Two-time Emmy and Three-time NAACP Image Award-winning, television Executive Producer Rushion McDonald interviewed Diana Ha.
Editor, Writer, Literacy Advocate, and College Prep Specialist.
🔑 Episode Highlights 📚 Diana’s Background
- Daughter of South Korean immigrants, raised in NYC.
- Attended Stuyvesant High School and earned a linguistics degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
- Taught in both urban and suburban school districts, including gifted and special education (IEPs).
- Later moved to California, tutoring students and professionals in English and writing.
📱 The Literacy Crisis
- Warns of a “language and literacy epidemic” among youth raised on smartphones.
- Observes:
- Inability to write complete sentences.
- Poor vocabulary (even among affluent students).
- Short attention spans and difficulty with long-form reading.
📖 The Power of Reading
- Advocates for deep, immersive reading—especially physical books.
- Recommends reading widely: newspapers, essays, biographies, and well-written fiction.
- Encourages parents to read to children from the womb and model reading habits.
🎧 Audiobooks & Accessibility
- Supports audiobooks for students with dyslexia or visual impairments.
- Emphasizes that any form of reading—print, audio, Braille—can imprint language and build cognitive strength.
🧠 Practical Advice for Parents & Students
- Read 20–30 minutes daily.
- Subscribe to publications like The New York Times or The Atlantic.
- Choose books that align with personal interests or career goals.
- Re-read and study one book deeply, as modeled by NYU professor Scott Galloway.
🧠 The Bigger Picture
- Warns of a future where technology replaces critical thinking.
- Notes that even elite colleges are seeing students struggle with basic writing.
- Calls for a cultural shift back to intellectual development through reading.
🌐 Connect with Diana Ha
- Website: DianaHa.com (as referenced in the transcript)
- Hosts webinars and literacy seminars
#SHMS #STRAW #BEST
Steve Harvey Morning Show Online: http://www.steveharveyfm.com/
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashwan MacDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
stories and.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Start planning their own.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with nod profits who are making
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My guess is an editor, writer,
(00:36):
and college prep specialists. She teaches aspiring authors and students
in college and coaches college test preps, teaching both content
and strategy. She feels we have a language and literacy
epidemic amongst kids who were born with a phone in
their hands. Wow, she speaks the truth. Please welcome to
(00:57):
Money Making Conversation Materclass. Diana Hah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How you doing with Diana ever Shaw.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
First of all, thank you for coming on my show.
Academic Training. I got your note because you feared that
m'd be a guest, and I just saw frustration from
you from the educational system. Before we get into that,
aspect of it. Let's learn a little few things about you.
Where are you from and your educational backgrop So, I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
A daughter of South Korean immigrants. I grew up in
New York City in the seventies. When I was in
the fourth grade, my father told my father drove a
yellow taxicab and she would tell his passengers that I
was in the fourth grade, and she would tell his
passengers that his daughter, his only daughter, went to Stuyvesant
(01:47):
High School. So that is the She didn't need to
pressure me. But of course that's what I felt. So
that is what I grew up feeling, and I did
make it there. Stuyvesant Specialized Math and Science High School,
one of the magnet schools in the city in New York.
(02:07):
And I attended a University of Pennsylvania. I have a
bachelor's and linguistics there. And for the purposes of our conversation,
I climbed the academic ladder debt with Ivy with a
book in my hand. And right out of college, I
(02:32):
taught fifth grade in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
While is the public school fifth grade public.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
School right yes? Yes? Uh? And ethnically diverse yes school.
And that was while I was getting my master's in
education at at Temple, after which I transferred to a
neighboring upper middle class so urban district where I headed
(03:03):
the elementary Gifted and Talented education program. And so I've
not shared this with you, but in that capacity, I
ended up writing IEPs and I'm going to have some
listeners who are going to perg up here just because
it's a specialized area that calls for a lot of
(03:27):
parent advocacy and commitment. So it's the IPS are what
students with learning differences get. And so by virtue of
these superpowers my students had in Pennsylvania, I had to
actually draft an IP for them. Usually we associate IPS
(03:48):
with students with add and dyslexia and different learning disabilities
in any event, in that role, I discovered that there
are that intelligence is a rich, multifaceted description, and so
(04:14):
I ended up writing those IPS and dealing with special
at law. So that was that, and that I relocated
to California, where I taught and tutored students of all
ages included including corporate executives, focusing on English and writing.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Now you talk about the phone, the phone that these
kids are now interacting with on a regular basis, how
damaging is the mobile phone to not only adult generation
but to the child kid generation.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
All okay, thanks for the soapbox. So what concerned me
is that is to see and realize that the manifesto
that I wrote twelve years ago, this was twelve years
ago on the Dark Side of Technology in a magazine
(05:18):
article I have seen actually play out and played out
for example students.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Example, you see you see the play.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Out inability to form complete sentences on paper, inability to
sustain attention, especially in long form text I e. Books,
(05:50):
paltry vocabulary. My high school students who are coming to
me for SAT don't general right, They're on different levels.
