loud or louder when you talk
with me. Okay, okay, okay, thank you so much. All Right,
you guys haven't been in a lot of these things.
I do need to tell you one other thing. This
(04:43):
guy's the producer. That's Alex Cortez. On some of the
things you've listened to. You may have heard me referred
to Alex before. That's who he is. He produces a show,
he makes it happen. Everything else. One of the things
you need to learn about show biz is producers are
complete pain in the button. They're horrible. They're not fun
to deal with. They're awful, So just ignore the weird
(05:09):
looking man in the corner and everything will be fine. Good.
I gave it to him. You see what they got.
I slept those things all the way here for him,
and I was again, you know, I out of kids,
and I'm sorry, just setting up pictures. I don't know
what you're gonna do with it. Give it your diet.
He can read it to you. Is that okay?
Speaker 2 (05:31):
Good coach?
Speaker 3 (05:32):
Herring can come in unbelievable. Hold on, we can't start yet.
Yeah that right there, y'all was a dog back in
the day. Y'all need to know, an absolute dog. What
was it twenty six, twenty seven when you got your
first date? Someone actually went out with a bat? Then
(05:54):
about then? I cat right there, y'all. Don't look at
the old gray hair. He could go. He was an athlete.
He was a good coache. Yeah that's right. Yeah, all right,
Well you are precious, all right, honey, we'll see you later.
Bless his heart. All right, So go ready, you're gonna
(06:17):
have fun. It be a bunch of dufuses and just
sit there like knots on a law. What do you
do to your wrist? Low cross did to your wrist.
You's got to speak up. My teammate hit me in
the wrist. Oh are you kidding? Yikes? Can you still
play with that thing on? That really stinks, doesn't it? Sorry? Okay, uh,
(06:45):
all right, ready, all right, here we go. Jenny Manguno
is weird? How are you?
Speaker 2 (06:55):
I'm good? Thank you.
Speaker 3 (06:56):
You're weird because you emailed Alec and then you emailed
me and you said something like this. I've been listening
to your podcasts for several months, almost every weekday morning,
and I'm consistently inspired by your guest and even your story.
My story is quite similar to yours. And you went
(07:17):
on to talk about teaching a dual enrollment oral communications
class at Briercrest High School in Memphis. You invited Alex
and me to kind of discuss with you that you
actually you made your students in your class listen to
(07:38):
an army of normal folks. We found that really really interesting.
And you're also the librarian, and you're weird because you're
using a podcast in your class and oral communications, and
Alex and I thought that's cool. So for those listening today,
we are at Briercrest High School in Memphis with your class,
(07:59):
with your enrollment oral communication class, and there's one, two, three, four, five, six,
seven eight, there's about fifteen kids in here.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
Say hi, kids, they're happy today.
Speaker 3 (08:12):
What in the world inspired you to say? I'm teaching
oral communications class. I'm going to make these kids listen
to an old person's podcast, which had to have been
miserable for these kids.
Speaker 1 (08:23):
I think they probably thought it was going to be
miserable to start, but then they wound up loving the
assignment they do part of the curriculum that we have.
They actually did their own podcast. We have a podcast
small studio here on campus, and so they each had
to record a podcasts with a partner. One group had
a group of three. But anyhow, they were doing their podcasts,
and so I was just asking who listens to podcasts
(08:44):
and there weren't.
Speaker 2 (08:45):
A lot that before this time.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
I said, then y'all need to listen to a good podcast,
and I love yours. And so that's how that came up,
as like, choose one of these, and being a teacher,
I made sure it was ones I had listened to,
so that I would know for sure if they had
done the assignment or not.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
What where do you come from. What's your story?
Speaker 1 (09:04):
Does that mean?
Speaker 3 (09:06):
Oh my god? Should I answer it now? Answered? It's
your wife? Answer answer on air?
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Oh yes, sweet.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
This is my fortieth year in education, so I've been
teaching since nineteen eighty five was my first year to teach.
So I've been doing this a long time, between high school,
college and now back to high school. So doing doing
enrollment gets you to do a little bit of both.
Speaker 3 (09:32):
So what brought you into teaching? Tell me how you
came up. Tell me a little bit about you. I'm
curious because you said my story is quite similar to yours.
