PODCAST MINI EPISODE: Teach Kids Useful Skills Earlier?

On the road in Riva, MD for a Murder Mystery I had a couple moments to share some thoughts. This world is not going to fix itself complaining about things out of our control. But we can advocate LOUDLY! We can educate LOUDLY! See you at the next show/workshop!!!

https://waltfrasier.net/2026/04/09/podcast-mini-episode-teach-kids-useful-skills-earlier/

Walt Frasier
https://waltfrasier.net/
Entertainer - Producer - Educator - Author
For 30+ years Walt Frasier has been entertaining audiences live from Times Square NYC, Touring Nationwide, and occasionally popping onto their TVs and other devices. For casting Walter in SAG AFTRA Film, TV & Commercial projects, contact (Jaime) Baker Management. International credits include TV, Commercials, Theater, Music & Comedy. Currently the Artistic Director of the NEW YORK IMPROV THEATER and North East Managing Director for THEY IMPROV.

https://newyorkimprovtheater.com/

Improv Theater LLC is a one stop edutainment center for corporate team building, office / holiday parties and more. Our comedy shows and workshops deliver high impact results. Clients include Google, Mercedes Benz, META /Facebook, TikTok, JP Morgan Chase, Accenture, Morgan Stanley, Twitter, Roblox, Rimowa, EI Digital, Accenture, Datadog HQ, Milbank, BING/Microsoft, Band of America – Merrill Lynch, Home Depot, Ernst & Young, Johnson & Johnson, Louis Vuitton, Coach, UBS, BDO, AMEX, Master Card, Macy’s, 360i, IBM, GM, Kraft, UNILEAVER, HBO, Prudential, Convene, Conference Board and many more… 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Good morning from somewhere between Annapolis, Maryland, and Baltimore, Maryland. I think it's called Riva. I'm dressed, I'm getting ready to go do a murder mystery. I got my coffee, and not just because I needed a place to change and take care of some other things, but uh I didn't need the coffee. But ladies and gentlemen, uh I was just thinking, we have to rethink these smartphones, they are problematic the way most people use them. Social media platforms, problematic the way most people use them, but we need to teach people how to use these platforms for their benefit. Seriously, I really believe that you gave a 10-year-old a smartphone and taught them how to use one, like really taught them what they could do with a smartphone from the marketing standpoint. And I know you're thinking, oh, they're 10 years old, but they're playing games, they're doing all kinds of things, they're learning how to code in some ways, they're they're experimenting with the internet in their own way. But if you got them just kind of using it, and you know, we could create apps to teach kids how to do these things. They have STEM, they have Steam, they have all these things, but what if we really taught kids marketing, content creation? I have this new thing, we're at third grade. I think every third grader should have improv comedy to teach them public speaking, self-confidence, just basic, basic, basic. Every fourth grader should have sketch and or stand-up comedy. And what if we added more and more content creation, video, sketch comedy, PSAs, sharing how you feel, vlogging, like video blogging, on even at age 10, fifth grade. And here's the thing: it sounds like it's really advanced stuff, but I'm working with these kids. I do comedy with these kids, they're eight, nine, and ten at the comedy club, and they are amazing. And they come in, usually they're there because their parents are like, I want my kid to learn focus, and you say you can teach focus, and they come in. By the time they leave, they're the leaders in their school, they're better students, all these things. But what if we rolled out all the stuff? Now, one I'm thinking, hey, what if we could have knocked we can't eliminate it, but what if we knock stage fright off the top of the list? What if we knock social media up at the top of the list for like the number one reason most people fail at relationships at work and all these other things? That these things like stage, these fears, these social anxieties, these stage frights, these things that are created in the third, fourth, and fifth grade that start to show themselves in ugly ways in middle school and they become bullies or they become the victims of blah blah blah blah blah blah. What if we got these skills into the elementary school at third, fourth, and fifth grade, right? Hey, that coffee looks good. And so I'm thinking we teach these skills, and I'm telling you, these kids would never have to get a job at Starbucks or McDonald's unless they really wanted to, right? But we could teach them these skills. And to the point where they realize they do have options. I think so many of these kids they know how to use a smartphone for cyberbullying at the age of 11, 12, right? They know how to use a smartphone for a lot of things they shouldn't be using a smartphone for. What if we taught them positive uses for a smartphone and get them creating and get them using their brains? And you know what? There's the studies at Stanford, William Fry, humor guru, doing comedy builds a better brain. I remember when I was in third grade, I took a test about analogies, and when it said, Oh, you could do analogies in third grade, you're gifted and talented. Fourth grade, I'm in all the GT classes, I'm going on gifted and talented field trips, and I'm learning about ethos, pathos, logos in fourth grade, and people like that are adults have never heard these things, right? What if we kind of taught some of these skills? They're kind of counting on us getting ourselves there at third grade. We test for it, and if we're good, I mean, how different is that for like Russia and China 30, 40, 50 years ago? If you can dance really good at third