water, their judges, county clerks, their governor and their country cannot extinguish anything. >> joseph, tara and kim, i want to thank you. i will close down by saying why are we still waiting? i would hope people pick up your work to provide a path to the future which will be filled with might and joy. thank you for being here. >> thank you. >> thank you, joseph, kim, tara and ethel. i was a really interesting conversation and we are having uncomfortable conversations about dismantling systemic racism and devising plans to racial equity here, i just want to go back to something that

joseph said that really stood out. we are living in a very challenging time and you can still love your country and criticize it at the same time because you know there are better ways to not only govern but navigate toward a more just society. i really enjoyed this discussion, thank you y all so much for being here with us. ♪♪ ♪♪

♪♪ >> middle and high school students, your opinion matters. she spent student video competition. be part of the national conversation by creating documentaries. how does the federal government impact your life? your five to six middle video, for programs that affect you or your community. she spent student competition has $100,000 in cash prizes and to have a shot at the grand prize of $5000. entries for the competition will begin to be received wednesday september 8. for rules, tips and more information on how to get started, visit our website, studentcam.org. ♪♪

>> you are watching book tv on c-span2. if you are of a certain age, you have one of these on your shelves, a dictionary and you've probably looked up words in it lifetime. your if you are a little bit younger, chances are you've done this digitally. mary french is trying to change that. she is the founder and director of something called the dictionary project. mary french, what are you trying to do? >> we want everyone to able to have a dictionary to attract benefits of owning dictionary and retry to give amount when they are in the third grade they get into the habit of lip looking up words, spell them correctly and understand the meaning and all the many words have meanings. >> what is the importance to you having this physical book rather than typing it inin your phone?

>> i've been doing this 25 years and technology using today, technology is what jackson went into dictionary, that's where the word comes from so it's what holds us together as a society and its wealth how we communicate and you have to be able to use different tools to access information so it's just another tool. at a young age of eight or nine, primarily the age use dictionaries to children in schools. they are more apt to learn from a book and computer and electronic device. they learn both ways but it's more accessible to them wherever they go and plus they own so it

benefits them in many different ways. it has a lot of information. >> what is the importance of the third grade in this case? >> when i started this, i was writing and i tried second grade, fourth grade, fifth grade and tried everything. i even tried dictionaries that were different and i found third grade was the optimal age because at that time they are learning to read and then reading to learn so if you can encourage children and give them this tool, they have such an advantage in terms of expanding their education and helps. >> write up the idea fora the dictionary project come from? >> this idea was answered, she was a woman who dropped out of school in tenth grade in georgia she understood the limits of her

ability to earn money and understand the world around her and what they're saying because she dropped out of school. when she was working as a crossing guard at a martin luther king exit of 95, saw the children were bringing books back and forth dislodge she asked them why they said because they weren't allowed to take the books home from school she brought everybody a dictionary and children should use it to help them because she wants there life, their opportunities to be diminished because they didn't have a large vocabulary and she stamped in their book, our mind is a terrible thing to waste but used her own money from cleaning houses. i met her.

i got to know the area and then she died from breast cancer. she has had a huge impact on people and it was a great idea to make sure everybody has a dictionary. >> since 1995 when you found it9 the dictionary project, how many dictionaries have gone out to children? >> 323 million 700,000. >> how to get them out there? >> through organizations, this project started out writing grants and i spoke to different organizations about this because they were intrigued with the idea of the dictionaries and of course literally literacy is important to keep people

learning newew words. so they took it on as a literacy project . they have to have a literacy program every year that they implement and this was an easy program to and you have to best bang for your book and reach the most people for the amount of money it costs it has a long-term impact. most of thesem people have been during those 25 years so children in the third grade, they've gone through college already who initially received dictionaries. people if they are still using dictionaries or people think they are worthwhile, those children say they still have their dictionary and nowhere does. not one 100% of them.

they asked them, they appreciate the gift and still use it so for $33, it had an amazing impact on them, their lives. >> you have several different versions of the dictionaries you sent out but the front page of everyone has this, this dictionary belongs to -- you can write your name in the. why other eight versions? green is one i have here, students dictionary, dictionary and thesaurus. a students dictionary and animal here, why so many versions? >> when i first started this when i was writing grants, i was handing out a book at the dollar store and a lot of teachers didn't like it because it didn't

have the words they were looking for an some have simple sentences and some bought the sentences were violent with a cut other options and i asked to create books for the program so i created my own books, to go green. and it was my favorite because i believe we need to do more to protect animals tommy so i created that book. and that was passed created by

students who were available he and their father wanted a summer job. >> you have state listed, i opened this indiana you have the population and some of the stats about the state but at the bottom, it's two locations. children were lifted there at the top. can anyone contribute to the dictionary projectan? >> yes. >> how do they do so? >> we have a website, dictionary project.org and they can call our office, we answer the phones and in any way you want to, you can contribute or participate. there are thousands of people who volunteer their time so we are so