I want to hear about that. How are we alike?
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Okay, I don't know if the students know your whole story.
I don't know if they know my whole story. So
I'll just kind of share. So I grew up and
I went to high school in Pearl, Mississippi, which they know.
Speaker 2 (09:58):
All about because I asked them.
Speaker 1 (09:59):
I always ask them bonus questions about my life, Like
if I say something in class and their bonus question
comes from that, like what was what was my high
school mascot?
Speaker 2 (10:06):
Do y'all remember?
Speaker 3 (10:07):
Now?
Speaker 2 (10:08):
Pirates? Very good?
Speaker 3 (10:09):
See, like they remember pirates?
Speaker 2 (10:10):
The Pearl pirates.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yes, anyhow, so we.
Speaker 2 (10:15):
Use that in the class a lot. So I'm from Pearl.
Speaker 1 (10:18):
My parents divorced when I was nine, which is unheard
of in nineteen seventy two, you know, like that just
was not something happened. And then later my dad died.
My mom was a teacher, and I thought I would
never be a teacher. She had a very unconventional life
and made a lot of poor relationship decisions that in
(10:39):
today's world would probably be much accepted, but in Pearl,
Mississippi in the nineteen seventies was a very difficult thing.
Speaker 3 (10:45):
But did that put a stigma on you as a kid?
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Oh? Absolutely, uh And I've said this often. I have
one wonderful friend that I'm still best friends with today.
But if I invited a friend to spend the night,
it was always maybe you could come to my house instead.
No one was ever allowed to come and spend the
night at my house, which looking back, I don't blame
those parents. I mean, I'm a parent now, and I
get that.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Doesn't make a sixteen year old fillony better about it, though.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
No, no, And by that point, by the time I
was like middle school, early high school, I had a
great friend. Her name's Diane, and my mom would say
things like, find somewhere to go this weekend, you can't
be here, and so pretty much every Friday afternoon I
would just go home with Diane, and then on Sunday
about seven o'clock, my sister would come pick me up
(11:31):
and we'd go back home. And so that's who really
raised me, is my friend's mind.
Speaker 3 (11:36):
That has to make you feel alone as a kid.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
I think you know, in the seventies, there was no DHS.
There was no talking about this. These aren't things that
you talk about. They're just it just was your life,
and you do it, and dare tell someone that your
life wasn't perfect, because that's not the way life was.
But there was no protect there's no foster system, there's
no DHS or nothing like that, so you just go on.
Speaker 2 (12:01):
But my mom was a.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
Teacher, and of course I said I would never be
a teacher, but I had a teacher in high school.
I don't think I've told them the story, Missus Robbins.
She was my speech teacher, my most favorite teacher. I
had her three years in a row, and she just
she was that teacher that called you out when you.
You know, she told everybody what they were doing right
and what they were doing wrong, and she didn't think
twice about it, and she was She made a big impact.
(12:25):
In fact, i'm talking with Alex I told him she's
she had three students who became speech teachers.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
That's just like you count yourself as one communications.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, and all taught high school and college.
It's just been af She just made a huge impact
in my life. Went to college, didn't ever plan to
be a teacher, and got certified just in case from
one of my roommates said, I think you'd be a
good teacher. You should just get certified. And I was like, oh,
I'll get certified. And then I did my student teaching
and fell in love with teaching. Never had plans to teach,
(12:57):
and I've been teaching now forty years.
Speaker 3 (12:59):
How long have you been here?
Speaker 2 (13:00):
I've been full time here ten years.
Speaker 3 (13:04):
Got it? For those who don't know, my mother was
married and divorced five times. My fourth father took out
a thirty eight caliber pistol one night after finishing off
about a half gallon of US or Scotch and shot
at me down the hallway. I had to dive out
of window to save myself that night. So I was
surrounded with dysfunction trauma, and as a person your age
(13:29):
was kind of lost trying to figure out, you know,
where where do I fit in this world? And I'll
tell you something else that happens is when people come
in and out of your life consistently, and the only
thing that is consistent is inconsistency, you start to wonder
about your own value. You know, why are you not
(13:51):
valuable enough that someone is willing to invest in stay
in your life? And it has a profound effect. And
you can either come and be a victim to that
dysfunction or you can decide to be a rock that
that dysfunction breaks itself on. There's really two choices. Sure
to tell you that a teacher who passed away not
(14:11):
long ago, actually my football coach told me that who
I love, did you feel the dysfunction?