Many of them don't know the vocabulary, which is not
all really difficult and eclected. We have words like elusive, nuanced,
(06:19):
implement that these students don't know. These students who come
from affluent families.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So you're saying right there with Rachelle, and this is
not about.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Financial the separation that we always talk about, you know,
inner city kids, middle class kids, affluent kids. You said, Richard,
the failure is even happening at their affluent kid generation,
kid children's generation.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Correct, So I would take it even further answer is yes.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Now that we gotta help. We gotta save our generation. Here, okay,
what are some practical takeaways for students or my listeners
now and parents that will help the renew or strengthen
their reading habits.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What can we do?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Like, I'm opportunity, this is me, this is this is
my mornings. I get up at four thirty Monday through Friday. Right,
I read the Abby, I read seeing INN, I read ESPN.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, that's my morning.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Then I know there, stretch, I do the light exercise,
then I watch TV. So at least I am trying
to keep.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
My mind moving actively.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Is that a good practice that I'm doing When you're
talking about strengthening your reading abage? Is that a good
plan I have for Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You're on your way better than I think what a
lot of us on a B plus.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I read the Abby, so I'm learning about socials, about
social skill.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's okay with this?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, my friend going back? Okay, so here's the thing.
And then here it's so important to read widely and
that if possible, to read actually something pages you can
hold in your hand. Literacy specialist Marietta Wolf from Tufts
University talks about deep reading Deep Sustained, in which she
(08:26):
says she has found that screen reading does not get
you to which we're seeing the lateral damage of in
the universities and high schools. And listen, parents, listen, Rashan.
The fruit, Okay, what students produce in the latter years
(08:47):
in high school and college is the fruit of earlier labors.
It's the output of any input they had from their
growing up years. You know, you can't throw enough money
at me to get your to get your I do
(09:08):
help my students get to the college of the dreams.
But you can't throw enough money at me to get
your child into uga, which so many parents have done. Right,
asking me to condense to fill in five weeks what
your child did not the last ten years. They're met
(09:29):
the mental shelves. They're they're pretty like like they're pretty hollow.
Some you know in some cases that this is harsh.
But rather than being stocked with rich vocabulary and syntax
in different set and styles, right, it's like, vocabulary is power.
It's the building blocks to language law. And my students
(09:53):
don't have it. My college students six years ago in
California did not have it. So yes, I will write
this in what please have that read and read to
them from thunder in the room.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I have to respect what you say because I remember
in high school I read or a lot of the rings.
I read that book with like eight hundred pages. I
could believe how big that book was and I read it,
and that was reading. That's what you're saying, Rashard. That's reading.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Rashon.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
What you're doing basically is skimming and scanning from articles.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Are you jump jumping pages?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Nothing in depth, nothing deep, nothing, forcing you to remember
what you read a hundred pages ago or fifty pages ago,
and trying to connect the dots. That's what you're talking about,
the whole process of really using every muscle in your
brain to creative side analyze it, also memorizing, of remembering
(10:59):
what you're doing in the storytelling process that has lost
in our society today.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That's what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Correct, Absolutely so. Books they bring a organic, an organic
wholeness to the book to brain development.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You have audio books so you don't have to read them.
They're audiobooks. Just driving your car, put on your headphones.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Listen. Audiobooks are great, and I actually am so glad
you reminded me to bring this up because I want
to be sensitive to students and families here where for
various reasons, or certain disabilities or certain issues, let's say
the blind, or certain students with dyslexia right where we
(11:54):
call what Ben Foss famous dyslexic like he calls I
reading right, it's not really just really best serve them.
So I want to remain sent to that. And I've
been able to in my own homeschooling because my son
turned out to be mildly dyslexic, which nobody would have guessed.
But and she blew under my radar two until the
(12:15):
age of ten, so he was so adept at compensating
he would just slog through. But there are some some students,
well we have many actually, and I have. I've seen
many come through my doors who I realized have learning
disabilities that were never diagnosed. So I want to, Yes,
(12:36):
I want to honor them right and not just roll
stones here. And so audiobooks have been fantastic for my son,
and she would because so my messages you ask me,
you know what it is that I'm championing here, and
that is to get when I see read mean by
(13:00):
whatever door or window you have to kick down, whatever
door you have to create, construct, even if it's Braille reading.
