don't like? >> well, they always say the sign of a good compromise, robert -- thomas, is when both sides walk away unhappy. and i think you see this with this compromised tax bill that went through. ultimately, at the end of the day, i think both sides got a lot of what they wanted. republicans able to shore up a good deal, something they liked and saw for themselves. also you see within this bill a lot of popular extension of unemployment benefits, something a lot of democrats wanted to see going forward. now, it still has to pass the house of representatives. that bill is slated for tomorrow at this moment right now. it will go through the rules committee process that always occurs in the house. and when you expect that the house democratic leadership will give their caucus, especially the progressive members in it, a chance to vote against the estate tax provision, a type of an amendment, essentially where they could stand and say i hate the estate tax provision that the senate put into their tax cut compromise, the deal that president obama made with republicans. but at the end of the day, it will not sink final passage, because if anything changes from

the bill the senate just passed in the house, the process will have to start all over again and that is something that a lot of gop senate leaders have said is not plausible going forward. so the schedule wise, it will most likely pass tomorrow. there will be a symbolic protest by members of the liberal caucus, but probably not of a force to kill the bill and should be signed by the president, possibly by the end of the week at the earliest, thomas. >> so give a quick look ahead for the votes to the s.t.a.r.t. treaty and don't ask don't tell that could begin as early as today. >> we just got word that the s.t.a.r.t. treaty will be delayed until tomorrow. jim demint of south carolina was actually -- who is opposing this treaty going forward this year, is going to have the entire bill read. that's a process that could take 12 hours, well within his right to do that. but that will not happen. they're apparently going to bring it to a vote tomorrow morning to get the debate going. harry reid he has 60 votes to do that.

don't ask, don't tell, right now, the house just took the first vote on that in terms of the rule. it passed by over 50 votes. that is a good sign that this will actually pass the house. the state alone repeal measure. it's being formulated in a way in which it could be expedited through the senate. essentially, the house is going to attach this stand alone repeal on a previously passed senate bill, go forward through the house, it will pass. speaker pelosi has a press conference around 4:00 today about this. and then it will be into the senate where senator joe leeb irman of connecticut is whipping this stabbed alone repeal bill and trying to get to the 60 votes neateded to get to the floor. one interesting thing, thomas, a lot of people are overlooking, the defense authorization bill something that has been passed, was held up in the senate because of don't ask, don't tell. now that this has become a stand-alone bill, this could be another thing that has to be figured out within the lame duck congress. it's been passed for 48 years. expect there to be kpraps some

compromise or wrangling on a defense authorization bill. another thing that harry reid would have to worry about before the christmas holiday. a lot going on up here in washington. >> luke, we're going to ask you to stand by. >> we'll be here for the hour, my friend. always a pleasure. after the president's meeting with some of america's top ceos, he said he's hopeful about freeing up some of the capital they're holding on to in the midst of a sluggish recovery. >> we focused on jobs, and investment, and they feel optimistic that by working together, we can get some of that cash off the sidelines. >> a lot of work to be done, no time to slow down and talk to reporters, he's got to keep moving. savannah guthrie joins me live from the white house. savannah, we see the president moving along, just giving some i guess some sound bites to all of us, waiting to hear what he's got to say. but give us the headline out of this meeting, or is this really a glorified photo op for some people coming to see some

christmas decorations in dc? >> to hear the ceos, it was more than a photo op and more productive than frankly past meetings with ceos have been. i think everybody recognized there was a strange relationship here, and even that is something of a change, for a long time when you ask the white house about this strange relationship with business, they would say what are you talking about, that's overblown. i think there is an act among white house aids this is a relationship that needed tending. and some of the ceos that have come out and talked about the meeting several hours long today with the president seems to think that the tone had been reset. that there had been as one ceo put it, kind of an unburdening going on inside the meeting, almost a little bit like therapy, where people kind of had their say, apologies were made, and everybody agreed, it's time to move on and kind of reset this relationship. the president talking about the shared goals of competitiveness, making sure the u.s. economy is competitive internationally, and then the all-important goal of creating jobs. so i think that at least as one