Speaker 1 (14:18):
I think it's just one of those things where it's
just your life like And again, you wouldn't talk about this.
Speaker 2 (14:22):
This was the seventies. There were no TV. Every TV
show was you know, the love boat or.
Speaker 3 (14:27):
What is something fantasy island?
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Fantasy Island that shows the cleaver road.
Speaker 3 (14:33):
Yeah, it's just everything's.
Speaker 1 (14:34):
Perfect break yeah, yeah, yeah, So you just thought, well,
it's just not the way I live.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
But you wouldn't dare talk about that.
Speaker 1 (14:41):
You're now People talk about the dysfunction in their family
and there's ways to deal with it. But I assure
you there were people who had it worse than I did,
much worse.
Speaker 3 (14:50):
I coach and teach and do a lot of what
I do because I'm still a fifty six year old
fill very real about the pain ifl and I feel
like in teaching and coaching you have an opportunity to
maybe exact some measure of positive change on some people
(15:11):
who may be going through maybe not exactly what you're
doing too, but a similar amount of suffering, pain, questions, whatever.
Do you feel like that's what draws you to continue
to do this year after year.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
I think I think you hope that you're making a
difference in some way. I mean, a teacher made a
huge difference for me, So you hope in some way
you're making If you make a difference in one person's life,
then you've done something.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I mean, that's so true. But then you look out
at the people you're trying to make a difference in life.
And there are a bunch of fifteen, sixteen, seventeen year old
meatheads like these people out here, and you actually wonder
if you're getting through you do sometimes Yeah, I mean
there's this kid over here at Tucker. I don't know
how you get through to that guy, this Tucker kid. Oh,
(15:57):
you're going to act right because your dad's in the room.
Now what you're gonna do. You're just gonna sit there.
We're going to take a brief intermission in the middle
of this. This is not a commercial break. Say what up? Coach?
Brandon Tucker just walked in. And Brandon Tucker is one
of the finest people on the face of the planet.
I've coached against him, I've coached with him, and I
(16:19):
love him. And his son happens to be in your class.
And so there's Brandon Tucker over there. Pretty good math coach,
pretty fair football coach, but a pretty extraordinary human beings.
Good to see you, brother, And now a few messages
from our general sponsors. But first, we're thinking about launching
(16:41):
a few local chapters of the Army this year, and
if you're interested in potentially leading a chapter in your community,
email Army at normal folks, dot us and Alex would
love to connect with you. We'll be right back kind
(17:06):
of give me and our listeners just a quick purpose
of the dual enrollment Oral Communications class. I keep having
to read it because I don't even know how to
remember all that. But what do y'all do? Well?
Speaker 1 (17:18):
Because it's dual enrollment, they're getting college credit through the
University of Memphis by taking this class, so they take discounts.
They have to have a fine art to graduate from
high school, so they take my class for one semester
and then first semester they took music appreciation. My first
semester class takes theater appreciation this semester, so it just
depends on where they fall. But they're getting college credit.
(17:40):
The hope is that they don't have to take this
in college. Most of them, the seniors and the seniors
will see most of those have on their senior shirts today.
But we just did a what would you call what
I did last week? A seminar I talk about college
and try to help them learn how to do course equivalency.
So if I took this class in high school, how's
it going to help me in college?
Speaker 2 (18:00):
How's it going to transfer.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
So we have a lot of dual enrollment classes, but
this is just one that they can take. And so
we follow the curriculum from the University of Memphis and
then I do a high school portion of that as well.
And they've learned how to do an informative speech. Yesterday
they did elevator pitches. I think that may have been
their favorite. They're like, no, no, they did the persuasive podcast.
(18:25):
Help me out what else they impromptu speeches? They're just nodding.
There a lot of communications, all communications skills, all right.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
So in the context of understanding the class and soon everybody,
we're going to talk to these kids, and I expect
that's going to be fun or maybe it'll be awful,
depending on how big a goofballs they are. We'll find
out there's four hundred there's four million, five hundred podcasts
on the face of the planet. How inside are the
construct of the class? Do you decide to I'm an
(19:01):
army of normal folks as part of the curriculum. That's weird.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
That's why I said you were wor you said I
was weird, Well, because I listened to it.