Get imprint language into your child's and your own brain
long form, longer books and articles, and even podcasters who
(13:26):
speak beautifully in print that language into your brain consistently.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan MacDonald.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Even if it's twenty thirty minutes a day, it's by
small doses and consistency that the brain optimally works and
retains and processes information and builds neural pathways. So this
includes so for students who choose to take the the
(14:15):
act writing they at other like we have other standardized
tests like milestones at they're asked at times to compare
or contrast forms of articles in different research and different
content from different subject areas like scientific research, history, sociology,
(14:38):
et cetera. And so I encourage students to read widely,
which will include The New York Times, The Atlantic Right,
publications of Yes, the Higher order parents. It's like four
dollars a week. You know, it's much cheaper than thousands
of dollars in college prep later. So invest early and write.
(15:02):
And there are fabulous personal essays in the Times that
are very interesting that middle schoolers can read. So that
is one practical thing you can do to vary and
enlarge they're reading their biblio diet and to laurish your brain.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
The conversations about nursire the brain.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
And in the college where I taught in California, I
had a lot of future engineers, architects, nurses who had
they had actually followed through the system they had. They
came with a lot of holes in their fundamentals and
in their grammar, just unable to piece together complete sentences.
(15:48):
And this was college by the time they came to me.
And so I've seen this on both coasts east and west,
and so hey, I get it. And some of these
students came from dimblical backgrounds. So I honored you. I
encourage you in that case to latch on to find
a book you love, perhaps a biography, an inspirational bio
(16:12):
story of a famous person, somebody in your field of
interest whose story or whose content you can latch on
two and it is well written with great vocabulary. I
encourage you to do what Scott Galloway and while you,
professor of business and author does. He reads one book
(16:36):
a year. He reads it three four times until he's
mastered it and can teach it himself. He takes notes,
he steals phrases. He stole the word accouterment for one
of his readings and uses it all the time, and
is speaking and his youtubess and his presentations on stage.
(16:59):
And so that is something concrete that our families can do.
And this is this is a storied writer and business
expert who does this for professional development. So reading is
the single most powerful positive force on the developing mind.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Now you do this for a living, you do prep training.
Do you have a website? How we can contact you?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Diana?
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, I see adults. I see clients as well. I
edit and I coached them through their books and their
business content as well. For our purposes to state organized today,
I did say we could focus on the education piece.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yes, I think the reading.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I would just chell you that it's such a it's
such a damning situation the global society is in because
of technology you know, we always you know, it's a
group of people they are happy because they're going to
make money off of technology. There's a group of people
we are happy because technology are going to make their
life easier.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
But overall.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
The world is getting dumber and lazier from an intellectual
standpoint because we're not exercising the basic technique of learning.
We're not learning anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Correct, correct, and listen to those who are not fond
of reading. Hey, letting, letting you know, to be able
to YouTube successfully if that's what you want to do
to enter business, you need to be able to communicate,
and reading is foremost the just the most powerful force.
(18:49):
It will get you there. And without it, you're going
to struggle a lot when you're trying to get to college.
It's going to it's gonna bite you in the rear,
as I have, as I've seen. So listen, this is
what grieves me for Sean. You know, you think of
amaze of stunning the studying writer and order Frederick Douglass. Right,
(19:14):
and then there is a novel called The Bond Woman's
Narrative which historians ut earth it was the first novel
by a black American slave who wrote under the hand
of Craft's turned out to be handah bond. So she
escaped to the north and she ended up writing her
(19:36):
story cast in part fiction. And here's the thing. She
was able to do that because she learned to read.
And part of her journey and her development as a
writer was they found the stories found that she helped
listened carefully to the speeches at the elocution of the
(20:00):
white girls from the finishing school in the sitting room
next door, and she would listen. So that was her audio,
and that was part of her training. And I mentioned
Douglas and had a bond because I realized this week,
comparing to see you, that my students, that the students
(20:22):
I've seen in college and high school the last six years,
that they cannot write half as well as this slave did.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I well, I would you know, we could say that.
Of course, they didn't have TV, didn't have radio. You know,
there are different things that as you go through life,
you know that distracts you. You know, you focus on
what you have. Okay, you know you didn't have electricity.
You had a candle, so you brought the candle closer
to your book. I knew when I grew up, I
(20:53):
listened to a radio all the time for baseball, of football,
any type of sport, but baseball was my number one
sport because I listen to it on radio all the time.