ceo i heard say, it certainly had had more level of detail and productivity than other meetings here have had in the past. >> and savannah, as you say, it's more substantial, and we're going to see this relationship grow. but explain to all of us when we're going to get some answers about the actual job market. >> well, look, i mean, i think that's an evolving issue, and certainly one thing that the president came wanting to talk to these ceos about is the fact that so many of them have cash on their balance sheets, and yet don't seem ready yet to do the hiring. if you hear -- talk to ceos, they talk a lot about this issue of certainty, a lot of these new policies like health care reform or the financial regulatory reform that is coming on the books now, and a lot of regulations pursuant to those statutes, a lot of things that can change. i mean, businesses, above all things, always talk about certainty, wanting to have certainty, being able to plan not just one or two years down the road, but ten years down the road. so that's generally what they cite when they say why they haven't hired. but a lot of ceos are positive

and optimistic about the american economy and i heard one say a few minutes ago that he thought the risk of a double dip recession had greatly diminished, and so they're feeling more optimistic about the economy. >> nbc's savannah guthrie, as always, great to see you. thank you. >> sure. take care. so what do the ceos want from the president and is all this talking ever likely to lead to more hiring and better jobs? we want to dig deeper. william cohen is the author of "house of cards" a tale of excess on wall street. so good to have you with us, william. will this meeting really do anything to change, to kickstart the change that you refer to as huberous and wretch he had excess on wall street. >> there's $2 trillion of cash on the ballot sheet collectively of these companies that savannah was referring to when we were at the white house today. so why aren't they spending it? and the real matter is she was describing is there is concern about uncertainty, the tax rules, budget deficits with the

new tax bill is going to grow by another $900 billion. there's real evidence that the obama administration is not taking the steps necessary to get the fiscal house in order, which i think is really what these ceos want from washington at the moment, and they're not getting it. i mean, putting more cash into the hands of wealthy people, as these tax cuts will do, has not yet resulted in more jobs, and i'm not sure why it would result in new jobs being created at the moment anyway. so, you know, it seems to be still a high degree of uncertain uncertainty. it seems to me like a photo opportunity, even though they're talking about it as if it was substantive. >> washington's decorated for christmas, william. good for pictures. but, you know, most of the companies representative to these meetings, they're doing pretty well, google, motorola, cisco, even pepsi. what is their true incentive to want to hire workers? >> exactly. they're making profits hand over fist. at some point is demand for their products increases,

with -- with, you know -- with the dollar low, i mean, with the interest rates low, creates an opportunity for corporations to sell their products cheaply overseas. that will increase increase de make it so they need to hire more people and to, you know, build new equipment. but, again, they've had this $2 trillion on their balance sheet now for over a year. so why aren't they doing it at the moment? again, it gets back to this uncertainty question. i just don't think with the health care bill now, you know, up for debate, the new tax laws, the new regulations required for dodd/frank, it doesn't seem like there's the kind of certainty that these guys need. i know with interest today that no wall street ceos were included in this mini-summit in washington, whether we're calling it the coca ca-cola sum or the beer summit. they're the ones that, frankly, need to help restore confidence across corporate america by

making capital available. >> let's break down the numbers for everybody out there. economists are saying we would need to add roughly 250,000 jobs a month for almost two years just to recover the 8 million lost during the recession. so do you see that happening? i mean, i know that's a really advanced time table, to think that that could turn around in two years. do you really see that happening? >> i think over five years, it could happen. there's no question that if -- if obama decides to get the fiscal house in order to do -- to begin to take the steps to close this massive budget deficit, i think confidence can turn around very rapidly and businesses can invest that money. they're quite -- they're aching to invest the money, frankly. but they need a good reason to do it. and, you know, they're not going to do it until the fiscal house is put back in order. and they're not going to do it until people start feeling good about the economy again. and, again, the evidence -- having a meeting with a bunch of

