The Charlie Kirk Show - The One College That ISN’T a Scam with Dr. Larry Arnn
Aired: 2022-07-27
Duration: 36:57


=== Sovereignty in American Education (09:10) ===

[00:00:00]  Hey everybody, today on the Charlie Kirk show, we have Dr. Larry Arn from Hillsdale College to talk about who's sovereign when it comes to education.
[00:00:07]  As always, you can email me your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:00:10]  Take out your podcast app and type in Charlie Kirk Show and hit subscribe in the upper right-hand corner.
[00:00:14]  Then I take your questions and your thoughts regarding our latest book, College Scam, College Scam.com.
[00:00:21]  Email me your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com and subscribe to the Charlie Kirk Show podcast.
[00:00:25]  Buckle up everybody here.
[00:00:27]  We go.
[00:00:27]  Charlie, what you've done is incredible here.
[00:00:29]  Maybe Charlie Kirk is on the college campus.
[00:00:31]  I want you to know we are lucky to have Charlie Kirk.
[00:00:34]  Charlie Kirk's running the White House, folks.
[00:00:38]  I want to thank Charlie.
[00:00:39]  He's an incredible guy.
[00:00:40]  His spirit, his love of this country, he's done an amazing job building one of the most powerful youth organizations ever created, Turning Point USA.
[00:00:48]  We will not embrace the ideas that have destroyed countries, destroyed lives, and we are going to fight for freedom on campuses across the country.
[00:00:57]  That's why we are here.
[00:01:00]  Brought to you by the Loan Experts I Trust, Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage at andrewandTodd.com.
[00:01:09]  With us right now is someone I consider to be a teacher of mine.
[00:01:12]  In fact, I mention him and Hillsdale College extensively in my new book out today.
[00:01:17]  Now, the book is called The College Scam, but in the introduction of the book, I have to make the proper, let's just say, nuance.
[00:01:24]  I have to communicate the proper nuance where I say, quote, as I make clear in this book, not all colleges are equally corrupt or involved in this scam.
[00:01:32]  If every college had a mission statement, like that of Hillsdale College, for example, my criticism would be quite different.
[00:01:38]  If every school had a president like Hillsdale's Dr. Larry Arn, a leader who unapologetically contends for truth, liberty, and the development of good character, then my critique would be mostly about job placement and the cost of college.
[00:01:50]  I mentioned Hillsdale throughout this book because Hillsdale has earned it and deserves it.
[00:01:54]  And Hillsdale has been in the news a little bit.
[00:01:56]  And with us is Dr. Larry Arn to help us explain that and some other things that are going on.
[00:02:01]  Dr. Arne, welcome back to the program.
[00:02:03]  How are you doing, Charlie?
[00:02:05]  I'm doing well.
[00:02:06]  So Dr. Arne, recently you criticized the education bureaucracy without any hesitation and they're lashing back.
[00:02:13]  Who has the authority in the classroom, parents or politicians?
[00:02:17]  Yeah, well, that's actually an easy argument.
[00:02:23]  First of all, everybody owns himself, right?
[00:02:26]  You own Charlie Kirk.
[00:02:28]  You're responsible for him.
[00:02:29]  Nobody can take you over and make you do what you want without your consent.
[00:02:34]  Well, children are exactly the same with one difference.
[00:02:38]  They haven't reached the age of majority.
[00:02:41]  And so their parents stand in for them.
[00:02:44]  And as anybody who's been a parent, that's a kind of a dance that goes on when kids grow up because as they grow, you have to let them go.
[00:02:54]  But in the meantime, who better than the ones who are deeply devoted to them by nature, ones who gave rise to them, to make judgments on their behalf?
[00:03:06]  And so this claim, I mean, Terry McAuliffe running for re-election or coming back to the governorship of Virginia, he basically just said blankly, parents shouldn't tell the schools what to do.
[00:03:20]  And that's, you know, just read 1984, read Brave New World, right?
[00:03:26]  I learned something from Betsy DeVos the other day.
[00:03:29]  She's got a new book out called Hostages No More.
[00:03:34]  And I had not known until she published the book that Horace Mann, the 19th century education figure in America, said that the children were hostages.
[00:03:46]  Now think about that.
[00:03:47]  What does hostages mean?
[00:03:48]  That means that they are held to control someone else, their parents.
[00:03:54]  And so, yeah, that's, it's crazy, this idea that somebody can have any kind of expertise that could substitute for the responsibility of parents.
[00:04:06]  So that's, and that's where we are.
[00:04:08]  The whole bureaucracy is built on this idea that only experts can figure things out.
[00:04:15]  And that leaves nothing for ordinary people to do, like raise their children.
[00:04:21]  That's exactly right.
[00:04:22]  And so in Tennessee, Hillsdale College's Barney Charter Program has been expanding and has been making a big impact.
[00:04:30]  And so you said very clearly that the authority must be in the parents and the stake must be in the parents' decision.
[00:04:37]  And the teacher unions and this massive education bureaucracy, they have been seeking to strengthen and grow their monopoly by opposing parents' wishes for school choice.
[00:04:50]  And this issue is playing out all over in Tennessee right now where unions and school boards and legislators, you could say they're rallying around this inaccurate coverage by the media to shut down charter schools.
