In the Ring with Billy Moore
In the Ring with Billy Moore
Fill The Gap
Billy Moore and his special guest (Any Body Can Youth Foundation Alumni and Director of Education) LeMar Slater discuss how groups like ABC fill the gap to help student, teachers and parents teach their kids how to step off into life with their best foot forward without cowardice but with courage and dignity.
Instructor Moore talks prevention, literacy and goals.
We can all help, just being aware and willing to help are the first steps to making the changes we want to see happen.
Any Body Can Youth Foundation teaches our youth to step off into life with their best foot forward without cowardice, but with courage and dignity. ABC was founded by legendary Light Heavyweight Champion Archie Moore in 1957. He had a heart and passion for helping the youth. He believed if we went into the business of prevention, we could save billions of dollars and millions of lives. He started ABC to teach us the basic ABCs of life. Are you concerned about the world today? Do you want to help train our youth to be the change needed in the world? Join us in the fight for equality in the fight for justice in the fight for our youth. If you would like to help, go to www.ABCyouthfoundation.org. That's www.abcyouthfoundation.org. Be well and be blessed.
Billy Moore:Good morning. Good morning. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome to in the ring with Billy Moore was our guest, Mr. Lamar, Mr. sleater. Lamar is an original ABC boy. And he's been with ABC since he was what what is it Mr. Eight years old, about eight years old, and eight years old. And the more introduce yourself and give them a little background about you.
LeMar Slater:Oh, I'm so happy to be here. My name is Lamar Slater. I'm a part of ABC since I was a young youth. Growing up in San Diego my mother saw fit to bring me down to the rain. And I was able to come around ABC and learn from the great instructor Billy Moore and his father.
Billy Moore:Or that's a that's a very, that's very unique, that you had a chance to be around the mongoose for a while. In the end to come on in. And you and I wound up working together? You want to come it up? Under his today, Jen is both of opportunities. That's a that's pretty good combination as a month.
LeMar Slater:Yeah.
Billy Moore:What uh, what do you remember? as what you know, I made to this thing where I really want to see our kids. ABC is a prevention program. We want to catch our youth as early as seven years old. And teach them the do's and don'ts of society. before they get of the I like to use the word contamination, the contamination age, where we up where we start, nibbling and dabbling with some troubles. But what do they ABC do for you, you feel
LeMar Slater:as a youngster, I can remember coming down to the old bud, Jim, right there in downtown and coming into there and seeing everybody working out and get a chance to put the gloves on myself. It gave me a sense of pride, like I was part of a team. And then I remember getting into the ring and lining up to do the concert. Going through those simple basic do's and don'ts, things you should and should not do. And to me, I think it just grounded me and it gave me something to latch on to and to know that there's a simple roadmap to follow in life. So that's something that I that I hung on to and was able to go through high school. Some would say a troubled high school but are still clear from any kind of obstacles, actually graduated with honors and even stepped into leadership graduated as our school. ASB president. Mm hmm. So there it was off to Morehouse. 3000 miles away from home. But I went away to college, knowing that I have something behind me some foundation, and some just a sense of who I was and what I was going after. And that was my education. And so I graduated and I came back to get that,
Billy Moore:right. Yes, you did. Yes, you did. Well let them know what high school you went to.
LeMar Slater:I'm a proud graduate of Samuel Gompers secondary school right here in San Diego. We were a California distinguished school back in 1993 and 94 when I graduated, and today, the School is still around, and it's charter school, but it's doing some some amazing work in the kids to college for her.
Billy Moore:Cuz Let me ask you a question here. I don't want to put you on the hot seat. But you're an educator. So maybe the hot seat might be all right. But we're having a problem that a number of kids have been passed from grade to grade. They can't even read. How do we, I was talking to actually, Amy Moran, who's one of our board members and a retired top educator. Her and I were talking about this yesterday. And she said something that really, really, really made me feel good. She was talking about Biden and Kamala, Kamala Harris. And she said, Well, you know, Biden is an educator. And she said, they will and not knocking Trump not knocking anybody. But she said that they will revamp our educational system and take it to another level. But back to what I asked you what, what's your take about these kids that's being passed through? Can't read? How does that happen?
LeMar Slater:You know, it's the sad thing that happens when i when i education system fails a kid. And kids are so important, and so valuable. Not only that they get the skills they need to grow and to become educated, but to their self worth, and to who they are as a person. So I hate to see when that happens. Sadly, it's not new. And it's happening from time to time, year after year, you can always hear about some great athlete that was passed along. And yeah, they didn't know how to read or other people that have made it in life. And they share that dark secret that they had to keep that that education system Feldon. I think what happens is our system is set up, not for individual education, but for a group. And so if you have a group, and you're not able to teach to reach all of them, then sadly, some people get left by the wayside. But I think the beauty of it is we have organization like ABC, that that is that net that catches them before they fall into the seat. Yes, sir. And so we're able to bridge that gap. And, and help those kids that need to help because kids can learn, you know, they just sometimes they learn slower, they learn different ways. Or just that cookie cutter approach doesn't always work for every single person in the group. So it's up to organizations like ABC, and others that are out there that want to help those kids that are struggling to fill that gap into weekend need.