I don't even listen to baseball that much on radio now,
more visual.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And I like football.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I like the action, the physicality of football and basketball,
dunking and moving and running. And so I think that
when we look at the world that we are in today,
and I hear you now, as I so respectful, you're
saying uh, And I'm so disappointed in the fact that
I know I can't change this.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I can't change this. This this train is.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
On this track, and it's not going to get off. Dan,
I'm sorry. We can sit up here and we can
wind all day long and get drawn and then they
wake up the next day and the problem is gonna
only get worse because just what AI is here, They're
gonna the commercials are there when I see them. You
know that Gemini commercial with these people are carrying on
(21:51):
the conversation with a phone. Next thing that they're gonna
be carrying on this conversation with a ropot that.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Looks like them.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Okay, next thing, you know that's gonna be their relationship,
that robot in a home with them and they by themselves.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That's that's where we're aded.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Stuff we saw TV years ago has now become a
reality and that's scary.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
But you know, but I had to bring you on
the call so people can hear hear it.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You know, you know, you can sit around in it
and live it, but you actually just start hearing it.
And you're the second guest I have brought on this
show that has talked of us. She's African American and
you know, and so I just want everybody to know
that there are different race of people who have these
same concerns out there. But the problem is we all
(22:43):
want the technology, Diana. We all want the easy life.
And our kids, like you said, if they're born with
a phone in their hands, they already lost. They've already lost.
They're not gonna win.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I believe in a redemption. So it's it's through books,
I tell you.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
It's it's gonna be a few about there. You're like
a good a good movie, you like a good TV series.
Right now it's gonna be like like that show Paradise
that's real popular on Hulu. Well, only they dug this
big city on the ground. Then that just read they're
actually building a city like Paradise in reality, where they're
building this community where they're gonna hand pick people who
(23:26):
might not be educated, but they will get a hand
picked same thing with you. They're gonna be breakout sessions
where people are gonna have these reading classes. They're gonna
have these reading books. But it will never get to
the masses. That's all I'm saying, the masses. That approach
is done. We cannot recoup everybody it is.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I have read articles about just what I'm gonna call
the intrusion, the transition, but the intrusion of technology right
in the classrooms. So yes, again it saves your time
and stream wise things, especially the teachers. But they've taken
the actual books away from the students. And the reason,
(24:07):
according to that article in the Atlantic, the reason students
can no longer handle books in the elite colleges we're
talking to the IVY leagues is because middle schools and
high schools in America no longer require whole books from students.
They assign just excerpts. It's about all schools. We do
have exceptions, and unfortunately in my son's school, I see
(24:30):
he is reading whole books, but they are in the minority.
And so that yeah, so that article cites schools in
major cities where they have shifted out of whole books,
so students were not. The article says for students to
be able to read books in college, they needed to
have read books in high school. And so here's the thing.
(24:54):
You know, Back in the day, success meant produ using something,
you know, by the labor of your hands. It meant
something brick and mortar, which obviously, right is outdated. And
so now for our children and grandchildren, and I don't
even know what holds for our grandchildren, everything's evolving so quickly.
(25:15):
But for our children it means and that for us
as in business, it means production, not brick and mortar,
not by the rape of our hands so much, but
digital production should have intellectual property right and resources in
(25:36):
media problem solving right in that arena. And so again
I'm just circling back to it. It's just the drama beating.
So again, folks will help you get there.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I'm not managed to drum your beating.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
This is a reality to me, you know, because I'm
somewhat sad by this conversation because I know that you
know what I you know, electric.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Cars are here.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh, Uber is gonna go to all you know that
level of automation where cars just gonna come by your house.
Now you know, it's not even gonna be a human
driving you to the airport or to the restaurant or
to your cousin's house. It's just gonna be an automated
car that is going to happen. And when that happens,
what is that person doing in the backseat? Are they
(26:22):
listening to music? Are they reading?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Or what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Wait with their time because they're not thinking, because they're
not driving anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
They're not thinking.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So the simple aspect of thought processing is leaving us
as human beings.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Diana, so cool.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I gotta I gotta run, my friend, can we get
your website? This has an amazing conversation, Diana.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Thank you, Dianaha dot org d I an a ha,
that's ha dot org. And I'm running a literacy seminar,
a webinar next Friday Eastern time, and another in June.
See can write me the address is there?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Well, I won't want you to give me give me
a flyer so I can post it for you because
you're pretty amazing you and I open up my friend.
I appreciate you contacting me. I'm gonna stay telling at
you because I want to know you know what's happening
in three months from now, six bumps a while.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Because you see to be in the loop.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You see to have a clear understanding what our academic
system is failing us. And if you see any moment
well you need me to apple HiPE something that you're doing,
please contact me.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Okay, it was a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Rashan.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Thank you for coming up money Making Conversation master Class, Diana.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Thank you to our guests on the show today and
thank you. I'll listen to your audience now.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com.
Our social media handle is money Making Conversations. Join us
next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Keep winning. Mm hmm.