ceos at the white house isn't the same as getting the fiscal house in order and having people be in a position where they want to create jobs and spend money again. so i think we're still a long way to go here. >> all right. thank you, sir. it's good to have you on. i want to point out we'll talk to one of the ceos who was in that meeting. his name is greg brown. he's from motorola solutions. what's happening on capitol hill right now does affect you. how, you wonder? we'll have that when we come back. stay with us. nobody in my family ever had a heart attack.

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welcome back. a gathering at the without today to create jobs in the private

sector and invest in american innovation and competitiveness. greg brown is the ceo of motorola solutions and was one of those that met with president obama. he joins us live from the white house. sir, it's good to have you with us. take us inside, if you with will. was this a cordial meeting with the president or was this adversarial? >> it was extremely constructive. and substantive. it was not adversarial. we spent about 4 1/2 hours together. there were no presentations, there were no powerpoints. it was an active discussion. everybody in the room expressing points of view. the president asked penetrating questions and listened. it was very constructive. >> give us an example of these penetrating questions that you referred to from president obama asked of you. >> i think he would ask it of all of us. it was around how do we get the economy growing faster and how do we create jobs? so if we -- if we individually as a company or collectively of the 20 there create more jobs,

businesses get stronger, the country wins, and we all win. so i think that the -- one of the examples laid up front was this is not an edadversarial situation. it's a win-win. the notion that there's a winner or a loser or this natural tension was non-existent there. and then we covered a whole gamut of discussions around tax, trade, deficits, inoccasivatioi workforce training, investment. everybody had different points of view. across the spectrum on how to -- how to collectively move forward. >> did anybody provide an immediate solution? did everybody nod their head in agreement to say, hey, that's a great idea. we should do that in 2011? >> there's momentum that we're beginning to enjoy collectively. the economy is growing again. the stock market is up. corporate earnings are stronger. companies have almost a record level of cash on the balance sheet. that's a very good thing.

in the meantime, it looks like the bush tax credits will get extended. there's some other marginal incentives for some deprecation and investment opportunities in 2011. that's good. the korean free trade agreement, hopefully will get approved. that supports 70,000 jobs. 10 to $11 billion of exports, that's good. then you say, okay, now what? let's continue on with the free trade agreements, whether it's columbia, panama, the transpacific partnership. the president just returned from a meeting in india. he took a number of business ceos. they talked about business around ge and boeing. that's good. so we talked about common ground and what we could achieve collectively going forward and building on the momentum that's becoming established. >> let's talk about your company. a popular smartphone android is pushing your sales higher. revenue up, profits up. what would you say to americans that would come to motorola

solutions and say, why aren't you expanding your own workforces to allow for more job creation? >> i think we are expanding our workforce in motorola. like any company, we're always o optimizing. there's a number of areas that mote recaorola is growing. you named wuone of them. smartphones. another is enterprise mobile computing. retail sales have bounced back a bit in this country and in europe. that's a good thing. so we're seeing growth again, and we're investing organically. we're investing more r and d to capitalize on the growth opportunities in the addressable markets that motorola competes in. >> what is the job that you recommend somebody -- you know, or the skills somebody would need to come into your organization, that maybe they're out there saying, you know what, i'm watching this wonderful guy, this ceo of motorola on my tv. what can he tell me about getting a job with his company?

so what would you say to that person? >> so we actually did talk about that today in terms of required skills. we talked about math and engineering and science and technology. and we do an okay job as a country providing those incentives. we can do better. i think it's a great opportunity for private and public partnership to get the workforce retraining necessary, upgrade the skills, make us more competitive. what i would say to somebody is study hard, get the recquisite stills around computing or engineering, math and science, and the opportunity is in front of you. >> mr. greg brown from motorola solutions, the ceo of that company. sir, thanks for joining us today. i appreciate your candor during our conversation. >> thank you very much. stick around. question for you. are kids dumber today than they were a decade or two ago? it's a provocative question, and we're going to explore it for you, coming up. my doctor said most calcium supplements...