grade, we'll put you in the Olympic program or the ballet program, or the if you if you show aptitude at two years old, we're gonna put work into you, otherwise, you're gonna go harvest potatoes in the field, right? What if we really gave kids these skills? And it wouldn't be that expensive, right? Or even I was good at math because my mother did flashcards with me at three and four years old. If you want your kids to succeed, get some flashcards at three and four years old. Do mag libs, teach them how to read, read to them at three and four and five years old. You may or may not respect education, but I'm telling you, if you teach your kid to respect education, they're gonna be better students. Maybe the system failed you. Stop the cycle in your family, right? Or we could just as a society say, hey, we're gonna teach everyone a better way, right? Too much of school is just teaching kids to be drones. And I'm telling you, that kind of worked a little bit in the past, but a lot of those drone jobs are going away in the next five, ten years, if not the next six to twelve months. And you know, AI I think is gonna attack white collar first. Technology has attacked manual labor jobs over the last hundred years, right? A lot of the problems we're having, all these people used to get paid to do auto mechanics, they used to get better now that you know the bosses are still getting paid, but they don't need as much help now, thanks to technology, right? If you're not the master carpenter, we've always got to, but but they're not getting as much money as they used to make either, compared to inflation, right? As opposed to you learn how to use this thing. I'm making this whole video on my phone. You learn how to use this device and you learn how to do some basic coding. You learn how to do some basic, learn how to use AI. I mean, how many kids are using AI to cheat at 11, 12, 13 years old? What if you taught them how to use AI to do research? What if you taught them how to use AI to do coding? What if you taught them how to use these tools that are at our disposal? And I think the problem is a lot of people my age are terrified of these tools, right? A lot of people at my age are terrified of public speaking. A lot of people my age, I'm 53, are terrified at social interaction. And we could do a better job. The improv comedy I teach can do with the social stuff, but we could teach these skills. I want to go into every school in America and teach every third grader improv comedy, fourth grade, continue in fifth grade. But by fourth grade, we're we're incorporating sketch comedy and stand-up comedy writing. So we're tying it back even more and more into language arts, right? We're we're these kids, and I tell you, I say this, there are kids I work with that are smarter than we were when we were kids, and I was one of the smart ones. There are a lot of people smarter than me, a lot of hubris, a lot of humility, depending on the group I'm in, right? But the kids that the smart kids are smarter than we were, because they're doing everything I'm saying, they're learning how to use these apps. They're look, they could, they'll start their own business at 14, right? There were a few people doing that. When I was in high school, there was somebody telling me, hey, join Anway, you'll retire by the time you graduate college. But now you can start a real business and do that kind of stuff, right? Uh but what if these kids could be better writers? Because I'm working with high school kids sometimes and their writing is not good. They're graduating high school and they shouldn't be. And I hate to say that, they're not ready for the world and they've got high school diplomas. That diploma is a worthless piece of paper because we're failing them, right? Back in the day, hey, you had a high school diploma that showed that you could complete something. Well, anybody could complete something now with social promotion. I'm not dissing social promotion, I'm just saying we can do a better job that we don't have to have social promotion, right? You know, it's like we have band-aids on cancer because we're not addressing the problem. The core problem, people are terrified, they're not good communicators, they don't communicate. And then when they can't communicate well, they hide in the corner or they double down in arrogance and become bullies and horrible leaders. But because everyone's scared, those people become the leaders. Oh, don't get me started. I won't go into politics right now, right? We could do a better job at the education side of things and without spending a whole lot more money. Easier said than done, but we can train these paras better. We could train these kids. So I got a college 22 that I'm working with after school. We could do better professional development with them, teaching them some very basic communication skills themselves, giving them more instruction. Hey, what if we start teaching these kids? Like I do improv comedy, stand-up comedy, sketch comedy in a couple schools. Let's do a better job at continuing that stuff when I leave. Because a lot of people don't respect what I'm teaching. But the few that do adopt it into what they do, and their kids thrive. Because I'm not teaching comedy. I'm grabbing their attention, saying I'm teaching them how to be funny, and then I teach them how to listen, focus, respect, lead, community, do the exact same games of corporate workshops, leadership, sales, customer service, doctors, how to be better, bedside manners, how to stop letting ego and insecurity destroy everything. And it's time we bring that more to the people. Hey, I love these long blogs. Nobody, nope, nobody's listening at this point. If you are, thank you. If you can hear this, DM me, I'll give you some free tickets for a show.