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
I am Rashwan MacDonald, the host of Money Making Conversations Masterclass,
where we encourage people to stop reading other people's success
stories and.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Start planning their own.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Listen up as I interview entrepreneurs from around the country,
talk to celebrities and ask them how they are running
their companies, and speak with nod profits who are making
a difference in their local communities. Now, sit back and
listen as we unlock the secrets to their success on
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. My guess is an editor, writer,
(00:36):
and college prep specialists. She teaches aspiring authors and students
in college and coaches college test preps, teaching both content
and strategy. She feels we have a language and literacy
epidemic amongst kids who were born with a phone in
their hands. Wow, she speaks the truth. Please welcome to
(00:57):
Money Making Conversation Materclass. Diana Hah.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
How you doing with Diana ever Shaw.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
I'm doing great.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
First of all, thank you for coming on my show.
Academic Training. I got your note because you feared that
m'd be a guest, and I just saw frustration from
you from the educational system. Before we get into that,
aspect of it. Let's learn a little few things about you.
Where are you from and your educational backgrop So, I'm.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
A daughter of South Korean immigrants. I grew up in
New York City in the seventies. When I was in
the fourth grade, my father told my father drove a
yellow taxicab and she would tell his passengers that I
was in the fourth grade, and she would tell his
passengers that his daughter, his only daughter, went to Stuyvesant
(01:47):
High School. So that is the She didn't need to
pressure me. But of course that's what I felt. So
that is what I grew up feeling, and I did
make it there. Stuyvesant Specialized Math and Science High School,
one of the magnet schools in the city in New York.
(02:07):
And I attended a University of Pennsylvania. I have a
bachelor's and linguistics there. And for the purposes of our conversation,
I climbed the academic ladder debt with Ivy with a
book in my hand. And right out of college, I
(02:32):
taught fifth grade in Philadelphia.
Speaker 1 (02:34):
While is the public school fifth grade public.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
School right yes? Yes? Uh? And ethnically diverse yes school.
And that was while I was getting my master's in
education at at Temple, after which I transferred to a
neighboring upper middle class so urban district where I headed
(03:03):
the elementary Gifted and Talented education program. And so I've
not shared this with you, but in that capacity, I
ended up writing IEPs and I'm going to have some
listeners who are going to perg up here just because
it's a specialized area that calls for a lot of
(03:27):
parent advocacy and commitment. So it's the IPS are what
students with learning differences get. And so by virtue of
these superpowers my students had in Pennsylvania, I had to
actually draft an IP for them. Usually we associate IPS
(03:48):
with students with add and dyslexia and different learning disabilities
in any event, in that role, I discovered that there
are that intelligence is a rich, multifaceted description, and so
(04:14):
I ended up writing those IPS and dealing with special
at law. So that was that, and that I relocated
to California, where I taught and tutored students of all
ages included including corporate executives, focusing on English and writing.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Now you talk about the phone, the phone that these
kids are now interacting with on a regular basis, how
damaging is the mobile phone to not only adult generation
but to the child kid generation.
Speaker 3 (04:57):
All okay, thanks for the soapbox. So what concerned me
is that is to see and realize that the manifesto
that I wrote twelve years ago, this was twelve years
ago on the Dark Side of Technology in a magazine
(05:18):
article I have seen actually play out and played out
for example students.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Example, you see you see the play.
Speaker 3 (05:29):
Out inability to form complete sentences on paper, inability to
sustain attention, especially in long form text I e. Books,
(05:50):
paltry vocabulary. My high school students who are coming to
me for SAT don't general right, They're on different levels.
Many of them don't know the vocabulary, which is not
all really difficult and eclected. We have words like elusive, nuanced,
(06:19):
implement that these students don't know. These students who come
from affluent families.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
So you're saying right there with Rachelle, and this is
not about.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
Financial the separation that we always talk about, you know,
inner city kids, middle class kids, affluent kids. You said, Richard,
the failure is even happening at their affluent kid generation,
kid children's generation.
Speaker 3 (06:42):
Correct, So I would take it even further answer is yes.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
Now that we gotta help. We gotta save our generation. Here, okay,
what are some practical takeaways for students or my listeners
now and parents that will help the renew or strengthen
their reading habits.
Speaker 1 (07:01):
What can we do?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Like, I'm opportunity, this is me, this is this is
my mornings. I get up at four thirty Monday through Friday. Right,
I read the Abby, I read seeing INN, I read ESPN.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
Okay, that's my morning.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
Then I know there, stretch, I do the light exercise,
then I watch TV. So at least I am trying
to keep.
Speaker 1 (07:30):
My mind moving actively.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Is that a good practice that I'm doing When you're
talking about strengthening your reading abage? Is that a good
plan I have for Rashaan McDonald.
Speaker 3 (07:43):
You're on your way better than I think what a
lot of us on a B plus.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
I read the Abby, so I'm learning about socials, about
social skill.