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welcome back, everybody.

as the tax cut bill makes its way over to the house for a vote, there is some encouraging news for the white house in the latest "wall street journal" poll. when asked if they support the tax agreement that the white house negotiated with republicans, 59% said they approve. but that doesn't mean that many americans still are not wondering how this bill will or won't help them. i want to bring in dylan rhadigan who is tikicking off h "steel on wheels" tour. dylan joins us now. explain how you answer that question that many are asking, the ceos today, that we're hearing this news coming out of d.c. where the jobs? where can we create the jobs? >> and i guess the simplest way to answer the question where are the jobs is to ask yourself what are the things that create jobs? investment in this country creates jobs. strong educational system creates jobs. tax incentives that incentivize

companies large and small to push their money into our country and to solve our country's problems, whether it's energy, health care, down those lists, those are the sorts of things that create jobs. in real life, most new jobs are created, thomas, by new businesses, newly formed businesses. you have to ask yourself, forget whether it's a big business or a small business. what is the environment that creates investment education and the ease of forming a new business going through the regulatory process. the unfortunate answer is to all of those questions, the vast majority of the policies in this country inhibit that sort of thing in favor of the preservation of larger businesses that tend to make money, quite honestly, by getting rid of jobs. if you look at what makes a big corporation profitable, it's getting rid of workers or finding cheaper workers offshore. and while the government continues to work on behalf of those types of businesses, it continues to make it very difficult to encourage people to

invest and very difficult to encourage people to form new businesses, which is ultimately where not only new jobs come from, but new ideas and new solutions to the problems that this country has. >> i know you'll talk a lot bout the ceos being in d.c. today, but give us an idea of why you left the building. this preview that you've got for us, the "steel on wheels" tour. >> the underlying premise of the tour is very simple. i am of the belief and we are of the belief, the people that i do this show with, the partners in the show, including the folks at newcorps, the folks at mtv, the folks at the huffington post, et cetera, are of the shared belief that we really need to launch a jobs movement in this country. we're just focused on educating people to the real barriers to job creation that i talk about every day on the show. a lot of folks in d.c. try to avoid that. they don't want to deal with the difficult task of engaging china on rig trade. they don't want to deal with the

difficult task of reforming a banking system that doesn't lend and invest into our country. who could blame them? those are really difficult problems to solve. and so our idea is to get out of new york, to get off the coast, and to get into the country starting here in seneca falls, moving to philadelphia, st. louis, through the midwest, the west coast, the southeast to really engage with people directly about these issues and try to start a cohesive movement as a group. not that we have all the answers, but that we know there's a lack of a drive right now towards a debate around the problems that are actually at the root cause of this, going to trade, taxes, health care. and the banking system, and until we actually force the debate around the issues that are actually the problem instead of either covering it up or distracting ourselves from it, we're never going to have jobs. and more and more of us in this country are of that belief. and of that awareness. we look at this -- this as an opportunity to connect inside of this country and hear from folks

about their struggles against those various issues and at the same time, make people feel and give people a venue, a place where they can connect and engage in a way that may be able to drive this message back to washington, d.c. that we do want a jobs movement in this country and that that jobs movement has to be driven around the corps issues of trade, taxes, health care and banking. >> it's great to open up the conversation through the people that it matters to most. dylan, thanks. we'll tell everybody that they can watch the "steel on wheels" tour at 4:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. next, we'll talk to white house advisor valerie jarrett about the president's meeting with america's top ceos. you don't want to miss this. are you a senior concerned about financial independence?

