[speaker001:] okay well two things that come to mind with me first um is one I think more emphasis should placed on the the English and and some of the basics I mean we we can get so specialized into you know extracurricular activities that we've got kids graduating high school that don't know how to read and write and such like that
[speaker002:] oh yeah there seems to be a little bit of bias towards extracurricular stuff even all the way up through college
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] gets really out of hand I'll agree with you on that one
[speaker001:] yes it does
[speaker002:] uh you said two things
[speaker001:] well the other one is I think we I think we need to do a little bit more to keep kids in school
[speaker002:] uh yeah I agree with you on that I happen to think the school system's pretty good
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] and that uh the problem lies in uh teaching the kids to care and you know raising them up to care I'm not sure how to do that
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] I think uh you know the I mean the obvious examples are kids from broken families or families where the parents really don't care but but I know that a lot most parents do care and you know there's still problems
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I'm not sure what the answer there is
[speaker001:] yeah well I think I mean I think but overall we've got a really good system it's just  we crowd a lot of kids a lot of kids in with one teacher and I know I I know I'm in a I'm I'm in college right now and um we have real small classes we we're very fortunate in that we do and which is good because I mean the the people that I'm in class with we all learn different ways
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and this way um I know my teacher real well and we can work on how I learn best
[speaker002:] so you like a sort of a one-on-one situation with the teacher
[speaker001:] well not so much a one-on-one but you know like a ten or a fifteen on one as compared as compared to thirty and such
[speaker002:] yeah when I when I was in high school and grade school
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] I noticed the classes that I got the most out of were the ones where there were a few at least you know a few other students who were interested
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] so there'd be a lively discussion in the class
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] if if no one cared you know it didn't matter if the teacher was exciting or not it'd be he'd be talking he or she'd be talking at you
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] and uh and if the teacher was an idiot which did happen
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] if the other kids were into it you know you could have a lot of fun uh with the material anyway
[speaker001:] yeah that's true
[speaker002:] so to me I I I'm I'm going to back and say it's the students have got to be looking to learn uh they've got to be curious and I think that's something that the the school system really doesn't address at all
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] I mean that there's a few interesting good classes were uh you know a teacher will come and really interest a kid but most of them you know it's pretty much up to the kids
[speaker001:] to carry it through
[speaker002:] yeah to to be interested and you know you talk to
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] you talk to people on the street and they don't know history they don't know geography and it doesn't bother them they they really don't care it's not important to them
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] for some reason I mean it's it's not that they're stupid because they're not these things that I feel are important to living in the world are not important to them
[speaker001:] um-hum but still you know your basic your basic English your reading and your writing and you know and some of your math you know are very essential
[speaker002:] yeah and people don't know this because they don't feel that it's important
[speaker001:] you know right
[speaker002:] though that's what okay I I editorialized I'm sorry
[speaker001:] no that's okay
[speaker002:] I it seems to me that they don't feel it's important and that's why they don't know English
[speaker001:] um-hum I I've run into a couple of those yeah yeah I don't know I I think it's I mean I've heard some some some school districts that have that have uh found some really unique ways about getting around the problems and you know of even though we've got a really good system the problems of you know as far comparing right now they're real big into comparing our stats with that of other countries have you seen that
[speaker002:] uh yeah we're uh falling further and further behind the cutting edge apparently
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] uh what are these interesting programs you mentioned
[speaker001:] well um I have I've just heard briefly about one