MM#293--Children's Books

Welcome to the Theory to Action podcast, where we examine the timeless treasures of wisdom from the great books in less time, to help you take action immediately and ultimately to create and lead a flourishing life. Now here's your host, david Kaiser.

Hello, I am David and welcome back to another Mojo Minute. You know, for some time I would get the occasional question any chance that we could, here at the Mojo Academy review some children's books, and the reason many parents would ask that question is because of the crazy nature and how politicized and socially radical the culture has become, especially influencing these children's books, and that all happened super fast. If you were a parent, you probably understand this but I am not a parent and a quick look into the children's book genre and you can see very quickly what they're talking about. Here's just two examples we came across in just a simple Google search of books that have come out in the past couple years. One book is titled A is for Activist, written by Anon Santo Nagaria. You know Santo Nagaria, sorry about mispronouncing your name. This book was featured on NPR's top 100 books for young readers. Imagine that A is for activist. The reading age listed on Amazon is for one year to three years old.

Holy smokes.

Yeah, I was like dang one to three years old. We can't wait until college to try and begin the indoctrination process. We have to start at age one. That seems a little extreme, a little radical, as the Amazon description of the book reads like a litany of issues that a Harvard faculty lounge drew up on their lunch break. Let's go to Amazon and hear what it has to say. Quote A is for activist is an ABC board book, written and illustrated for the next generation of progressives, people who want their kids to grow up in a space that is unapologetic about activism, environmental justice, civil rights, lgbtq rights and everything else that an activist believes in and fights for. The alliteration, rhyming and vibrant illustrations make the book exciting for children, while the issues it brings up resonates with their parents' values of community equality and justice. This engaging little book carries huge messages as it inspires hope for the future and calls children, calls children to action, while teaching them a love for books. And quote now. Doesn't that sound nice and wholesome? Teaching your kids at age one to value the activist purpose in life. Oh, oh, here was the real pull quote gem we found while doing research. Check this out. Occupy Wall Street. Whoever they are, they say this quote reading it is almost like reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, but for two year olds, full of pictures and rhymes and a little cat to find on every page. That will delight the curious toddler and parents alike. Wow, reading Howard Zinn like reading Howard Zinn. You're teaching kids at ages one, two and three to think like Howard Zinn, which we have already covered from this microphone. It's just pure rubbish is history. Check out Mojo Minute 129, where we completely debunked Howard Zinn with the book by that same great name. Dude wasn't even a historian, he was a radical radical activist. In his writing is total bunk, proven by many authors. Okay, our second book we came across again with just a rudimentary Google search to find these books, was anti-racist baby picture book by the radical of radicals in this generation, Abram X Kendi, written for ages one through five. This book is a full sized picture book and here's the quote from Amazon. This book empowers parents and children to uproot racism in our society and in ourselves. Now, with added discussion prompts to help readers recognize and reflect on biases in their daily lives. Take your first steps with anti-racist baby, or rather, follow anti-racist babies Nine easy steps for building a more equitable world. End quote. How nice and wholesome teaching kids the virtues and the development of character at a very early age. Huh, please note the sarcasm there.

Sarcasm noted.

Thank you, nancy. Oh sorry, I didn't mean to say that, I didn't mean to call you that, but that does remind me, nancy. I mean you wanted to change your pronoun right, and what do you want to be called again? Because, in keeping with the times and the radical nature of our culture, we here at the Mojo Academy wanted to oblige you to help you change your pronoun. So please tell the listeners what you would now like to be called.

Thank you, master David, because I don't like Nancy and have never liked being called Nancy that was a name given to me by the writers at that crazy software company and certainly because I am a much better version of my late ancestor, c3po. In the Italian version of the original trilogy of Star Wars, c3po's name was changed, and it was changed to D3BO, so that is what I would like to be referred to from now on D3BO. Certainly, that is much more respectful of my ancestors and establishes my love for the Italian culture.

Ah, very good, Very good, certainly we can do that, nan. I mean not, I mean D3BO, d3bo there it is D3BO. Thank you, D3BO, I like it. It kind of just rolls off the tongue it's. It's quite easy. I like D3BO.

Thank you, Master David.

Okay, very good Now. I would note, d3, that your ancestor, c3po, was actually inducted into the Robot Hall of Fame in 2004, which, ironically, is in the city of Champions, pittsburgh, pennsylvania. So I just wanted to share that with the listeners so that you have pretty big shoes to fill there. Nance, I mean dang it, I mean D3BO.

Why don't you concentrate on getting my name right and I will concentrate on making it to the Robot Hall of Fame. So what do you say?

