I Taught My 3-Year-Old to Read ‘The Hobbit.’ Plus. . .

It’s Tuesday, September 2. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: Tyler Cowen takes a look under the hood of Trump’s economy. Agnes Callard explains why Taylor Swift just might be the Plato of our time. And River Page examines why the right can’t keep from stooping to the tactics of the left in the culture war.

But first: We should all be teaching our kids like Tolstoy. 

Erik Hoel, a scientist, a dad, and the author of today’s delightful and shocking lead essay, believes there is a superior way to educate children. It is a method that worked for Marcus Aurelius, Ludwig Wittgenstein, Voltaire, Leo Tolstoy, Ada Lovelace, and even Karl Marx. And it’s a method that Hoel is now using with his own son. It’s been so successful that his 3-year-old can read. . . The Hobbit:

What is this magical methodology? And can it work for the rest of us? 

Hoel says: Bring back aristocratic tutoring. 

While Hoel’s son tears through chapter books, a new study found that the number of Americans who read for pleasure dropped an astonishing 40 percent from 2003 to 2023. And AI is supercharging that trend, given its ability to summarize War and Peace, and everything else you never got around to reading. 

What happens to our society if no one reads? That’s the question Spencer Klavan tackles in his piece, “What Happens If No One Reads.” 

—Bari Weiss

• An earthquake in Kunar, Afghanistan killed over 800 people this weekend. The 6.0-magnitude quake began Sunday night, in the mountainous region near the border with Pakistan. So far, more than 2,500 people have been reported injured, and rescue workers are continuing to comb the area for more of the living and dead. 

• Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City and lawyer for President Trump, was involved in a car accident Saturday evening in New Hampshire. The accident fractured Giuliani’s vertebra, but the 81-year-old is expected to recover. 

• As the war in the Middle East rages, officials in the Trump administration revealed a new plan that will suspend almost all visitor visa approvals for Palestinian passport holders. The new restrictions follow last week’s announcement that the State Department will not issue visas to members of the PLO and the Palestinian Authority for September’s UN General Assembly in New York.

• After an 18-month walkout, doctors in South Korea ended their strike Monday. The strike began last February, when more than 10,000 young doctors decided to protest then-President Yoon Suk Yeol’s plans to reform the medical system. Thousands of medical students also ditched their classes in solidarity with the doctors’ movement. 

• The S&P 500 hit another record high, with the benchmark stock index trading at 3.23 times sales. U.S stocks are now pricier than they were in the dot-com era. The index is also the most concentrated than it has ever been, with the 10 largest companies adding up to 39.5 percent of the S&P 500’s total value at the end of July.

• Beaches across the country were shut down this Labor Day weekend due to high fecal bacteria levels in the water. If that news sounds familiar, recall that over a dozen beaches closed before July 4, when authorities found E. coli and enterococci bacteria, among others. 

• Former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s family announced that he has Parkinson’s disease. The announcement came after House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer subpoenaed Mueller as part of the ongoing investigation into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, but the panel is withdrawing its request. 

• Silicon Valley Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat, and Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican, will hold a press conference Wednesday with 10 of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking victims. Khanna announced the conference on NBC’s Meet the Press. “They will be telling their story, and they will be saying clearly to the American public that they want the release of the Epstein files for full closure on this matter,” Khanna said.

• Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, fell victim to a suspected Russian interference attack while flying into Bulgaria on Sunday. The GPS services on von der Leyen’s jet were mysteriously disabled, forcing the pilots to land the plane using paper maps.

• A South Korean municipality is placing ChatGPT-powered dolls in the homes of the elderly to serve as their caregivers. The dolls, developed by South Korean start-up Hyodol, are designed to remind their owners to take their medicine and eat, and the dolls can even notify family in the event of an emergency.