Speaker 1 (07:59):
It's okay with this?
Speaker 3 (08:00):
Yeah, my friend going back? Okay, so here's the thing.
And then here it's so important to read widely and
that if possible, to read actually something pages you can
hold in your hand. Literacy specialist Marietta Wolf from Tufts
University talks about deep reading Deep Sustained, in which she
(08:26):
says she has found that screen reading does not get
you to which we're seeing the lateral damage of in
the universities and high schools. And listen, parents, listen, Rashan.
The fruit, Okay, what students produce in the latter years
(08:47):
in high school and college is the fruit of earlier labors.
It's the output of any input they had from their
growing up years. You know, you can't throw enough money
at me to get your to get your I do
(09:08):
help my students get to the college of the dreams.
But you can't throw enough money at me to get
your child into uga, which so many parents have done. Right,
asking me to condense to fill in five weeks what
your child did not the last ten years. They're met
(09:29):
the mental shelves. They're they're pretty like like they're pretty hollow.
Some you know in some cases that this is harsh.
But rather than being stocked with rich vocabulary and syntax
in different set and styles, right, it's like, vocabulary is power.
It's the building blocks to language law. And my students
(09:53):
don't have it. My college students six years ago in
California did not have it. So yes, I will write
this in what please have that read and read to
them from thunder in the room.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And I'm gonna tell you something.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
I have to respect what you say because I remember
in high school I read or a lot of the rings.
I read that book with like eight hundred pages. I
could believe how big that book was and I read it,
and that was reading. That's what you're saying, Rashard. That's reading.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
Rashon.
Speaker 2 (10:28):
What you're doing basically is skimming and scanning from articles.
Speaker 1 (10:33):
Are you jump jumping pages?
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Nothing in depth, nothing deep, nothing, forcing you to remember
what you read a hundred pages ago or fifty pages ago,
and trying to connect the dots. That's what you're talking about,
the whole process of really using every muscle in your
brain to creative side analyze it, also memorizing, of remembering
(10:59):
what you're doing in the storytelling process that has lost
in our society today.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That's what you're saying.
Speaker 3 (11:05):
Correct, Absolutely so. Books they bring a organic, an organic
wholeness to the book to brain development.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
So let me tell you something.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
You have audio books so you don't have to read them.
They're audiobooks. Just driving your car, put on your headphones.
Speaker 3 (11:31):
Listen. Audiobooks are great, and I actually am so glad
you reminded me to bring this up because I want
to be sensitive to students and families here where for
various reasons, or certain disabilities or certain issues, let's say
the blind, or certain students with dyslexia right where we
(11:54):
call what Ben Foss famous dyslexic like he calls I
reading right, it's not really just really best serve them.
So I want to remain sent to that. And I've
been able to in my own homeschooling because my son
turned out to be mildly dyslexic, which nobody would have guessed.
But and she blew under my radar two until the
(12:15):
age of ten, so he was so adept at compensating
he would just slog through. But there are some some students,
well we have many actually, and I have. I've seen
many come through my doors who I realized have learning
disabilities that were never diagnosed. So I want to, Yes,
(12:36):
I want to honor them right and not just roll
stones here. And so audiobooks have been fantastic for my son,
and she would because so my messages you ask me,
you know what it is that I'm championing here, and
that is to get when I see read mean by
(13:00):
whatever door or window you have to kick down, whatever
door you have to create, construct, even if it's Braille reading.
Get imprint language into your child's and your own brain
long form, longer books and articles, and even podcasters who
(13:26):
speak beautifully in print that language into your brain consistently.
Speaker 4 (13:34):
Please don't go anywhere. We'll be right back with more
Money Making Conversations Masterclass. Welcome back to the Money Making
Conversations Masterclass, hosted by Rashaan MacDonald.
Speaker 3 (13:51):
Even if it's twenty thirty minutes a day, it's by
small doses and consistency that the brain optimally works and
retains and processes information and builds neural pathways. So this
includes so for students who choose to take the the
(14:15):
act writing they at other like we have other standardized
tests like milestones at they're asked at times to compare
or contrast forms of articles in different research and different
content from different subject areas like scientific research, history, sociology,
(14:38):
et cetera. And so I encourage students to read widely,
which will include The New York Times, The Atlantic Right,
publications of Yes, the Higher order parents. It's like four
dollars a week. You know, it's much cheaper than thousands
of dollars in college prep later. So invest early and write.
(15:02):
And there are fabulous personal essays in the Times that
are very interesting that middle schoolers can read. So that
is one practical thing you can do to vary and
enlarge they're reading their biblio diet and to laurish your brain.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
The conversations about nursire the brain.