[00:05:02]  And I just want to say, you know, Dr. Arne, we have your back completely here.
[00:05:06]  I thought what you said was spot on and the way you clarified it in the op-ed was really, really well done as well.
[00:05:13]  Can you just fill our audience in a little bit about some of the drama happening down in Tennessee?
[00:05:18]  Well, yeah, so we're intending to start a bunch of charter schools in Tennessee.
[00:05:26]  Governor Lee requested that I do that.
[00:05:29]  We do that.
[00:05:30]  And we're working on it.
[00:05:31]  And it'll be a lot.
[00:05:32]  And it's a big job, costs millions of dollars.
[00:05:35]  We're working hard on it.
[00:05:38]  And remember, the college doesn't take any money from any government entity.
[00:05:43]  And that means a charter school, which is a government entity, never gives us any money.
[00:05:49]  We had this last summer, close to 700 parents, I think, on campus for 10 days.
[00:05:55]  We paid for that.
[00:05:56]  Sorry, did I say parents?
[00:05:58]  Teachers.
[00:05:58]  Teachers come and they do workshops with each other and with us.
[00:06:03]  And we pay for all that because we don't want to be beholden.
[00:06:07]  And there's the rub because the public education is a massive bureaucracy.
[00:06:12]  In some ways, it's the heart.
[00:06:14]  It's the fountain and the heart of the administrative state.
[00:06:19]  And it, you know, I mean, it's a scandal.
[00:06:22]  Why are there more people working in public education who are not teachers than those who are?
[00:06:28]  What do those others do?
[00:06:30]  In a charter school, that number will be two to one in favor of the teachers or more.
[00:06:36]  And what are the rest of them employed to do?
[00:06:38]  They eat up more than half the money because their average salaries are higher.
[00:06:43]  And so, in other words, there's a great system of control that's grown up remote from parents and teachers too, for that matter.
[00:06:54]  My father was a high school teacher in Pocahontas, Arkansas, and he found his happiness doing that.
[00:07:00]  He never had two nickels to rub together.
[00:07:03]  And he just loved being a school teacher.
[00:07:08]  And toward the end, Bill Clinton was elected governor.
[00:07:12]  Hillary Clinton was placed in charge of the Arkansas schools.
[00:07:17]  And he used to complain about them.
[00:07:20]  And what they were doing to the schools, which is basically making rule at the central place that would change the school where I went.
[00:07:29]  And that's, you know, I've spent way too many, I like to say I spent many years learning complicated reasons why my father was right.
[00:07:41]  But one thing he was right about was it is not a matter of expertise to teach a kid.
[00:07:48]  If it was, homeschoolers wouldn't work, and yet they do work.
[00:07:54]  Ordinary people, you're involved with some private schools now, Charlie, and ordinary people have started most of those schools.
[00:08:00]  And they can be excellent schools.
[00:08:03]  It isn't easy.
[00:08:04]  It's hard.
[00:08:06]  But it just takes work and accumulation of knowledge and care for the students.
[00:08:14]  So, you know, in K through 12 education, almost nothing is taught that ordinary people are not fully able to understand.
[00:08:25]  And if you can understand a thing, you can teach it.
[00:08:28]  And so in our charter schools, in our college, parents are welcome.
[00:08:35]  We set the curriculum.
[00:08:37]  They know what it is in advance.
[00:08:39]  If they don't like it, they can go somewhere else.
[00:08:42]  If they do like it and they want to help improve it, we're all ears.
[00:08:46]  And so that's the way the schools used to work in America.
[00:08:50]  And there's very powerful interest gathered around education.
[00:08:55]  And more than half the budget of every state is in education, in the public education.
[00:09:04]  But more than half the employees in public education are not teachers.

=== The Nature of the Human Soul (06:29) ===

[00:09:10]  That is the entire story, that more than half of all the expenditures in education does not go to teachers.
[00:09:20]  It goes to administrative overhead, goes to all of these other different projects, and who knows what exactly it is.
[00:09:25]  Hillsdale College, to important reinforcements, Hillsdale College is ambitiously expanding the effort to be able to educate students in the classical model.
[00:09:36]  Dr. Arne is now being attacked, and so is Hillsdale College, by all of the government unions and all the special interests in Tennessee.
[00:09:44]  And I just hope every politician in D.C. hears it from me that they better not give an inch to this because Hillsdale College is doing such phenomenal work and misrepresentations and a smear campaign from government unions.
[00:09:56]  We're not going to put up with that.
[00:09:57]  It's not going to happen.
[00:09:58]  The education of our children is too important.
[00:10:00]  We got to find a way.
[00:10:04]  Look, there's a must-see movie you got to check out at salemnow.com called Michelle Obama 2024, her real life story and her plan for power.
[00:10:13]  Film director Joel Gilbert, I know Joel, great American, takes a deep dive into the life of Michelle Obama from Chicago to Princeton to Martha's Vineyard.
[00:10:21]  He says Michelle Obama will run for president in 2024 and base her candidacy on a life story that is more racially divisive and nearly as fictitious as that of her husband, Barack Hussein.
[00:10:32]  Check out the stunning new movie on Salem Now, Michelle Obama 2024.