Speaker 3 (19:09):
Weird in the fondest sense of Okay, okay, I.
Speaker 1 (19:13):
Listen to your podcast every morning when I'm getting ready,
I'm scrolling through trying to find one. I love listening
to it, and they inspire me because when you most
every person that has done something extraordinary has had a
story of some kind. Rarely do you hear someone who's
had this perfect life, and I guess that's part of them.
Speaker 3 (19:29):
There's no such thing.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
Yeah, and that's the normal people.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
You know, what is normal? I guess is different too.
But I was inspired by every time. And then also
Wilson Society. I do that as our service club here
on campus, and all of them have done something in
their community generally as well, and I thought I would
be inspiring for them to listen to these and see
so almost very rather than me just saying pick a podcast.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
This way they're getting something.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
A lot of them are faith based, which was again
a great segue into what we learn in our class
as well, which.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
Is interesting, by the way, all of our listeners and
you guys in here, it is interesting that a lot
of our guests end up evoking faith during their conversations.
But we are not a faith based podcast. I'm a Christian,
but we are not a faith. I'm certainly not going
to tell somebody don't speak about your faith, but we
(20:23):
don't ask people to speak about their faith, but it
is it has become very interesting d alex in me
that I don't know what the percentage is, but four
out of five probably end up evoking faith in their
conversation and all the time that faith is not necessarily
just their Christian faith. But it is interesting to me
that as we talk about a group of quote normal folks,
(20:47):
that the vast majority of them evoke faith when they
talk about the work that they do to serve their community.
Which it's interesting you picked up on that, and it's
not it's not part of the context of the show,
but it almost invariably comes out, which I think is
interesting when people talk about themselves. I think it speaks
(21:10):
to the power of faith in what we do in
our lives. Does that have a component of what you
do every day?
Speaker 2 (21:18):
Yes, so our career.
Speaker 1 (21:20):
I mean all we teach is faith based here, you know, everything,
we want everything to come from a Christian worldview. So
hopefully when these seniors leave that they they're solid in
their faith and they know what they believe, and they
believe it because they believe it, not because their parents
believe it, and so when they get out into the world,
they are able to make the decisions that are going
to support their faith.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Okay, So the assignment was listen to pick any episode
off of the catalog of an army normal folks, listen
to it, and then do.
Speaker 2 (21:54):
What write a essay about it.
Speaker 3 (21:57):
Okay, So the first one, I don't know who did what.
I just got a bunch of students looking at me,
and I have a small piece of what each of
you wrote. So I like this one. This is what
(22:18):
was part of what was said. We're going to go
over all these, but I'm going to start with this
one because I think it speaks to goofy sixteen, seventeen,
eighteen year olds. I went into this project not wanting
to do it. I love that, but I came out
enjoying it. I've learned that podcasts do not have to
(22:40):
be strictly business. Talking about stuff that the average person
can relate to makes it more enjoyable for the listener.
I honestly did not know this is who wrote this,
but I guess it fits. So who went into this
not wanting to do it? East I love the honesty
(23:01):
admitted that they didn't want to do it. Uh, oh,
speak up, No, it's on, you got to speak Okay,
who is.
Speaker 6 (23:09):
Mem Hudson Tucker?
Speaker 3 (23:11):
What Hudson Tucker? Hudson Tucker didn't want to do this? Okay,
so before we go on to what Hudson had to
write about, who else in here? Honestly raise a hands.
Really didn't want to do this.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
The whole class, Okay, their seniors and out bloom them
and tomorrow is their last day of school.
Speaker 3 (23:31):
They are not wanting to being a senior in high
school and classes ending. You're getting college fever. You're thinking
about where you're applying to and what's next and everything else.
And then you, uh, you got to listen to some
old dudes podcast. What were you well, you actually like
rolling your eyes and at your teacher, going come on,
(23:54):
it's late in the year. This is a bunch of
crud pretty much.
Speaker 1 (23:58):
And they're long too, just so you know, they're not
like ten minutes long. That was that was their other complaint.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah, we make them, we know how long they are.