if anything, i thought i'd get hit by a bus, but not a heart. all of a sudden, it's like an earthquake going off in your body. my doctor put me on an aspirin regimen to help protect my life. [ male announcer ] aspirin is not appropriate for everyone. so be sure to talk to your doctor before you begin an aspirin regimen. to my friends, i say, you know, check with your doctor, 'cause it can happen to anybody. [ male announcer ] be ready if a heart attack strikes. donate $5 to womenheart at iamproheart.com, and we'll send you this bayer aspirin pill tote. i'm hampton pearson. here's a look at how stocks are doing today. so far, not much movement. the dow right now up about 4 points. the s&p down about 3 1/2.

the nasdaq down a little over 6 points. wall street has been enjoying the return of the santa claus rally in this last five-day trading week before christmas. that is it from cnbc. thomas, back to you. >> hampton, thank you, sir. so a group of america's top ceos traveled to washington today for a meeting with president obama. topic one was jobs and how to create more of them to help get the economy moving once again. valerie jarrett is senior advisor and assist tonight the president for intergovernmental affairs. she joins me now live from the white house. valerie, it's great to see you. >> thank you, thomas. >> the president has spent years hammering wall street during the midterms. heap was painted as being antibusiness. so explain to all of us that are watching this, was this meeting designed to mend certain fences with america's big business icons? >> no, the design was very simple, to grow our economy and to make sure that americans are being put back to work and

that's something in the interest of the business community. so our goal was to collaborate, to have a constructive conversation about what are the opportunities for us to work together, have a public/private partnership, what the impediments to growth and investment in this country and how can we help our u.s. companies compete in a global marketplace, something that everyone around the room has a vested interest in doing. it was a very positive xhfrti conversation. it was time well spent. the president spent an enormous amount of time rolling up his sleeves and listening and looking for opportunities for us to work together moving forward. a very positive meeting. >> valerie, do you know any of the specific recommendations that were made from ceos in this meeting? >> well, one of the issues that we are all grappling with is improving our education system, making sure that the workforce of tomorrow is trained for the jobs of tomorrow. thinking how could we make many of the folks in the room need

folks who have specialties in science and technology and e nearing and math. how can we make that exciting so that our young people want to go into those foields? and so from education to investing in innovation, making sure that our companies are producing goods and services that are competitive on a global marketplace, making sure that we are creating the kind of climate where companies want to invest and grow. these are the topics that we covered. and not to mention we know that, you know, the united states is one market. there's a whole market out there. making sure our companies can export in the global marketplace was important as well. the president has been working with his expert counsel to see what we can do to open up those markets and deliver real jobs here in the united states as a result of exporting abroad. >> we're seeing president obama saying that he set goals of doubling exports.

does the white house regret not doing more in terms of outreach to business over the last two years? >> we've done a great deal of outreach. today's session is one of an ongoing initiative that the president has had. we inherited a really tough situation. everyone in the room acknowledged that when the president came into office, we were in the middle of an economic crisis. so the kind of steps that we had to take to right that ship are different than the steps that we take going forward together. i think it was a very constructive and positive conversation, and i think what we have is a lot of energy and enthusiasm to move our country forward. we want to make sure that we tap that on an ongoing basis as we move forward. >> explain to all of us these large private corporations. why would they feel compelled to hire people when they're raking in huge profits, in some cases by not hiring? shouldn't we let the market decide how and when businesses should hire without the white

house's involvement? >> i think what everybody recognizes is that long-term sustainable growth does come from the private sector. but it's up to the administration to make sure that we're fostering the kind of environment where companies do want to invest and grow here in the united states. every company in that room has opportunities to invest in a global marketplace. and so what the president said, i want you to invest in the united states. i want you to grow jobs here in the united states and let's work collectively to do everything possible to make sure that that happens. >> valerie, you know, the tax cut bill would add a trillion dollars to the deficit. how many new jobs will it take to offset that kind of national credit card bill? >> well, i think that is a very good point. every ceo in the room supports the president and the initiative he took to reach this compromise on the tax package. the unploymeemployment benefits stimulate the economy. the college credit. the earned income tax credit. the businesses were very excited