[00:10:37]  Michelle is following the same formula as Barack to become president, a best-selling autobiography, the keynote convention speaker, and a voter registration organization.
[00:10:46]  First, Barack and now Michelle want to transform America.
[00:10:49]  Michelle Obama 2024, now playing at SalemNow.com.
[00:10:53]  This new movie has stunning, game-changing revelations about Michelle Obama's past.
[00:10:58]  The film director says only the truth can stop her.
[00:11:00]  Michelle Obama 2024, watch the movie on demand or buy the DVD on salemnow.com.
[00:11:09]  What is the classical way of educating?
[00:11:12]  And why do you believe that is the best way that children learn?
[00:11:16]  Well, first of all, classics, that means the first addressings of the biggest questions in the West happened in the East, too, in a different way, but it's hard to know everything.
[00:11:29]  And so you can get everything you need by beginning with the Greeks and the Romans and the Christian, early Christians.
[00:11:35]  So what is everything you need to know?
[00:11:38]  Emphatically, by the way, you don't begin an education with contemporary politics.
[00:11:45]  First, you have to know what politics are.
[00:11:48]  And you have to know what everything else is, too.
[00:11:52]  First, you have to know what are you?
[00:11:56]  What do you need to know?
[00:11:58]  Those are the questions that Socrates asks.
[00:12:01]  And so, classical education is an encouragement to step outside everything around you today and think deeply and permanently before you begin your active life.
[00:12:14]  Also, classical education rightly identifies, I mean, it's not the only place this happened, rightly identifies what are the human skills.
[00:12:23]  What is it that people do that other creatures don't?
[00:12:27]  And the answer to that in school is reading, writing, and arithmetic.
[00:12:32]  So, classical education wants to get really good at those things because that's how you navigate and understand and see the world if you have a human soul.
[00:12:44]  And so, it excludes huge ancillary things that are now the main subject matter of school.
[00:12:56]  Critical race theory.
[00:12:57]  That's a claim about the nature of the human soul.
[00:13:01]  Before you can understand that claim, you have to understand what a soul is.
[00:13:06]  How does it know?
[00:13:07]  What kind?
[00:13:08]  And see, there's a debate about that, right?
[00:13:10]  That's somewhat different in Plato than Aristotle, very different in critical race theory.
[00:13:17]  Start with the things at the beginning and work your way up.
[00:13:20]  That's what classical education does.
[00:13:23]  And understanding that we are the speaking beings, as you would say, that if you have children or if you have, you know, dogs, one will start speaking and one will not, and can differentiate more than just the difference between pleasure and pain, but also good and evil.
[00:13:40]  And Hillsdale College is the premier institution that believes in classical education and wants to see it continue to grow.
[00:13:50]  There is a desire from parents right now that want to embrace the classical model.
[00:13:56]  Why is it that the administrative state and specifically government teacher unions are so threatened by the classical model of education?
[00:14:05]  Why is that at odds with a technocratic expert way of governing?
[00:14:11]  It's in that word you just said, techne, right?
[00:14:14]  Techne is one of the prime human activities.
[00:14:17]  It means art or making technology.
[00:14:21]  It means making stuff.
[00:14:23]  And so, technocrats think, and crat comes from archae, which means rule, the rule of the experts.
[00:14:32]  And technocrats think of themselves as making things.
[00:14:36]  But school is not like that.
[00:14:38]  And it mustn't be like that.
[00:14:40]  It's an injustice to make it like that.
[00:14:42]  What you're doing is you're helping something grow.
[00:14:46]  And the growth is in it, right?
[00:14:49]  Every kid wants to know.
[00:14:50]  That's the first line of Aristotle's metaphysics.
[00:14:53]  I mean, I was writing something about this today because I have a 19-month-old granddaughter and a two-month-old grandson living near here.
[00:15:03]  And I just get an instruction in human nature every time they come over.
[00:15:06]  And they come over a lot.
[00:15:08]  And the joy and delight of them learning to be participating in conversations.
[00:15:16]  And how do they learn to do that?
[00:15:18]  They hear what they say and what we say and they repeat it.
[00:15:24]  And they eventually divine the meaning in it.
[00:15:27]  And then they talk to us.
[00:15:30]  And then when we show understanding, that's just the very definition of joy.
[00:15:35]  And that's because they want to know by nature.

=== Mastering Phonics and Writing (15:34) ===

[00:15:40]  You know, we've abandoned phonics.
[00:15:44]  All phonics, it just means sound, the Greek word sound.
[00:15:47]  All phonics does is take the natural fact that they've learned to talk and apply that to reading.
[00:15:54]  Kids love phonics, it's exciting because what you do is you learn to sound out the words, and then in three or four steps, all of a sudden the word appears.
[00:16:09]  You know, book.
[00:16:12]  And they go, book, oh, you see, that's the first steps in learning in school.
[00:16:18]  Well, we abandon all that now and we should focus on that.
[00:16:25]  It's really out of control.
[00:16:26]  Inflation is at a 40-year high.
[00:16:29]  Your cash is getting sucked right out of your wallet with higher prices on gas, groceries, practically everything.
[00:16:34]  Look, you got to take charge of your money right now.
[00:16:36]  So here's a principle that we say: don't use the big banks that hate you.