We have to listen to these things. Yeah, so you
didn't want to do it?
Speaker 6 (24:11):
Huh, I did not know, sir.
Speaker 3 (24:13):
But tell me what you found out. What would you
listen to?
Speaker 6 (24:15):
And I listened to God's million dollar Company and how he.
Speaker 3 (24:19):
Donated Alan Barnhardt fifty.
Speaker 6 (24:21):
Of his profits. Yes, sir, and then I really enjoyed.
Just like at first I didn't want to listen to it,
and then as I started listening, it was just like
it wasn't like it was all business. You were just
having a good time, just talking about life and how
he kind of was able to use his platform too.
Everyone told him wasn't going to work, that he was
going to lose money in the end, but he ended
up just like trusting in God and having faith and
(24:41):
he was able to actually give money to a lot
of people to help him out.
Speaker 3 (24:44):
Hudson, would are you a senior, No, sir, I'm a junior.
You got one more year left, yes, sir? All right.
Did listening to that podcast and that episode in any
way make you think more deep deeply about what you're
gonna do in your life or how you're gonna approach
(25:04):
your life.
Speaker 6 (25:05):
It kind of made me just like realize that like
God has a plan and then like it's not gonna
be my plan, like he everyone was telling him that
it was not gonna work, not gonna work, and then
he kind of just had faith in God and then
it all worked out for his good. And so I
just think that going into my senior year and then
going into like the job search, that it's just gonna
(25:26):
work out. Just got to keep living in him and
the right path be made.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
What do you think about a guy that has a
business that does a billion dollars a year in sales
and still doesn't pay himself much more than one hundred
and six thousand dollars a year.
Speaker 6 (25:45):
I think that's, uh, it's pretty impressive. Definitely, not too
many people that would not give themselves a lot of money.
And I think it speaks as him as like a man,
mister Allen, and like how he really cares about other people,
and how his whole life is just revolving around other
people and people around him.
Speaker 3 (26:05):
Do all you guys know the story that this guy
built a business from nothing, decided with his brother that
every year they were going to give away fifty percent
of their earnings, and only a couple of years ago
his business did a billion dollars, y'all, and he gave
the company away, didn't take one Dollar gave it away.
Speaker 4 (26:27):
Yes, yeah, so name, My name is Lance Bryant, but
Alan Barnhart, that name popped up. I didn't listen to
the episode, but my dad is in a group called
C twelve. It's a Christian CEO group, and Alan Barnhart
is actually in it. So my dad has actually told
me a lot about him, and so I thought that
(26:47):
was really cool that my dad is in a group
with a guy that you did a podcast with.
Speaker 3 (26:52):
It's pretty cool, all right. Next one Joe and Kelly Carson.
I learned a lot about how easily, how easy it
really is to live in a sort of comfortable bubble.
Inspired me to look beyond my life and to see
what the norm is for other people who might not
have as much as me. I also learned that it's
(27:14):
very possible for ordinary people to achieve extraordinary things. That
storytelling is very powerful way to get the message across.
In a podcast, who wrote that, Oh my gosh, so
tell me about it.
Speaker 4 (27:29):
So you know, I listened to that podcast and it
really stuck with me that like their son went out
and did something and it actually changed their mindset. So
like he went out and he lived on that flat
in Chicago for a year, and he spent that weekend homeless,
and you know, it was really inspiring to hear that.
Speaker 5 (27:53):
Like his parents kind of realized that.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
Like through him, that they were kind of living in
ale and their their dentistry and stuff, and they realized
that God did want them to sell their business and
go try to make some things happen, and so God
kind of paid the path for them, and that was
really inspiring me.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
For those of you in the class, the takeaway here
is this guy not much older than you. Part of
his requirement was to go to a thrift store and
get some ragged clothes and with no money in his pocket,
go on the streets of Chicago and be homeless and
have to ask for his sustenance to truly experience what
(28:39):
homelessness feels like. Can you imagine doing that?
Speaker 6 (28:46):
Now?
Speaker 3 (28:48):
Do you remember what his experience was when when he
was on the street. Yeah? Yes. And remember now, this
is a guy who comes from a background just like
each of you, a fluent, nice place.