about the opportunity to expense right away so that they can create an incentive to invest. when you take the package as a whole, there was a lot of enthusiasm for getting it passed so that we can move on to the next challenge, whether it's education or exports or investing in innovation. all of these require public/private partnerships. this isn't something that the business community can do alone. although we all do recognize that the long-term sustainable growth will come from the private sector. >> valerie, speaking of jobs, there may be changing of face ins certain jobs within the president's interior group, so to speak, at the white house there. we hear that you are staying put, but in some of these changes, would you like to see more women involved because there is a glaring lack of women within the president's inner can circle. >> actually, i completely disagree with that. the president is well surrounded by women from mona cepten to jen sake, to the secretaries,

secretary napolitano, secretary clinton, secretary sebelius, secretary soliz. we have him well surrounded by women. there's no lack of women in the president's inner circle. >> it's like you were ready for that question or something. you're naming everybody. valerie jarrett, senior white house advisor, thanks for coming on. >> my pleasure sglchblts . we are watching the house, which is debating don't ask, don't tell. we're waiting for a vote on the tax bill, which is expected later tonight. et. >> it's a very busy and important day on capitol hill where the house is expected to vote later this afternoon on the repeal of don't ask, don't tell. which they have initiated as a symbolic message to the senate. a short time ago, the compromise tax cut bill passed the senate and is now headed on to the house. the president hosted a long meeting with some of america's

most important business leaders in an effort to get them to start hiring once again. coming up later today, a possible vote to begin debate on the s.t.a.r.t. missile treaty with russia. it's all part of the 11th-hour flurry of action in the lame-duck congress before they head home for christmas. we'll talk more about this with john harwood. he joins us coming up from washington, d.c. again, as we're saying, it's been a very, very interesting lame-duck session. it's kind of funny that we talk about this being lame duck with so much activity taking place within washington, d.c. as we said, just today alone with so much activity going on with the s.t.a.r.t. treaty and also with the fact that don't ask, don't tell might be coming back. so, john, explain to all of us why this is not a typical lame duck session. we shouldn't even call it that anymore. >> i -- >> hey, john, can you hear me? i was saying we shouldn't even call this a lame duck session

anymore. they've got a lot on their plates. >> slooabsolutely, they do. we've got to see how quickly they can digest not just this tax cut deal, which has proven to be the easier lift. now we've got the spending bill. the senate has come out with this bill that's got all of these earmarks in it, which are going to be difficult to defend and get through this process. and that has suddenly kind of lengthened the time horizon, which, you know, they had hoped to get done with what only stop-gap spending but also perhaps don't ask, don't tell, perhaps the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. it's -- it looks like they're going to be there longer than some members would like to be. >> so you bring up the fact of don't ask, don't tell. explain how this is going to be separate from the defense appropriations bill and why being a stand-alone measure in itself could make the difference to see it repealed. >> well, one of the reasons is that when it was brought up before, the congress had not finished the tax cut deal, which

has now been passed in the senate. is going to be passed in the house. and so when it failed to get 60 votes to end the filibuster at that point, then you had joe lieberman, the -- the independent democrat from connecticut and susan collins come up with a stand-alone measure to try again. steny hoyer in the house along with patrick murphy of pennsylvania, two democrats, have offered an identical bill in the house, so the senate bill can pass, the house bill will pass and they don't need a conference between the two chambers. that's the speediest way to get it to the president. interesting trade-offs for the congress. i was talking to staff members in the republican leadership and said, are you going to get both s.t.a.r.t. and don't ask, don't tell done? and the answer was probably not s.t.a.r.t. but a decent chance on don't ask, don't tell. so if, in fact, the -- jon kyl, the senator from arizona who said we need more time, wants to kick it to january, gets his way, that might clear space in the senate's calendar to get

