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I am Matthew J. Fraser and call myself “The Language Guy”. Language learning is what I enjoy. I  have been teaching and studying languages since 1995. Some years I flipped flashcards 6-7 hours a day. As a response, I wrote some little language learning books that respond to the needs of the market: books of simple sentences with interesting introductions. 

The Language Guy’s Spanish Learner is a collection of easy sentences. It is designed to help Spanish learners get repetition of basic grammar and vocabulary while learning to read easy Spanish. It also reviews other Spanish learning materials, including the Spanish easy readers of three companies.                                                                                      

Critical Infrastructure for Children is a resource for parents, students and educators. The 215 questions in the book present core information for each of those three groups. You can preview CIC on Amazon with the “See Inside” feature. The books responses to the challenges colleges face on the back cover below. 

Ideas for America: Let the Sun In integrates some of the best research and ideas into ten essays, a mini-almanac of sorts. Late in 1997 I came home from years of teaching and studying languages in Europe, as I knew that in a quarter century or so America would be embroiled in conflict. I did not want to watch powerlessly from Europe as my country flailed. However, the lessons learned teaching and studying abroad helped shape the chapter on language study.
I came across “The State of the American Dream˝ (1996) by the “evidence-based” Massachusetts research group MassInc, as it was around the house. Those reports offered perspectives on the four areas below. Notes became sentences, sentences paragraphs, paragraphs pages, and pages chapters.

               MassINC Reports Areas of Focus
             1. growing income inequality. 
             2. statistics on increases in work hours by economic quintile. 
             3. the increase in work hours by the household’s second earner
             4. the role of education for different economic quintiles.

From late 1997-2005 doing physical work saved energy for reading and writing. I would ask: “What are the core principles?˝ By 2001, four answers emerged.
1. Vocational education
2. Teaching personal finance
3. Quality physical education
4. Quality language programs
Influences The mortgage crisis of 2007-2008 further underscored the need for teaching personal finance. Working with students with extreme emotional and neurological disorders for two years yielded lessons, including the value of art class and physical education. An Adolescent Psychology course for teacher certification helped me make sense of years of teaching experiences. Learning how personal finance was being taught by one MA college Economics Department provided answers to the personal finance question. Doing a little jiu-jitsu and Thai kickboxing provided taught me how to construct effective drills and daily routines. Watching hundreds of quality documentaries and archived shows on WGBH yielded. A bonus was learning to watch quality movies twice, and doing so bore fruit.

Q&A and Out of Reach Hopes For four winters in New Hampshire I practiced asking and answering questions. What do young people need? For years, I repeated the four core educational principles. However, over the years, the tone reflected a bit of disappointment: I had hoped to find a piece of land in that area to landscape and add value to. However, the $12,000 I had that was adequate for a down payment in 2001-2002 was no longer so in 2004-2005, as prices for the most affordable pieces of land in the area had risen from $30,000 or so to $70,000. However, this experience of success being constantly out of reach gave me a taste of the struggles of youth in Northern New England. The answers to this questions raised by this experience came slowly.

                              Book Chronology
           Ideas for America: New Hope Rises (2005, 2009, 2011)
           Ideas for America: Let the Sun In (2012, 2015, 2023, 2025)

The 2005 Ideas for America: New Hope Rises was a collection of twelve simple essays. They were worked on almost every day, and eventually became ten chapters. Over the years, the chapters evolved in response to perceived need. Those chapters that changed the most since 2005 are below.
Chapter Three: The influence of MassINC reports still resonate in this chapter. Since 2012 a theme is pointing out individuals and groups that are responding to the concerns expressed in 1996 and 2002 reports.
Chapter Five: The catchphrase ˝Support the Disabled, Support the Economy˝ was introduced, inspired by a member of the MA State Senate. This led to a more effective approach in the section supporting the disabled and with it the state economy. (1) One example of utilizing the catchphrase ˝Support the Disabled, Support the Economy˝ are the four page annual reports of the U.S. Small Business Administration. Different years are printable. Striking is the difference between the format of the 2013, 2018 and 2023 reports. All the pages changed, but page three changed the most in recent years. (2)
Chapter Six: A 2020 article in the Portland Press Herald (3) about the main Social Security Trust Fund shifted the chapter focus from the federal budget as a whole to Social Security. After reading about annual federal interest payments soon rising to over $1 trillion, it became clear that the title ˝Securing and Maximizing Social Security˝ expresses hope and support, not certainty. The coming annual interest payment schedule is: 2020 – $345 Billion, 2025 – $775 Billion, 2030 – $1.165 Trillion, 2033 – $1.44 Trillion, 2035 – $1.8 trillion. See: Congressional Budget Office reports (4-5)
Fresh Themes: Familiarity with my home state means I have some awareness of what the media and colleges are talking about. Some areas with previously limited coverage now have new champions and are profiled. They include: a. reversing species extinction and b. reviving dying Massachusetts farms
How to Read the Book It is possible to read the book from cover to cover, although the amount of information would make it simply too much for most. It may be that most readers will choose to read one chapter, or area of interest.
About the Index The Index was curated and written by hand. In addition, the book is supported by footnotes and Bibliography. The footnotes are a supplement for easy reference.
About the Sources The 100+ sources include established writers and groups, but also many lesser known pioneers in their respective fields. (6) The hope is that readers will benefit from learning about them.

                                                                                ***

1. “Longtime State Sen. Fred Berry of Peabody has died”.  November 13, 2018, The Salem News

2. 2013 US Small Business Administration MA annual report:  https://advocacy.sba.gov/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Massachusetts-2013.pdf

3. L. Davison, “Virus could deplete Social Security Funds by 2030, report says”. October 22, 2020, Portland Press Herald.

4. An Update to the Budget Outlook: 2023-2033, Congressional Budget Office. cbo.gov/publication/59159

5. An Update to the Budget Outlook: 2025-2035, Congressional Budget Office. Publish Date: 1/17/2025

6. Youtube video: “Massachusetts Farmers Fight to Stay Afloat”, Boston Herald.