[00:16:39]  Bank of America is canceling conservatives.
[00:16:42]  A team member that we have at Turning Point USA literally just had his bank account shut down by Bank of America.
[00:16:48]  Literally, no longer allowed to use Bank of America because of his politics.
[00:16:52]  True story.
[00:16:53]  So when you want to consolidate your debt and use equity in your home to do so to lower your monthly expenses, you have to use my friends, Andrew and Todd, at andrewandodd.com.
[00:17:03]  You have to know what you're going through.
[00:17:05]  So look, I just had dinner with Andrew and Todd in Orange County.
[00:17:08]  We had a great time.
[00:17:09]  They love the Lord.
[00:17:10]  They know the Bible super well.
[00:17:12]  They're ethical.
[00:17:13]  They're beautiful people.
[00:17:14]  They really are.
[00:17:15]  They're wonderful.
[00:17:16]  And Andrew and Todd aren't brokers.
[00:17:18]  They're bankers who handle your refi loan personally from start to finish.
[00:17:22]  And they're always in your corner.
[00:17:23]  In fact, they're helping me with a problem right now.
[00:17:26]  Just all this nonsense with interest rates and all this.
[00:17:28]  They're helping me clarify it.
[00:17:29]  They're phenomenal to work with.
[00:17:30]  They're responsive.
[00:17:32]  They're Christians.
[00:17:33]  They're conservative.
[00:17:35]  It's AndrewandTodd.com to beat inflation by lowering your monthly expenses and protect your greatest asset, your home.
[00:17:41]  So don't use these woke banks.
[00:17:43]  Bank of America, again, my team member, I'm not going to say his name.
[00:17:46]  You guys know him.
[00:17:46]  He's been on our show.
[00:17:48]  Literally, Bank of America sent him a note saying, we are no longer allowing you to bank with us.
[00:17:53]  Boom, like that, all because of politics.
[00:17:55]  Andrew and Todd at Sierra Pacific Mortgage share your values.
[00:17:59]  I trust them.
[00:18:00]  That's why I work with them.
[00:18:01]  I hang out with them casually and I've got to know them really well.
[00:18:04]  They'll treat you right and that when you use them, you're not using Citibank or Chase or these people that hate your values, that believe in this trans nonsense.
[00:18:13]  Don't use those banks, diversity, equity, inclusion banks.
[00:18:15]  Nope.
[00:18:16]  Andrew and Todd at andrewandtodd.com.
[00:18:19]  So just write that down right now.
[00:18:20]  Write it in your phone.
[00:18:21]  You might say, oh, Charlie, I don't need to refinance or whatever.
[00:18:24]  Well, maybe you will two months from now.
[00:18:25]  Maybe you young millennials out there, maybe the millennials listen to our show, my fellow millennials, you're going to buy a home soon.
[00:18:31]  Maybe you're getting married and you want to buy something.
[00:18:32]  It's andrewandtodd.com for a quick mortgage checkup.
[00:18:36]  Use the equity in your home before it's too late.
[00:18:38]  Go to andrewandtodd.com.
[00:18:40]  That's andrewandodd.com.
[00:18:42]  Stop giving money to people who hate you.
[00:18:43]  AndrewandTodd.com love the Lord.
[00:18:46]  They love America.
[00:18:47]  And they're great friends.
[00:18:49]  So I encourage you to use them as your go-to partner for anything mortgage-related.
[00:18:54]  Stop using the banks who hate you.
[00:18:56]  AndrewandTodd.com.
[00:19:00]  Getting a lot of different emails.
[00:19:02]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.
[00:19:03]  That's freedom at CharlieKirk.com.
[00:19:05]  Veronica says, Charlie, congratulations on the new book, The College Scam.
[00:19:10]  You're so right, by the way.
[00:19:11]  College is a scam.
[00:19:12]  My husband and I both have PhDs in our respective engineering fields.
[00:19:16]  During our time in grad school, we truly saw the underbelly of academia.
[00:19:20]  We then worked for a large corporation for about 10 years.
[00:19:22]  Many of the younger engineers didn't even know the basic physics fundamentals.
[00:19:27]  Makes you kind of wonder what they were learning in college.
[00:19:30]  My husband and I have been together for 20 years, married for 17 years, and just welcomed our fourth child.
[00:19:35]  I stay at home now and started, and he started his own consulting business that may grow into something more entrepreneurial.
[00:19:40]  Good.
[00:19:41]  Our older kids are nine, seven, and four.
[00:19:42]  And when I think of them going to college, I cringe at the thought.
[00:19:46]  While my husband and I did learn essential physics concepts in college, I've wondered if a tech program focus wouldn't produce better engineers.
[00:19:56]  Recall all those young engineers who went to college and couldn't perform basic physics.
[00:20:01]  Thank you for all you do and keep up the great work.
[00:20:03]  P.S., you're right about the essential work of plumbers.
[00:20:06]  My father-in-law is a plumber.
[00:20:08]  He is well respected in our community.
[00:20:11]  He's always so busy, and his work is so important.
[00:20:15]  Question here from Carrie.
[00:20:18]  Hi, Charlie.
[00:20:19]  My name is Jackie.
[00:20:21]  I have a daughter that has three years of college and no degree.