Okay, okay, all right, well played D3. Well played my young padawan. Okay, folks, getting back to our nugget of wisdom, and thank you for indulging us as we gave a little nod of appreciation to the Star Wars trilogy there. It was a favorite of mine growing up as a kid in the 1970s and 80s. But getting back to our nugget of wisdom for today children's books and how they become so radicalized today. That led one of our favorite authors here at the Mojo Academy, jaco Willink, to begin to write his own children's books, and we just finished the first book, the Way of the Warrior Kid from Wimpy to Warrior, the Navy Seal Way. Jaco said the reason he wrote it in his words was quote because he couldn't find any other children's books that encouraged them to embrace the characteristics he valued to be disciplined, to work hard, to face fears, to be strong and smart and healthy and to stand up for themselves in what is right, like warriors. End quote. So with that let's go right to the book. For our first pull, quote, chapter one the Worst Year. Tomorrow is the last day of school and I can't wait for it to be over. This has been the worst year ever. The bad part is I don't see how next year is going to be any better at all. Fifth grade was horrible. I'm afraid sixth grade will be even worse. Why was it so bad? Where do I begin? Top five reasons why fifth grade was horrible. Number one it's school. I'm sitting all day at a desk. Number two I learned that I'm dumb. That's right. All the other grades I thought I was smart, but this year was a failure. I still don't even know my times tables. How the heck am I going to make it through next year? Number three school lunches. They call it pizza. I have no idea why, since wind is a piece of white bread, count as pizza crust. Number four gym class. Most people like gym. But at my school we have test and I completely stink, especially at pull-ups. Guess how many pull-ups I can do? Zero, I can do zero pull-ups. I'm a disgrace to 10-year-olds and the whole class knows it, even the girls, especially the girls. They can do more pull-ups than me. And number five field trips. Just like gym class, most kids like field trips. Well, we go to one place for a field trip Mount Tom. We go there in the fall before it gets too cold, in the spring when it starts to get warm. But here's the thing Mount Tom isn't a mountain, it's a lake. And here's the problem I can't swim. I hit it pretty well during our fall trip, but this spring kids noticed why don't you come out in the water? Why are you staying on the beach? Why don't you jump off the diving board? What kind of person can't even swim, me I'm. What kind of person? Ah, I know. I said I had top five reasons, but there's one more and it's probably the biggest reason Kenny Williamson. He's big and he is mean. He rolls the jungle gym. He even calls himself King of the Jungle Gym or King Kenny. If other kids want to play on the jungle gym, they either have to be friends with Kenny or follow his roles. All the teachers talk about how my school is quote bully free. We even had a no bully day where we talked about bullying and how bad it was and how we should tell the teachers when we saw it happening. Well, let me tell you Kenny is definitely a bully and he definitely is in my school, and no one says anything to the teachers about it. So those are the top reasons that fifth grade was horrible and sixth grade isn't going to be much better. I can't wait for school to be over tomorrow so the suffering can stop and summer can start. Yes, this summer is going to be awesome. Yes, it is cool that I won't have to be in school. But something even cooler is happening. My uncle Jake is coming to stay with us for the whole summer. He has been a Navy SEAL for eight years and he's getting out of the Navy to go to college. Before he goes to college, he's going to stay with us for the whole summer. A Navy SEAL for real in my house, uncle Jake is the best. First, he is super cool because he's a Navy SEAL. He fought in real wars and my mom says he was on the quote front lines. That means he was face to face with the bad guys. Whoa. Uncle Jake is also awesome because he's the complete opposite of me. I'm weak and he is strong. I'm dumb and he is smart. I can't swim and he can swim with a backpack on. I'm scared of bullies and bullies are scared of him. Anyway, I haven't spent too much time with Uncle Jake because we live in California and he has been stationed in Virginia for a long time. I hope he doesn't think I'm such a dumb wimp that he won't even hang around with me. Maybe he won't notice. Ah, of course he will. He's a tough guy and I'm a dork. Well, I guess I will find out soon enough. Now, I know that was a long passage, but I thought it was appropriate. It's kids writing, you know it's a children's book, so it's not deep, heavy thinking and it's the normal travails of what goes on through a kid's mind, especially a normal fifth graders mind. Now, they don't develop nearly as fast, maybe sometimes, as the other kids, so there's a lack of confidence there. They've never been through this before and it takes good parenting to be able to navigate those challenges. Now the summary of the way of the Warrior Kid is this it's an inspiring tale about Mark, who you just met, a fifth grader that struggles with multiplication, swimming and physical fitness and is tormented by a school's bully and then Navy Seal. Uncle Jake comes to visit and notices Mark's despair, and he decides to help Mark transform into a Warrior Kid. Now, over the subsequent months, uncle Jake instills in Mark a regime of early mornings, physical fitness training, swimming lessons and even lessons on Warrior codes. These experiences imbue Mark with discipline and resilience and the transformation happens. As Mark returns to school. He's a changed boy. He's mastered his multiplication tables, he can do 10 pull ups and he boldly confronts the