Speaker 1 (29:00):
He was I believe he was a student at Baylor,
wasn't he when he took this year off?
Speaker 2 (29:04):
You don't remember that from the that's right?
Speaker 3 (29:07):
So what was his experience.
Speaker 5 (29:09):
So this part actually really stuck with me.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
So he was he was asking these people for money,
and this this one lady that that he had asked
for money, she said, uh, you know, you go get
a job whatever. And I think she actually ended up
giving him to three dollars or something and she said, Oh,
you're probably just going to go spend this on alcohol
and drugs. I don't know why I'm giving you this
(29:32):
money anyway, And Kelly Carson was like, Uh.
Speaker 5 (29:37):
She got on the call with her son at the
end of the week.
Speaker 4 (29:39):
I think they get one call a week, and he
told her about that and she started thinking.
Speaker 5 (29:43):
She was like, I've done something similar to that before.
Speaker 3 (29:46):
Like and now he met me on the street that day.
Speaker 4 (29:49):
Yeah, she said, he met me on the street that day,
and so that really got her to thinking and then
she made some change from that.
Speaker 3 (29:57):
It's a pretty cool story, pretty cool takeaway. It's easy, y'all,
coming from affluence or relative safety when you're driving around
in some of the more urban areas to see someone
(30:17):
that is slovenly and be dragged and on the street
with their handout. It is pretty easy to sum up
based on popular narrative what that person is an alcoholic,
a drug addict, a loser, whatever. But it's a reminder
(30:41):
that every face has a story. And since we're in
a Christian school, you might remember that Christ didn't show
up to a place that looks like Briarcrest. He surrounded
himself with fishermen and hookers. So the question is, is,
(31:03):
young Christian folks, who are you called to interact with
if you are in fact to be christ Like. I
think there's a big takeaway there. We'll be right back,
(31:31):
all right. What I learned is no matter what someone
has done to get themselves into prison, they still have
aspirations and they want to achieve. I just thought that
once you're in prison, that's it, and that you just
have to put your life on pause until you get out.
The podcast showed me that it's possible to continue to
live while incarcerated, and that there are people out there
(31:51):
that don't immediately need to be judged. Yes, hi name
and loud, Hey Hannah, tell me about it.
Speaker 7 (32:03):
I thought it was interesting how he like didn't really
know what he was doing it first, and then he
just felt called to get like a degree in ministry.
And then somehow I pulled into like the like jail scenery,
and then like he decided to actually do something with
it and not just like teach them like how to
actually be something more than like just like their time
(32:24):
like in jail, and how like that how he taught
other people and that there the people that he taught
like continue to teach others like it was like a train.
Speaker 3 (32:34):
Don't say anything, Hannah. What's your name, Zachary? When you
think of the people in two oh one Poplar, I
want straight talk. When you think when you think of
the people in two oh one Poplar with a rap sheet,
tell me what you envision quickly. And I picked him
for everybody listening, I just picked Zachary out of the group.
(32:56):
He's this was not planned By'm putting you on the spot.
Speaker 8 (32:59):
Well, I actually do know a guy that went into
a one popular for getting in a street fight. He
now is permanent brain damage and he lives with his
mother full time.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Now.
Speaker 8 (33:06):
He's from Binghampton, but he he is a very kind
guy now that he learned his lesson, But going into
it he was angry and just probably scary interesting guy
to talk to.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
I can forget him macro level, I.
Speaker 5 (33:21):
Would say, very scary.
Speaker 8 (33:22):
You know, well, I wouldn't want to surround myself with
them life losers.
Speaker 3 (33:26):
Yeah, you, sir, deserved what they deserved, what they earned
most likely, yes, sir, you break the law, you go
to jail, and when you're in jail, you know, to
a one poplar people are dying in that place. The
doors don't even lock. They've got six people in a
cell built for two because it's overcrowded. There's not good food.
Do you or people around you have the mentality that, well,
(33:48):
that's what they get. They don't want to deal with that,
don't break the law.
Speaker 8 (33:51):
I mean, yes, sir, I think it's you know, right
that we separate them from society so that way they
just don't harm it even more.
Speaker 3 (34:01):
But as a group of people, is it fair to
say that your first instinct just kind of say too
bad and look down your nose? Hannah, tell us why
we have to from what you learned, tell us why
we have to be careful with that judgment.