[00:20:24]  It's not willing to go back to finish COVID took care of that and has a good amount of debt.
[00:20:28]  I wish I would have may have heard of you four years ago.
[00:20:30]  I've seen that you've written a book about college scams, but wondering if you could point my daughter in a direction of how to pay off her debt.
[00:20:36]  Any suggestions you might have would be certainly be appreciated.
[00:20:39]  Thank you.
[00:20:39]  Well, look, first, if she has three years already under her belt, there might be an argument just to be to finish it off because at that point, you already have the debt and the liability, and you might as well just get the piece of paper at that point if you're already three, you know, three years into it.
[00:20:57]  So you might as well do that.
[00:20:59]  Okay, another question here.
[00:21:01]  Charlie, when do you have time to write a book?
[00:21:03]  Does he write his, do you write your books during commercials?
[00:21:06]  CollegeScam.com.
[00:21:08]  So this is something that has been a long labor.
[00:21:12]  Let me tell you this.
[00:21:12]  This has not been an overnight thing.
[00:21:15]  These ideas I had formed in speeches and lectures.
[00:21:19]  And so the first thing I did when I wrote the book is I got a team together, a research team, and I said, I need to compile all the different speeches that I have given on this topic.
[00:21:30]  And so I re-listened to all of them and got them transcribed.
[00:21:34]  And then I said, okay, I know that I've read some of these things on this stuff over the years.
[00:21:39]  So then we went on about a year or two years of a research, literal blitz of just piles and piles of articles and studies.
[00:21:49]  And I mean, it was a huge amount of deep research.
[00:21:55]  But the thinking that went into this book was a decade.
[00:21:57]  This was a decade of thinking about this, where I was just, man, this doesn't make sense.
[00:22:01]  This isn't fitting.
[00:22:02]  So it wasn't just like, wow, I'm going to do this overnight.
[00:22:05]  These arguments have become almost extensions of my commentary.
[00:22:11]  From the earliest days when I was going on Fox business to just recently last week, the message really has remained the same that you're not really getting what you're paying for, guys.
[00:22:19]  You really shouldn't be going.
[00:22:21]  And I do have to give a shout out.
[00:22:22]  I'm going on his program tomorrow, Dennis Prager.
[00:22:25]  Prager played a huge role in giving me the confidence to talk about this topic.
[00:22:28]  He really did.
[00:22:29]  Because he, being a remarkably educated man, saying that college is a scam and not worth it, it's like, wow, you know, I believe it.
[00:22:37]  But now he has the courage to say it and gave me more kind of, let's just say, of an attitude that I was willing to talk about it.
[00:22:46]  And so throughout the book, you'll see, and again, this was kind of a part-time project because obviously I was hosting three hours of radio every day and traveling 300 days a year and speaking all across the country and doing Turning Point USA and all these different things, is that I tried to fit some current news items.
[00:23:04]  And so, for example, when I first started this book, COVID wasn't a thing.
[00:23:08]  But I believe the academic industrial complex actually defends and built the medical industrial complex.
[00:23:19]  And cut, not cut six, but in chapter six, you see how college indoctrinates students and repress speech.
[00:23:25]  And so all these pieces are together.
[00:23:27]  Email us your thoughts, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:23:29]  Madeline said, Charlie, numerous years ago, my brother got a master's degree of history at Harvard.
[00:23:34]  He said the only benefit was being able to put it on his resume because he didn't learn anything while he was there.
[00:23:39]  Next thing here.
[00:23:40]  Grace, Charlie, I did not go to college.
[00:23:42]  I'm now 22 and don't regret one bit.
[00:23:44]  It's so nice to not have debt and not be trapped by a degree or a job I hate.
[00:23:47]  I 100% recommend not going to college.
[00:23:48]  And personally, I want to marry someone who did not go to college as I think it makes men weaker.
[00:23:53]  Pretty basic.
[00:23:56]  Let's go to this one here.
[00:23:58]  Charlie, I went to college between 2001 and 2006.
[00:24:01]  I got a BA in economics.
[00:24:03]  It was completely useless.
[00:24:04]  I happened to take a few programming classes in school, and that's how I got my first job.
[00:24:08]  So the classes he took for programming, not economics, is what helped him.
[00:24:12]  All my first employer cared about was that I could write programs to work with survey data.
[00:24:16]  Let me pause.
[00:24:17]  This is the thing I want to, actually, I got to reiterate this, Andrew, in a lot of the media we're doing.
[00:24:21]  These people that are in the coding, you take a six-week coding class or how to write, what does he say?
[00:24:28]  How to write programs?
[00:24:30]  It's that's a huge talent.
[00:24:32]  So people say, Charlie, what is the skill that you need?
[00:24:34]  And I talked about this on stage with Greg Gutfeld, and I'm going to be on Greg Gutfeld's show tonight.
[00:24:39]  The skill that would be the most necessary is if you can write, you can get a job anywhere.
[00:24:46]  Greg and I talked about it.
[00:24:47]  You missed it, Andrew.
[00:24:48]  Andrew's standing in applause.
[00:24:49]  Greg and I talked about this for 20 minutes.
[00:24:50]  It's a lost art.
[00:24:51]  And I admit, I am not naturally a gifted writer.
[00:24:55]  Andrew thinks I'm a gifted writer.