Speaker 3 (15:28):
And in the college where I taught in California, I
had a lot of future engineers, architects, nurses who had
they had actually followed through the system they had. They
came with a lot of holes in their fundamentals and
in their grammar, just unable to piece together complete sentences.
(15:48):
And this was college by the time they came to me.
And so I've seen this on both coasts east and west,
and so hey, I get it. And some of these
students came from dimblical backgrounds. So I honored you. I
encourage you in that case to latch on to find
a book you love, perhaps a biography, an inspirational bio
(16:12):
story of a famous person, somebody in your field of
interest whose story or whose content you can latch on
two and it is well written with great vocabulary. I
encourage you to do what Scott Galloway and while you,
professor of business and author does. He reads one book
(16:36):
a year. He reads it three four times until he's
mastered it and can teach it himself. He takes notes,
he steals phrases. He stole the word accouterment for one
of his readings and uses it all the time, and
is speaking and his youtubess and his presentations on stage.
(16:59):
And so that is something concrete that our families can do.
And this is this is a storied writer and business
expert who does this for professional development. So reading is
the single most powerful positive force on the developing mind.
Speaker 2 (17:19):
Now you do this for a living, you do prep training.
Do you have a website? How we can contact you?
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Diana?
Speaker 3 (17:26):
Yes, I see adults. I see clients as well. I
edit and I coached them through their books and their
business content as well. For our purposes to state organized today,
I did say we could focus on the education piece.
Speaker 1 (17:46):
Yes, I think the reading.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I would just chell you that it's such a it's
such a damning situation the global society is in because
of technology you know, we always you know, it's a
group of people they are happy because they're going to
make money off of technology. There's a group of people
we are happy because technology are going to make their
life easier.
Speaker 3 (18:07):
But overall.
Speaker 2 (18:10):
The world is getting dumber and lazier from an intellectual
standpoint because we're not exercising the basic technique of learning.
We're not learning anymore.
Speaker 3 (18:23):
Correct, correct, and listen to those who are not fond
of reading. Hey, letting, letting you know, to be able
to YouTube successfully if that's what you want to do
to enter business, you need to be able to communicate,
and reading is foremost the just the most powerful force.
(18:49):
It will get you there. And without it, you're going
to struggle a lot when you're trying to get to college.
It's going to it's gonna bite you in the rear,
as I have, as I've seen. So listen, this is
what grieves me for Sean. You know, you think of
amaze of stunning the studying writer and order Frederick Douglass. Right,
(19:14):
and then there is a novel called The Bond Woman's
Narrative which historians ut earth it was the first novel
by a black American slave who wrote under the hand
of Craft's turned out to be handah bond. So she
escaped to the north and she ended up writing her
(19:36):
story cast in part fiction. And here's the thing. She
was able to do that because she learned to read.
And part of her journey and her development as a
writer was they found the stories found that she helped
listened carefully to the speeches at the elocution of the
(20:00):
white girls from the finishing school in the sitting room
next door, and she would listen. So that was her audio,
and that was part of her training. And I mentioned
Douglas and had a bond because I realized this week,
comparing to see you, that my students, that the students
(20:22):
I've seen in college and high school the last six years,
that they cannot write half as well as this slave did.
Speaker 4 (20:31):
Well.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
I well, I would you know, we could say that.
Of course, they didn't have TV, didn't have radio. You know,
there are different things that as you go through life,
you know that distracts you. You know, you focus on
what you have. Okay, you know you didn't have electricity.
You had a candle, so you brought the candle closer
to your book. I knew when I grew up, I
(20:53):
listened to a radio all the time for baseball, of football,
any type of sport, but baseball was my number one
sport because I listen to it on radio all the time.
I don't even listen to baseball that much on radio now,
more visual.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
And I like football.
Speaker 2 (21:07):
I like the action, the physicality of football and basketball,
dunking and moving and running. And so I think that
when we look at the world that we are in today,
and I hear you now, as I so respectful, you're
saying uh, And I'm so disappointed in the fact that
I know I can't change this.
Speaker 1 (21:26):
I can't change this. This this train is.
Speaker 2 (21:29):
On this track, and it's not going to get off. Dan,
I'm sorry. We can sit up here and we can
wind all day long and get drawn and then they
wake up the next day and the problem is gonna
only get worse because just what AI is here, They're
gonna the commercials are there when I see them. You
know that Gemini commercial with these people are carrying on
(21:51):
the conversation with a phone. Next thing that they're gonna
be carrying on this conversation with a ropot that.
Speaker 1 (21:57):
Looks like them.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
Okay, next thing, you know that's gonna be their relationship,
that robot in a home with them and they by themselves.
Speaker 1 (22:05):
That's that's where we're aded.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Stuff we saw TV years ago has now become a
reality and that's scary.