don't ask, don't tell repealed. >> john, now that this meeting is over with these 20 ceos from the nation's biggest companies and the president, from your sources, what are you learning is some of the most important things to come out of this meeting? what's leaking out now? >> well, first of all, i talked to jim mcnurny, the ceo of boeing. he said it was pretty candid. people kind of said, you know, you said some things about us, we said some things about you. it was a difficult time the first two years, but now we turn the page. the president is hoping that just as he's turning the page in his relation s with republicans that he'll be able to turn the page in relations with business. valerie jarrett just told you a moment ago that the things that we need to do the second two years aren't the same as the first two years. that's true. especially as you get to things like reducing the -- the budget deficit, you know. the white house doesn't need big

sust sust systemic legislation. health care is done, financial regulation is done. that has the potential for creating a greater meeting of the mindsic n minds. >> john har wood, thank you. who needs to learn multiplication tables when your cell phone doubles as a calculate? is technology dumbing down the education of your kids? we'll have that for you. [scraping] [piano keys banging]

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but my allergies put me in a fog. so now, i'm claritin clear! claritin works great on all my allergies like dust, mold, pollen, or pets without making me drowsy, cause i want to be alert around this big guy. live claritin clear. indoors and out. we've got television, the internet, smartphones, video games. kids are mastering new technology, right? well, these days they don't seem to care about learning the basics in life or even the great history of our country. is that basic knowledge even

necessary anymore to survive and also thrive in the current culture we live in? that's the subject of an article in "philadelphia" magazine penned by sandy hingston. she's joining us live from philadelphia. also joining us is a member of the association for supervision and curriculum development. she's joining us from buffalo, new york. thank you for coming on. sandy, do you think all of this new technology is really having a negative and noticeable effect on our children? >> i think that if you talk to teachers, pediatricians and scientists, they'll tell you yes. >> and, jean, what do the kids these days not know about the history of the 20th century? is that a bad thing? i mean, i know we're talking about the fact that technology has done a lot of great things for us, but if we're talking about the fact that maybe kids aren't knowing proper history lessons, explain why that is a bad thing. >> well, i do think that one of

the goals of education should be to give students a general body of knowledge that we can be assured they walk away from after 13 years of education. i think that technologies can enhance that, but we're also talking about the habits of children with technology. as young adults as well as adults. i think it's separating those two things, knowledge and learning, from technology and habits that really we need to try to get a handle on so that we're sure we're engaging kids in the way that we need to. >> is this fact or speculation? is this just something that we're making assumptions about as technology changes because it changes so quickly? how can we as parents and family members be able to gauge what's going on with our own kids? >> well, i think those are good questions for parents to ask always. what are my children learning at school? what activities are they engaged in? so i think, yes, things are changing with technology. and it's -- we are -- most of us

are constantly connected. and the internet has the -- an addicting value to it. and we love the constant communication. i think one thing we need to make sure we're teaching kids in school, as well as home -- home is really -- that's children's first educators. we need to teach them about prioritizing and being disciplined so that they know when they have to turn off the communication of the internet to have deep thinking and to do work that may require more concentration and time as opposed to the quick snippets that we've become accustomed to with technology. >> so you talk about, sandy, how much time kids are spending on social networking sites. what are the solutions out there that maybe parents can incorporate into the habits of their children so that they can balance this out? because, you know, honestly, sandy, social networking sites aren't going anywhere. >> no. i don't have any the genie is

bottle on this one. kids spend an enormous amount of time online, not so much time in personal contact, and they're losing the ability to make social conversation and interact face-to-face. >> what are some of the -- what were some of the most shocking things that you learned in the research for this article? what really struck you personally? >> that the average teen text messages more than 100 times a day. that's an enormous amount of time to be spending on something that's trivial. it has replaced conversation for them. i spoke to teachers who said if kids have important things to say, they don't say them face-to-face. they text message them. >> that's the funny thing. i was going to say to both of you, technology distraction is not limited to students. parents out there, a lot of them are never without their blackberries. are kids really picking up the social habits that are trending from the people that they're