Billy Moore:I like that I like what you just kept saying because it is up to organizations like ABC and others to help you step in and fill that gap. As you know, ABC before this COVID we would go in and out of schools. The teachers need help they need help. I don't know when I was in school narrative teachers union food you did not boo with him. And but it seems like it's it's it's kind of reversed today. The teacher is a very timid and somewhat afraid of the retaliate retaliation or some of the disobedient kids. But when you have an organization like ABC and others games be gone and a few other organizations the YMCA that to me, yeah, yeah boys to me in that tried to step in to help fill the gap. But if one of the things probably what I'm going to do I know. Dad used to sit down, I could look across at midnight. One o'clock in the morning, see him city, rowdy letters, writing letters. And so maybe that's what I'll do. I'll sit down It made me write some letters to miss Harris and Mr. Biden about prevention. Prevention we see like we want to focus on when a kid gets in trouble. We want to run in Hill. But that's catch that kid before they ever get in trouble into teach them how to step off in life, with your best foot forward without cowardice, but with courage and dignity. There was a young man that was in here yesterday, jiggery Angell little 13 year old kid that goes up to Albert Einstein and through his Tableau key, and he came in and he wants to join. But as you know, we're not really letting anybody join really. But every now and then, a lot of these kids, they just say the right thing and you and you have to, you have to give him a break. And so we we do the disinfected bench shake. I see Oh, he has every kind of germ disinfected, you have that's created. He has it set up all the way through Jim, Pro, you get me when you get through going through here. You went from feet to here. You went in here he goes with some spray and spray up some more. So but but uh, this kid, Angel, I see Well, we're not letting anybody in right now. So he just he put his hands in his pocket. He put his head down. And he looked up. And his Vigo eyes had watered them. He was crying. And I said, What? I said what? He said, Well, I want to do this. If you want to do what he said, I want to bucks. He said, because I don't like the way my family is living. That's what you see. And the first day he came when we sent him out kind of early. And he started crying. He didn't want to leave that kid. He's been here now for a while, I think probably between three and five weeks. And he came in yesterday. And he was just a smiley and kicking his feet and everything. And as it was going on with you. I don't know, coach. I don't know. And he said uh, you know, I'm used to getting threes twos and ones. He said, But now I'm getting A's and B's. And that's happened since i've come, coming to ABC.
LeMar Slater:The gym has that effect on people? Isn't
Billy Moore:it? It sounds like a, like folklore, or just something that's made up. But two of our board members, john Reed and Bob Copeland. JOHN Reed used to be the CEO and president of the holiday bowl for years. And when he first came in, and he saw the ABC concept. He said, that's it. He said, that's it. That's all we need. And you turn around and walk down in my Pokemon was an attorney with a shepherd and Mullen he would tell his colleagues and in other people that man you got to see this here. You've got to see the miracles that happen down there. And I think that's something that's awfully nice for our youth. We we do have a an organization here that puts our youth on the front burner and we try and hold them there hold their feet to the fire. We are One of our kids that we've discovered in the community that can't read today, we're in the midst of the COVID. And everything we are taking all safety precautions. Miss Malveaux, who's one of our top educators. She's going to start mentoring this kid today on how to read. Awesome. It is. It is awesome and and she's one of our people that that's affiliated with ABC that that really respects this covid. But she's gonna suit up and mask up and safety up and come down to help this young kid. This is a kid that's going to the seventh grade. You can't read. So yeah, well, it is it is. I think that the people like yourself, educator, Miss Ravel. As I say I was talking to miss Amy Moran last night. We can put something together that can help because she is a concerned citizen, about our youth. And so but but the more we ask a question, what can we do? What can we do? We would like for people that's listening to in the Ranger. So when you're in the ring, everything goes everything kicking, scratching, with name calling all of it, everything goes. But what can we do to light a fire in our system, in the in the educational system that unfairly Ah?