[00:24:57]  I hold myself to a much higher standard.
[00:25:00]  I'm a good messenger.
[00:25:01]  There are some, I will say this: Tucker Carlson is a phenomenal writer.
[00:25:04]  He's a fabulous writer.
[00:25:05]  But I've become a better writer.
[00:25:08]  I've become better at writing because of how much I put into it.
[00:25:12]  And I read a ton.
[00:25:13]  And so what I'm saying, though, is I'm naturally a good speaker.
[00:25:16]  Okay.
[00:25:16]  I didn't have to, I was born a good speaker.
[00:25:18]  It's just who I am.
[00:25:19]  I am not naturally a good writer.
[00:25:22]  Of course, I'm an above average, right?
[00:25:23]  You put me in a room.
[00:25:24]  I could write fine.
[00:25:26]  The point is that I had to work at it.
[00:25:28]  And the more I have had to write, the better I have become.
[00:25:33]  And so Andrew says, your marketing instincts are good and your language has become better.
[00:25:38]  Yeah.
[00:25:38]  And so it just takes work over time.
[00:25:39]  But so if you're listening to this right now, you're like, what's a skill I could get?
[00:25:42]  Go write, write every single day.
[00:25:46]  They don't teach writing in college.
[00:25:48]  They don't.
[00:25:49]  I see that these kids are applying for jobs and their vocabulary is sloppy.
[00:25:54]  Andrew just said right here, the hardest thing for us to hire at Turning Point USA and the Charlie Kirk show is someone who knows how to write.
[00:26:01]  I completely agree.
[00:26:02]  Justin said that, who does our fundraising at Turning Point USA?
[00:26:05]  He said, we cannot find good writers.
[00:26:07]  When we do, we snatch them up immediately.
[00:26:08]  And this just confirms the college scam.
[00:26:10]  You'd think it would be one thing that they would know how to do is to write.
[00:26:14]  And the writing skills, the diction, it's declined terribly.
[00:26:19]  The vocabulary, my goodness.
[00:26:22]  So Scott continues.
[00:26:25]  Someone just emailed us, but can they text well?
[00:26:29]  Exactly.
[00:26:31]  Scott continues in the email.
[00:26:32]  A few years ago, I started graduate school for a MA in statistics.
[00:26:36]  About two years in, I realized I would take a pay cut because the starting level jobs paid less in the current programming career.
[00:26:42]  So I dropped out and focused on learning more programming languages and how to solve more problems for an employer.
[00:26:48]  And that is what employers want.
[00:26:49]  They need people to solve problems, not useless degrees in feminism or CRT.
[00:26:53]  I am now a senior data engineer, a fancy term for programmer that makes my liberal peers feel important.
[00:26:58]  I make $125,000 a year without the fancy computer science or engineering degree my peers did.
[00:27:03]  So Scott is confirmation of my book because Scott has a degree in economics, but he doesn't have a job in the degree he got the degree in.
[00:27:15]  He doesn't have a job in the, how do I say this best?
[00:27:17]  He doesn't have a job in the field.
[00:27:19]  That's the word I was looking for.
[00:27:20]  He doesn't have a job in the field he got a degree in.
[00:27:22]  And please forgive the sloppiness of my language to everybody.
[00:27:24]  I literally was up at 5 a.m. yesterday all day long for the Student Action Summit.
[00:27:29]  I got three hours of sleep for four days straight, and I've been doing interviews since 8 a.m. Eastern Time.
[00:27:34]  So if I'm being a little imprecise in my language, forgive me here.
[00:27:38]  And so, and by the way, people came up to me almost crying at the Student Action Summit.
[00:27:43]  Charlie, thank you so much for writing this book.
[00:27:45]  I have felt ashamed.
[00:27:46]  I've felt terrible about it.
[00:27:47]  Now, a certain host who I have a lot of respect for here in New York City said, Charlie, it's so nice of you that you admitted you don't go to college.
[00:27:54]  What do you mean, like admitted, like I committed arson or something?
[00:27:57]  And of course, I'm proud of it.
[00:27:59]  College does not define you.
[00:28:01]  That piece of paper is not who you are.
[00:28:05]  It's not.
[00:28:07]  Let me get to another question here, freedom at charliekirk.com.
[00:28:11]  Shannon said, Charlie, after listening to your podcast today and addressing your question, is college a scam?
[00:28:15]  I would like to confirm that as a current college student myself, the higher education system is a scam meant to brainwash the up-and-coming generation of this country.
[00:28:23]  I'm a student at a D1 university and the wokeness at the school is through the roof.
[00:28:28]  The campus buildings are covering posters and signage promoting LGBTQ values, increasing diversity, equity, inclusion.
[00:28:34]  During the month of June, the downtown streets and campus lightposts are covered with rainbow flags, but not a single American flag gets displayed at any time, especially around the 4th of July.
[00:28:44]  In a previous student orientation, by the way, this is a great writer here.
[00:28:47]  She would be really good to hire.
[00:28:48]  I'm not kidding.
[00:28:49]  This is well written.
[00:28:50]  I'm going to afford this to you, Andrew.
[00:28:51]  We could hire her.
[00:28:52]  This is really well written.
[00:28:54]  Let me see where she is.