Speaker 7 (34:17):
I think it's because like we all were like born,
like we're all the same, like no matter like where
we come from, we're all human. And like the people
in jail, like they didn't they weren't born a criminal, Like, yes,
they chose to like make the decision to get in jail,
But that doesn't like mean that they're just like forever
a bad person. Like there is like redemption in that,
(34:37):
and like I just think that there's like like that
can be any of us at like any time, and
like you never know if like you're gonna have to
make a decision that's going to get you in jail,
and like there's like no need just to judge to.
Speaker 3 (34:49):
Judge, Hannah, where were you born?
Speaker 7 (34:52):
Memphis?
Speaker 3 (34:52):
Where Caryville? That's not Memphish? Do you understand what I mean? Yes, sir, Okay,
tell everybody who's listing that's from all over the world
where Caryoville is like.
Speaker 7 (35:04):
A suburb outside of Memphis suburb?
Speaker 3 (35:07):
Right? Are there shacks out there? No? What are there houses?
Speaker 6 (35:11):
Like?
Speaker 3 (35:11):
What kind of houses?
Speaker 7 (35:12):
Big houses?
Speaker 3 (35:15):
Are there? Hoopedies riding up down the road very often?
Speaker 7 (35:19):
What kind of cars like audis like nice cars?
Speaker 3 (35:23):
Yeah, BMW's. Are there many households out there that refrigerators
are empty? No? Do most households have at least one
college graduate in it? Maybe two? How many households do
you think have non high school graduates, not a lot,
(35:44):
very few. It is the police department pretty robust and
doing a good job, I think. So is it safe?
Speaker 7 (35:52):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (35:53):
Have you ever experienced a drive by?
Speaker 7 (35:55):
I had a gum pulled on me one time in Caryville.
Speaker 3 (35:58):
Yeah, Okay, that's fird, but but in general it's.
Speaker 7 (36:09):
Nice, Yes, sir.
Speaker 3 (36:11):
What if you were born in Orange Mound.
Speaker 7 (36:13):
That's like a whole different area, that's completely different. I
feel like I wouldn't be me if I was born
in Orange Mound.
Speaker 3 (36:21):
What if you had one parent in the household who
did not even graduate from high school, and that is
what the entire block and neighborhood you lived in looked like.
Speaker 7 (36:36):
That wouldn't be like good, I guess like it wouldn't
be like like.
Speaker 5 (36:41):
I don't know the word.
Speaker 3 (36:42):
So my question is if you were hungry and you
had no future, and you had no hope, and you
were just enfranchised, you think it's possible that Hannah from Caryoville,
in a completely different atmosphere might have ended up into
a one popular for sure. Would you want a second chance?
Speaker 7 (37:04):
I think everyone wants a second chance, and I think
everyone deserves a second chance.
Speaker 3 (37:10):
So when you say you learned it no matter what
someone has done to get themselves into prison, they still
have aspirations that they want to achieve. Did you ever
win listening to that? Try to put yourself in that position.
Speaker 7 (37:23):
I don't know if I tried to like put myself
in like the mentality of being in jail, because like
I don't want to go to jail, like that's scary,
but like I think if I was in that position,
like I would definitely like try my best to like
act like like get on parole, I guess, or like
just get out as soon as possible. And I mean
there were some people in that story who didn't have
(37:44):
that option. Then we're like in jail for life, but
they still like did something and we're like and had
like dreams and still achieve stuff while being in jail.
Speaker 3 (37:55):
So jail, after all, isn't full of society throw away
zombies that we shouldn't care about. They're still human beings.
Next one, I learned how easy it is to make
an impact. Monica worked hard, but she framed the story
in a way that was encouraging to those who see
a wrong in the world that they want to make right.
Who wrote that? Who wrote that?
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You know that maybe Finley and she she had to
take a test today.
Speaker 2 (38:21):
Yes, okay, well she's fired next she had ap test.
Speaker 3 (38:25):
Oh whatever, she's a loser for not being here. The
content was interesting as it gave me an insight into
the into a life that I do not experience. I
think the speakers were able to connect to the audience. Personally,
I cannot relate to what they're talking about, but there
are people out there who did. The student also talked
in class about the alarming rate of students who can't
(38:48):
read and cited the statistics. It made an impact. Who's that?