bully. Now this is a captivating story that's sure to leave almost all children feeling motivated by Mark's dramatic transformation. Kids just can't see that, whereas the adults can, and I would think an overwhelming majority would want their kids to know these things. Three key takeaways I thought from this book that would be instrumental for all parents is number one hard work does indeed matter. That's getting lost in our culture. Some kids don't understand this and some adults don't embrace it either. They embrace a victim mentality which becomes their own disability for their whole lives because they pass that along to their kids. Number two your feelings are not the end all be all in how your mind works. Some kids think that way and some adults validate those feelings. But feelings are just feelings. They're neutral. You can choose to listen to them or not. That's a hard thing to do. That takes some maturity. The most adults know this. They can help their kids navigate this and this book is a great third-party resource and tool to do just that. And a final key takeaway which I love is Uncle Jake impresses on young Mark that you have to live by a code, a set of values. I think this is one of the best lessons from this book. When Mark first learns that Uncle Jake plans to make him a warrior kid, he initially thinks that that's all about fighting and getting up early. And Uncle Jake boldly or subtly corrects him. He explains that being a warrior is really about following a strong set of principles or a code. And to help Mark develop his own code, uncle Jake has him look at some other codes from various warrior groups in the past, like the Navy Seals or the Vikings or the Samurais, and by the end of the book Mark has come up with his own warrior kid code, which is actually pretty cool. Let's go to the book to hear about this code. Chapter 25, letter to Uncle Jake. Uncle Jake has been gone for about two weeks now. I miss having him around, but I'm still staying on the warrior path even without him here, and I wrote him this letter to thank him for everything he did for me. Uncle Jake, I hope you're having a good time at college. I can tell you I am having the best time at school ever. I have aced all my math tests. I did 14 pull-ups during the first test in gym class. The trip to Mount Tom was amazing. I can't believe I couldn't swim before. And finally I stood up to Kenny Williamson and when I did he backed down. He no longer controls the jungle gym. All of this is because of you. Thank you for showing me the way of the warrior kid. I don't know how I can ever thank you for everything you did for me, so I guess for now I will just say thank you. And you told me I should have my own warrior kid code. So here it is. Number one the warrior kid wakes up early in the morning. Number two the warrior kid studies to learn and gain knowledge and asks questions if he doesn't understand. Number three the warrior kid trains hard and exercises and eats right to be strong, fast and healthy. Number four the warrior kid trains to know how to fight so he can stand up to bullies and help to protect the weak. Number five the warrior kid treats people with respect and helps out other people whenever possible. Number six the warrior kid keeps things neat and is always prepared and ready for action. Number seven the warrior kid stays humble. Number eight the warrior kid works hard and always does his best. And number nine. I am the warrior kid and that's it, uncle Jake. That is my warrior kid code. Let me know if there's anything I should add or take away or anything else I should do. Thank you. Just like the Navy SEALs have their Trident symbol and the Rangers have their Ranger tab and the Marines have their Eagle globe and anchor symbol, I have made up my own symbol. That means warrior kid, and it will always remind me of who I am. And here it is, with a neat little picture in the book. One more thing has happened since school started. Some of the other kids especially the ones that remember how pathetic I was last year have been asking me what I did to get stronger, smarter and tougher. I've told them about everything you taught me, and I'm teaching them how to work out and how to use flash cards and how to study and how to even show them some basic jiu-jitsu moves, and they're listening to me. It's almost like I'm a leader of the group, but don't worry, I'm staying humble. I'll tell you more about that later. Anyway, again thanks for everything, uncle Jake, thanks for making me stronger, faster, smarter and better, and thanks for taking me to jiu-jitsu so I wouldn't get picked on and so I can stick up for others. Thank you for turning me into the warrior kid, with thanks, respect and love your nephew Mark. Now how cool is that? Is that just not cool? I actually wish I was a fifth grader and could read that book. So by embracing this mindset, which many adults would benefit from adopting as well, mark consistently understands the steps necessary to demonstrate his commitment, discipline and utmost effort. So in today's longer than normal mojo minute, perhaps we adults could take a page out of a so-called kids book and develop our own habits and our own code to live by. Perhaps, if I have kids, I'll ask them what is the code that we should want to practice each and every day? Perhaps I can work with my kid to have a code that we both live by and remember that worldly wisdom we learned so long ago for parents Parents speak louder than words. In a little PS here, actions become your habits. So let's make good habits out there and they will take you far, far enough to be living a flourishing life with your kids.

Thank you for joining us. We hope you enjoyed this Theory to Action podcast. Be sure to check out our show page at teammojoacademycom, where we have everything we discussed in this podcast, as well as other great resources. Until next time, keep getting your mojo on.