[00:28:55]  See, it's really, in previous student orientation sessions, the program leaders promoted organizations and activists for every minority group imaginable with not a single mention of things that do not have to do with the average white male.
[00:29:06]  In fact, one parent posed this question, quote, what is there to do for the average white male?
[00:29:10]  There was simply no answer.
[00:29:12]  Due to the COVID pandemic, anyone who refused to upload the vaccine status to their student accounts was forced to test weekly.
[00:29:20]  If students did not comply, we were threatened with the shutdown of our accounts.
[00:29:23]  For certain major campus events, students without a vaccination status accounted, four were not allowed to attend.
[00:29:28]  All of these things have been present during my entire college career, and it continues to grow worse.
[00:29:32]  The system has booted any teachings about patriotism, replaced with diversity, equity, inclusion.
[00:29:36]  Saying anything related to God or religious is practically taboo.
[00:29:40]  The college education system is constructed to brainwash this generation and to jumpstart these people into a weak society.
[00:29:45]  It's sad to see.
[00:29:46]  But in the same respect, I'd like to say this brainwashing does not impact everyone.
[00:29:49]  I am part of my turning point chapter, and being surrounded by people with strong morals and love of country is extremely refreshing.
[00:29:54]  Thank you for what you do.
[00:29:55]  The movement is so powerful, and I can say at the college level, it has an impact.
[00:29:58]  Keep fighting for the amazing country.
[00:29:59]  Best Shannon.
[00:30:00]  That's a great one.
[00:30:01]  Andrew, I'm sending that to you.
[00:30:02]  Maybe, Shannon.
[00:30:03]  If she's continuing to be a writer, she might do that.
[00:30:10]  Hey, everybody, Charlie Kirk here.
[00:30:12]  The recent rulings from the Supreme Court, they didn't happen on their own.
[00:30:15]  It took support of companies like Patriot Mobile who passionately fought on behalf of the unborn and your constitutional rights.
[00:30:21]  Patriot Mobile is America's only Christian conservative mobile phone provider and has been on the front lines fighting for your values.
[00:30:28]  Inflation has really made it hard on Americans.
[00:30:31]  Thankfully, Patriot Mobile has plans for almost any budget.
[00:30:35]  They offer the same nationwide coverage as all the major carriers.
[00:30:38]  You get the same service and your money is going to a company fighting for the sanctity of life, religious liberty, and the Second Amendment.
[00:30:45]  Go to patriotmobile.com slash Charlie or call 972 Patriot.
[00:30:50]  Get free activation with the offer code Charlie.
[00:30:52]  If you're a veteran or first responder, please let them know because they have special discounts just for you.
[00:30:57]  Join our movement and make the switch today.
[00:30:59]  PatriotMobile.com slash Charlie.
[00:31:01]  PatriotMobile.com slash Charlie.
[00:31:03]  PatriotMobile.com slash Charlie or call 972Patriot, patriotmobile.com slash Charlie.
[00:31:12]  Okay.
[00:31:13]  Hello from Montana.

=== A Psychiatrist's Listening Story (05:43) ===

[00:31:14]  Charlie, earlier you suggested young people just get out of high school should go offering to work for someone for free as a trade, or at least that was the impression I got.
[00:31:21]  Genuine philosophical question.
[00:31:22]  How would such a young person support themselves financially in that case?
[00:31:24]  If they couldn't support themselves, who could support them?
[00:31:26]  Do parents have an obligation to invest in their young kids to help them become financially independent?
[00:31:30]  Yes, you'd have to live at home probably for a year or two years, for sure, if you were going to go work for somebody for free.
[00:31:34]  But here's what happens.
[00:31:35]  And we're getting emails affirming this.
[00:31:36]  If you go ask somebody for a job, and after six months, they will pay you.
[00:31:41]  By the way, if you ask them for a free job, just so you know, they legally can't even do that.
[00:31:46]  There's intern laws, and they'll be like, okay, I get the point.
[00:31:48]  But the point is, you're going to work so many hours or work in the night shift.
[00:31:52]  By the way, it's okay to work 20 hours a day.
[00:31:55]  You understand your body can take way more stress.
[00:31:59]  I have seen the limits of the human body, would you say, Andrew, over the last 10 years?
[00:32:05]  You could push yourself.
[00:32:07]  Charlie, I began realizing after starting my teaching career that college was being foisted upon almost all kids.
[00:32:12]  Left to the 1960s, educrats at school systems began eliminating courses in the 1970s related to trades while simultaneously wearing down high school curriculum.
[00:32:24]  It is not rocket science to see why a huge portion of today's high school kids are heading off to college, are wandering around aimlessly on campus, many who flunk out a stay or stay out to keep up partying.
[00:32:34]  As a 1969 high school graduate, I myself became convinced that college was not the only way.
[00:32:38]  So I went to Ball State.
[00:32:40]  I finally finished my teaching degree in 1976.
[00:32:43]  I taught for 35 years in my hometown.
[00:32:44]  I really had a great career, and I loved my students.
[00:32:49]  In step with the educats and unions, I encouraged most of my students to go for college wrongly in many cases.
[00:32:54]  Near the end of my career, I determined that we educators were wrong in foisting college on nearly all kids.