lunning the most from, their parents? >> sure. i think parents have a responsibility -- >> no, go ahead, jean, and then sandy, you can jump in. >> okay. i think i agree with what sandy was about to say. yes, one thing i think we need to teach -- everyone should learn is protocol and etiquette about technology and when it's appropriate to be on your blackberry and when you need to put it down and engage in conversation. i do know one thing that schools need to get a handle on is just literacy. in many forms. reading is one thing that i do not think can go away. we need to make sure we're giving kids uninterrupted time to read deeply. as a nation, i'm not sure that we're growing readers the way we need to, simply because we do a lot of things in school in the name of reading that really is not reading. the article talked about how we learn. and when -- when children are engaged in the act of reading, because reading is thinking. and when they're engaged that

act for uninterrupted periods of time, the rch teesearch tells u about 90 minutes a day is what it takes to grow strong readers. schools need to audit that in their programs, how much time kids spend in a day reading, making sure that we're building good readers and the breadth and the depth of the knowledge they get when they read. we know when they're outside of school, they're not reading much. >> sandy, i want to get you to talk about this quiz that you created about current events as we as we talk about how kids are learning. this quiz, a snapshot of pop culture, a sampling that kids know. put together two of the questions who is the current secretary of state and what is snooki's real name. so overall, how do the student does on these certain questions? >> everybody knew snooki's real name. half kids knew hot secretary of state was, which i was surprised at, frankly.

>> you thought that was a good showing they knew who hillary clinton was? >> yes, i did. >> what were some of the other questions you put out there, the kids, the people to answer? >> they were generally split between sort of jeep knowledge questions like how many pints are in a quart, things that parents worry kids don't know anymore and general pop culture questions like who didn't win "american idol." the kids did a tremendous job on the pop culture questions. they were much more shaky on what i would call the general knowledge questions, which suspect surprise. they feel they don't need to know that information because they can get it in an instant on their cell phones the same way they can get the -- >> yeah. they can look it up so instantaneously, like technology is two steps ahead of us, all of us as parents and families two steps to catch up. ladies thanks so much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> so what is topping the news

now? we are going to take a look after a quick break here on msnbc. stay tuned. [ male announcer ] this is charlie whose morning flight

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welcome back, everybody. in the news now, president bill clinton visits the frontlines of the battle against cholera in haiti. he is visiting a doctors without borders cholera center and meeting with haitian health officials. nearly 10,000 people have been sickened by the water-borne epidemic there and much of the nation struggles with access to clean, uncontaminated water as well as food. new clue notice school board meeting shooting in panama city, florida. police say the suspect had been planning this for some time. now, they say he circled the date on the calendar found in the trailer where he was living. police also say 56-year-old clay duke had anti-government par mail nail ya in his home, who died in the s.w.a.t. standoff and no one else was hurt. the u.n. security council has voted to lift sanctions that barred iraq from acquiring nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, long-range missiles and a civilian nuclear program but

vice president joe biden on hand, the council also voted to return control of iraq's oil and natural gas revenue to the government on june 350th and to terminate all remaining activities of the oil for food program. that is going to do it for us, i appreciate your time over the hour this wednesday. i'm thomas roberts. stay tuned, "the dylan ratigan show" is coming up next. today, dylan kicks off his steel on wheels tours with a live show broadcast from seneca falls, new york, the town that inspired that holiday classic, "it's a wonderful life." stick around as dylan launch askamp pain to help create jobs and renew the spirit of america. that's coming up next. if you live for performance, upgrade to castrol edge advanced synthetic oil. with eight times better wear protection than mobil 1.

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