Speaker 1 (22:12):
But you know, but I had to bring you on
the call so people can hear hear it.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You know, you know, you can sit around in it
and live it, but you actually just start hearing it.
And you're the second guest I have brought on this
show that has talked of us. She's African American and
you know, and so I just want everybody to know
that there are different race of people who have these
same concerns out there. But the problem is we all
(22:43):
want the technology, Diana. We all want the easy life.
And our kids, like you said, if they're born with
a phone in their hands, they already lost. They've already lost.
They're not gonna win.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
I believe in a redemption. So it's it's through books,
I tell you.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
It's it's gonna be a few about there. You're like
a good a good movie, you like a good TV series.
Right now it's gonna be like like that show Paradise
that's real popular on Hulu. Well, only they dug this
big city on the ground. Then that just read they're
actually building a city like Paradise in reality, where they're
building this community where they're gonna hand pick people who
(23:26):
might not be educated, but they will get a hand
picked same thing with you. They're gonna be breakout sessions
where people are gonna have these reading classes. They're gonna
have these reading books. But it will never get to
the masses. That's all I'm saying, the masses. That approach
is done. We cannot recoup everybody it is.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
I have read articles about just what I'm gonna call
the intrusion, the transition, but the intrusion of technology right
in the classrooms. So yes, again it saves your time
and stream wise things, especially the teachers. But they've taken
the actual books away from the students. And the reason,
(24:07):
according to that article in the Atlantic, the reason students
can no longer handle books in the elite colleges we're
talking to the IVY leagues is because middle schools and
high schools in America no longer require whole books from students.
They assign just excerpts. It's about all schools. We do
have exceptions, and unfortunately in my son's school, I see
(24:30):
he is reading whole books, but they are in the minority.
And so that yeah, so that article cites schools in
major cities where they have shifted out of whole books,
so students were not. The article says for students to
be able to read books in college, they needed to
have read books in high school. And so here's the thing.
(24:54):
You know, Back in the day, success meant produ using something,
you know, by the labor of your hands. It meant
something brick and mortar, which obviously, right is outdated. And
so now for our children and grandchildren, and I don't
even know what holds for our grandchildren, everything's evolving so quickly.
(25:15):
But for our children it means and that for us
as in business, it means production, not brick and mortar,
not by the rape of our hands so much, but
digital production should have intellectual property right and resources in
(25:36):
media problem solving right in that arena. And so again
I'm just circling back to it. It's just the drama beating.
So again, folks will help you get there.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
I'm not managed to drum your beating.
Speaker 2 (25:49):
This is a reality to me, you know, because I'm
somewhat sad by this conversation because I know that you
know what I you know, electric.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Cars are here.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Oh, Uber is gonna go to all you know that
level of automation where cars just gonna come by your house.
Now you know, it's not even gonna be a human
driving you to the airport or to the restaurant or
to your cousin's house. It's just gonna be an automated
car that is going to happen. And when that happens,
what is that person doing in the backseat? Are they
(26:22):
listening to music? Are they reading?
Speaker 1 (26:25):
Or what are they doing?
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Wait with their time because they're not thinking, because they're
not driving anymore.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
They're not thinking.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
So the simple aspect of thought processing is leaving us
as human beings.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Diana, so cool.
Speaker 2 (26:42):
I gotta I gotta run, my friend, can we get
your website? This has an amazing conversation, Diana.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
Thank you, Dianaha dot org d I an a ha,
that's ha dot org. And I'm running a literacy seminar,
a webinar next Friday Eastern time, and another in June.
See can write me the address is there?
Speaker 2 (27:06):
Well, I won't want you to give me give me
a flyer so I can post it for you because
you're pretty amazing you and I open up my friend.
I appreciate you contacting me. I'm gonna stay telling at
you because I want to know you know what's happening
in three months from now, six bumps a while.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
Because you see to be in the loop.
Speaker 2 (27:24):
You see to have a clear understanding what our academic
system is failing us. And if you see any moment
well you need me to apple HiPE something that you're doing,
please contact me.
Speaker 3 (27:33):
Okay, it was a pleasure. Thanks so much for having me, Rashan.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
Thank you for coming up money Making Conversation master Class, Diana.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
Huh.
Speaker 2 (27:42):
This has been another edition of Money Making Conversation Masterclass
posted by me Rashaun McDonald.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
Thank you to our guests on the show today and
thank you. I'll listen to your audience now.
Speaker 2 (27:52):
If you want to listen to any episode I want
to be a guest on the show, visit Moneymakingconversations dot com.
Our social media handle is money Making Conversations. Join us
next week and remember to always leave with your gifts.
Speaker 1 (28:04):
Keep winning. Mm hmm.
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