LeMar Slater:Well, I think it starts right where you're at. And that's having a concern and desire, or willing to want to do something about it. That seems like a lot of times people don't know and maybe don't care that there's a problem going on. But when you're aware of it, and you start to see here instances of ones that are struggling and know that something needs to be done, then you can address it. And so to start that fire, I think it comes from putting them around people that have the same interest coming together and not the coalition or, or concern community members. And there's so many things that we can be doing. So you can either start something new, or you can report the things that are already working well. And I know ABC is one of those things that are working well. We've had kids come through here that couldn't read. And lo and behold, after we paired them up with tutoring and teaching, able to read and able to go on to school and be successful. And so I think to grow, that we can grow ABC, we can expand our reach, we can reach out to our school board, we can reach out to our administrators, we can talk to them, like he said, right? He did letters, that once those administrators that are in place to help our kids learn, know that there's people that are that are reaching out to them and that are asking them to be accountable and to and to make sure no one falls behind, then they can start to address that. And knowing that we have some people in the community that are willing to keep them accountable for that are willing to volunteer their time. Because we need to set that that that doesn't take a lot of skill to teach another person to do. But it's a tremendous payoff. I know our libraries have programs where adult learners can come in and learn Korean with volunteers. But like you said, you don't want a kid to spend all their life not knowing that basic skill. Yeah, so prevention is the key. And it starts with knowing that there's a problem. A lot of times educators might not have a way to connect the parents to the issue that's happening in the household with the child not learning to read. The times it may be educators overwhelmed and he doesn't have the manpower to address. Every single kid in his classrooms issues with that not with every child because people learn to read in different ways at different rates. But at a certain point in the education system, if you start getting too far behind. There's no there's no coming back from
Billy Moore:it. I remember, pick I was in sixth grade. And that might have been fifth or sixth grade. We were traveling across country and we were going Over under a train track and going over the freeway, we were headed down to put out a Texas. And there was a and years ago, and I am an old I am an older person. years ago, he was a Santa Fe on the bridge. And I was able to read when I read seven pain I knew I could read. I knew I could read because prior up to that point I would kind of slink down in my seat in classroom when it came to reading out loud noise and things of that nature. But when but that that day? No, I saw that, that was able to recognize center feet. It had a white background with black letters. Yeah. And that that got me going. They got me going in now what? Are there more things? Well? Well, as you all know, you know, I'm not a big zoom fan. But I'm trying to become one because we have to work with what we have. We can't just stop and not do anything. But what can we do? Can we? Is there any apples that we can dangle out there to make these kids want to grab that Apple magic and read it? Is there anything that you can think of?
LeMar Slater:I wish I knew like a secret sauce. Yeah, yeah. But no, I think one of the things that we can do is offer some kind of incentive. Like, we had a beautiful engagement with our summer programming. Yeah, it could be something as simple as movie tickets or movies or clothes right now. But maybe amazon giftcard, or maybe some, some kind of small token of appreciation, it could just be lunch with the coach, or anything that that can make a kid want to have a target, want to have something to shoot for. Because a lot of times we as older as adults realize the value of it. But if you're a young kid, sometimes it takes something smaller, to to twinkle in front of your eye and make you want to go that extra mile. But one thing I've learned from you is just that having somebody coaxing you, yeah, encouraging you. That's the carrot enough. Because that is for racing that you get from someone outside of yourself. Who believes in you and sees what you're capable of, can compel you to do greater things than you even thought yourself.
Billy Moore:Or your give all glory to God. I'm a god. No, no, I think you guys see I get a little violent sometimes. There's just, I just, I want to see, because I know what's right today. Right to this thing. I have a math problem. I have a math problem. And I think I've been telling you for years. I'm gonna get you to teach me how to do math. And I actually have a serious math problem. And I think that that in a lot of areas. It kind of nibbles at my competence. I believe that it does. It just so happens in what I do. It doesn't call for me to fool with a lot of math. No, my wife told me nicely you keep spending all his money you will have in a but you know, it's I know what that little thing in my life. I know what it does to me when I run into certain situations. And we want to help my children be all that they can be black, red, white, yellow and brown. egbdf. Every good buddy does fine. And if we can get everybody to turn to work together Working together, working together, because what happens when you when you're lacking in learning in certain areas, you tend to find a place to hide. Don't come out and show yourself. We want all of our kids to come out and show themselves. And whenever you see a kid slinking to the back he's one we've got to give attention to. She's one we have to give attention to. And the more what I'd like to do with that I'd like us to do is to continue this dude, I've been watching a show, it's called Hartland. It's kind of a, I guess, like a modern day horror story. I've been watching it but going on, they shoot too much and more. Every day, I go and Marcus here, in probably checked out, sit there for a while and watched it. That's how I'd like for us to do with this podcast. Like for this to be a segment that we do every week, every week and bind by like to see some kids. I like to bring some kids in to the rink into the rain that's learned how to walk out here. Now they can crawl into the rink. Instruct this stuff in the rain. Because in the rain, anybody can. And everything goes. Well, we want to thank our distinguished guests. Yes, Mr. Lamar Slater. And in the mall is distinguished. Yes. He's a young man who went off to school, all phases of school and made the hundred roll. And so we are so grateful to have him here at ABC, and in the ring with Billy Moore. Well, that will end our show for today. And I hope and pray that there's someone or somebody that heard this show that would be willing to come down with some ideas and want to volunteer and help some kids learn how to read. Until next week. Well, I'll see that what I was gonna suggest right now see that until next week, but until next week. Go in peace. And God bless you.
LeMar Slater:If we want to thank you for having me on. It's been an honor to be here. Sit by one of the greatest coaches I've ever met. And just want to say that at times you want to learn that math. I'll figure out a way to pair it up with some horse in and I think we've got something deal.
Billy Moore:Alright, you know what, I think it's time for me to take you up on that thing. It's time. Thank you, Lamar. Thank you to probably weren't probably the best tutor in this whole thing. Okay, take care. Have a great rest of the week.