That was me? Okay, who's you? My name is Hans Solomon,
all right, tell me about it. So the Nanodkas Khalil
Sweeney klise.
Speaker 9 (39:00):
When the main podcast was the boxing gym, that were
no one boxes, which I found found very interesting because
he realized that there was a need for helping kids
graduate high school. Uh he was, I believe in the
high school, maybe his only twenties before he learned how
to read, and someone took him in and taught him
how to read.
Speaker 10 (39:21):
His childhood growing up was very rough.
Speaker 9 (39:24):
He did not grow up with his parents, and so
that was interesting how he realized that. I assume it
was mostly young men who he was focused on because
that's what the boxing gym comes in, And so he
talked about how he had to find something to get
the young men in there, because if he has had
(39:45):
a reading and writing center, no one would show up.
Speaker 10 (39:48):
But if he had a boxing center, He's.
Speaker 9 (39:49):
Like, I will teach you how to box if you
show up and do your homework first, which I found
very interesting.
Speaker 3 (39:55):
He kind of had a hook, didn't he, And yes
he did. Now I read your comment it said personally,
I cannot relate to what they were talking about, but
there are people out there who did. Has anybody ever
heard of coaching for literacy? All right, Well, there's a
guy in town named John Wilfong. If you were a
(40:17):
little older, you'd remember him. He was the shooting guard
for the University of Memphis back in the day when
the University of Memphis was always in the sweet sixteen
Elite eight. He's now a financial advisor. His son was
a pretty fair basketball player, ended up playing at SMU
and coming up John coached aau basketball with his son
(40:38):
and a bunch of kids, and there was a kid
on their team named Frank Big Frank. He ended up
playing football and playing football at LSU. But back when
they were twelve thirteen years old doing au ball, every
time they'd go to a restaurant after the games, Big
Frank would just order whatever john Son ordered. So if
(41:02):
they were at Applebee's and John said, so I want
the chicken figures or fries and some ranch, Frank would say,
that's what I want. They thought at first was because
just Frank and John were tight, but what they found
out was Frank was eleven and couldn't read.
Speaker 10 (41:16):
They would talk about that in the podcast.
Speaker 9 (41:18):
I'd forgot about that until you just mentioned that, but
he talked about how lonely you feel when you can't
read them in you and you're going out and you're like,
oh man, let's get what you have.
Speaker 10 (41:28):
And so I'd forgot about that. But that is another
part of it.
Speaker 3 (41:31):
So when John found out out his son and he
started this thing called Coaching for Literacy. And if you
ever see a coach football or basketball coach in pros
and college wearing a little lime green ribbon kind of
like the breast cancer ribbon, but this one's lime green.
That's a coach supporting coaching for literacy. And here's the demographics.
(41:55):
A kid who does not read on grade level by
third grade is sixty five percent more likely by his
eighteenth birthday to be incarcerated third grade. They can actually tell,
going unto the fourth grade by the ability to read
(42:16):
whether or not this child is going to have a
job or be in prison. So how important is the
work that he's doing to teach kids to read.
Speaker 9 (42:27):
Uncountable. I mean, it's truly amazing what he was doing,
what he's doing. And so they talked about in his podcast,
but I think the age twenty one, you had like
an eighty percent chance if you can read by grade three,
to be incarcerated or dead by the age of twenty one.
And so he talked about going back to like loneliness
growing up. He was he did what he felt like doing,
(42:50):
which could lead to prison. Things like that, because he
already knew, or felt like he knew, his life was set.
He was going to be dead or in prison by
twenty one. And so him getting people into the boxing gym,
getting their homework done. It may not be like straight a's,
but you're teaching kids how to read, which is getting
them into the job. Field and keeping them out of
(43:10):
prison or keeping them alive.
Speaker 3 (43:13):
And that concludes Part one of my very cool conversation
with a bunch of kids and their teacher from Briar
Crust Christian School. And I'm telling you what, don't miss
Part two. It's now available to listen to it. Together. Guys,
we can change this country, but it starts with you.
I'll see in Part two.
Host
Bill Courtney
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