[00:32:59]  I do regret actively working towards these ends.
[00:33:02]  Actually, if I had to do it over, I would myself consider going into a trade.
[00:33:06]  Have you seen what a journeyman electrician makes these days?
[00:33:10]  Greg Presley, Fort Wayne, Indiana.
[00:33:12]  Should I read that email?
[00:33:14]  Okay.
[00:33:15]  Hi, Charlie.
[00:33:16]  You are so right of college brainwashing students.
[00:33:19]  My stepdaughter just graduated from the University of Texas, Austin, and is completely brainwashed.
[00:33:23]  She was raised as a devout Catholic and respect for her family.
[00:33:26]  The university has completely ripped out of her religion, sense of family, and her sexual identity.
[00:33:31]  She was a happy girl throughout her life, and now she thinks she lives as a man.
[00:33:35]  I tell her that she is a beautiful 21-year-old young lady, and she tells me that she is, oh, she tells me that is hate speech.
[00:33:42]  It's been very challenging communicating with her.
[00:33:44]  I took her to a psychiatrist.
[00:33:45]  Within 10 minutes, the psychiatrist told me that I no longer have a daughter, and I now have a son.
[00:33:49]  I drag my daughter out of that office, kicking and screaming.
[00:33:52]  This is happening.
[00:33:52]  It's real.
[00:33:53]  I never knew this was all happening until I was introduced to your show.
[00:33:56]  Thank you for all you do, Jonathan.
[00:34:00]  That is what Republicans are funding at the University of Texas, Austin.
[00:34:05]  Greg Abbott and the others.
[00:34:09]  Do that, University of Texas, Austin.
[00:34:12]  I'm very sorry to hear about your daughter.
[00:34:15]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com, your thoughts on all of this?
[00:34:19]  Hi, Charlie.
[00:34:21]  Love your show and was sitting to listen to your show today about the college scam.
[00:34:27]  I thought I would share or add to rant about colleges.
[00:34:30]  I agree that we should not need four to 10 years of college and rack up thousands due to that you will literally never pay off until you close attention to your payments through end of catch the collectors try to catch you to collect more.
[00:34:44]  Collection companies are all being sued or have open charges.
[00:34:47]  It are still in business.
[00:34:47]  It's crazy and criminal.
[00:34:48]  God bless.
[00:34:50]  As a 65-year-old mother of three and a grandmother of seven and a great-great-grandmother of one, I see deteriorating education.
[00:34:57]  I homeschool all three children for very lengths of time, various lengths of time.
[00:35:00]  We traveled with them, taught history, geography, and writing skills because government education was lacking.
[00:35:05]  I appreciate you working with the youth across America, introducing ideas of alternative learning opportunity at Tapana Hillsdale Online and share with my children about this great program.
[00:35:14]  Keep doing what you're doing.
[00:35:15]  And by the way, three out of three are now business owners and have the flourishing ability to employ others in their small business.
[00:35:20]  Charlie, college in part is a major scam.
[00:35:23]  I graduated a four-year state university with a BA.
[00:35:26]  The only reason I turned out halfway normal is because I directed my own studies independently and read Christendom English and colonial American works.
[00:35:34]  I wrote an essay my freshman year in 2004 arguing more people should attend technical colleges instead.
[00:35:41]  Another one here.
[00:35:43]  Charlie, congratulations.
[00:35:44]  So glad you're speaking out on this issue and so impressed with all you do.
[00:35:46]  Quick story of my personal experience.
[00:35:47]  I'm the CPA.
[00:35:48]  My stepson came home from college break.
[00:35:50]  We were discussing his introductory accounting class.
[00:35:52]  He had just completed the B grade.
[00:35:54]  I decided to quiz him and asked him to relay me four basic financial statements.
[00:35:57]  Probably the easiest question I could ask.
[00:35:58]  Charlie, he could not name a single statement accurately.
[00:36:01]  High school and college teachers love to grade on a curve and offer extra credit to bring up grades.
[00:36:04]  What a waste and disservice to our employers and profession, Florida CPA.
[00:36:09]  Charlie, whenever my daughter comes home from college, I was sure to spend 20, 30 minutes deprogramming her from liberal bias brainwashing.
[00:36:14]  It was helpful when I warned in advance what she would hear in her social work program.
[00:36:20]  Thankfully, we thwarted the indoctrination.
[00:36:22]  That's a listener from Chicago.
[00:36:23]  That's a great point that you have to, you got to put in the work.
[00:36:27]  You got to put in the 20 to 30 minutes of deprogramming.
[00:36:29]  Like, hey, first thing from college, okay.
[00:36:32]  What'd you learn?
[00:36:33]  No, that's not true.
[00:36:35]  That's not true.
[00:36:36]  It's like, if your kid goes to college, this is a parent that did this successfully.
[00:36:39]  Not going to do that.
[00:36:40]  Not going to put up with that.
[00:36:41]  That's not true.
[00:36:44]  Thank you so much for listening, everybody.
[00:36:46]  Email me your thoughts as always.
[00:36:47]  Freedom at CharlieKirk.com.
[00:36:48]  Thank you so much for listening.
[00:36:50]  God bless.
[00:36:53]  For more on many of these stories and news you can trust, go to CharlieKirk. com.