[speaker001:] That sounded like one.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh. Um, I think that there is something definitely wrong with our school system just because of the results that you see coming out of the school system,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] as far as, uh, people dropping out of school, uh, grades on test scores being low, uh, more and more people taking G E D -s trying to get out of high school instead of just going through high school.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] You know something must be wrong as far as, uh, mak-, not just the teaching techniques but just motivation,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] within, within the schools themselves.
[speaker001:] Yeah, excuse me just a minute,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] uh, I'm on the other line Karen. [clicking] [from phone] I'm sorry.
[speaker002:] Oh, it's okay.
[speaker001:] Okay. Uh, she, uh, yeah, well the, the results, I, I hear what you're, you're saying about the results.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] [Whispering] And, uh, it's, what to do about it I guess is the, the big thing.
[speaker002:] Yeah.
[speaker001:] I'm, I'm in a kind of an interesting situation in that my, my wife teaches school here in Plano.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, I know that, uh, the results that they get out of the system sometime is, is certainly not [breathing], you know, up to what the effort they put into it, you know, I've seen that for years, yeah.
[speaker002:] Right, and, I know, uh, I work around, you know a lot of teachers and I u-, I understand how, uh, supportive they are of their students and how excited they are,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] but some how, I don't think the students are getting excited.
[speaker001:] Yeah, I've often wondered if it doesn't come back to the, the home environment.
[speaker002:] Oh, yes definitely, uh-huh [dishes].
[speaker001:] And, uh, it, if, uh, no matter what they do in the, the classroom, if they go home at night and, you know, it's all totally undone, uh.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] The, the thing that, uh, uh, that Karen, my wife, has, has run into so often is that you run into a group of kids that are going to succeed no matter what, no matter how bad their teachers are,
[speaker002:] Right, right.
[speaker001:] no matter what a lousy system they're in, or anything else,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] these people somehow manage to, uh, you know,
[speaker002:] Progress, uh-huh.
[speaker001:] push on through and are successful. It's, uh, unfortunately probably what, maybe twenty-five or thirty percent of them do that.
[speaker002:] Yeah, not, not even that much probably.
[speaker001:] Well, ye-, that would be, be at the absolute most.
[speaker002:] Yeah uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, you know, those, those that, you know, come out, you know, fall out of the system, that are, are real trouble,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I, I wonder whether that's just a, uh, uh, [breathing] a part of the system, you know,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] if, you know, in a democracy where, you know, people have kind of, uh, a freedom to sort of do what they want,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] you know, there, there's an inefficiency there,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and you've got to let those, you know, those,
[speaker002:] And speaking, speaking of doing what you want, uh, just in society today being that it's nineteen ninety-one,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] um, a lot of teenagers and young people have a lot more freedom as far as what they do,
[speaker001:] Oh, oh yeah.
[speaker002:] as far as, you know, even, even something as simple as staying up late, um, watching television late, um,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] going out late, start dating, you start dating too early, you know,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] just little things like that, that do start in the home,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] that can, that plays a big part because you spend eight hours of your day, or more in school and so any other part of your life, that's going to definitely affect your school life,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] because you spend so much time there.
[speaker001:] And sometimes in some systems they make everything so competitive, you know,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] you, from the minute that you walk in until, yo-, until you leave, your, your competing against somebody else or your competing against, uh, a system or, or something,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] you know, and then, a lot of [breathing] the-, there is a personality type I believe that is really noncompetitive. They're cooperative rather than competitive,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and when they get into a real competitive system they just say, oh well, what the heck,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and, uh, tend not to, you know, do too awful well.
[speaker002:] Right, I talked to, a guy the other day and he is now in, in a program that's trying to get him out of high school because he, he fell back several years ago and he's going to, he, he will have gone to school five years.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] Um, and the reason that he was doing so badly a couple of years ago was because his mother died,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and he was having to, uh, support his entire family, take care of his brothers and sisters, you know,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and all that had an adverse affect on his school life.
[speaker001:] I would think so, yeah.
[speaker002:] And, yeah, and that, and that's a perfect example of how your home life, you know, plays a definite part. And, you know,
[speaker001:] Yeah, yeah.
[speaker002:] any other aspect of your life, an, but now, now, that he's in this program and, you know, he's, I guess okay, he's, he's making straight A -s, and, you know, it just, it, it was there, it was just, I guess school was not a number one priority for him at that time.
[speaker001:] Yeah, it, uh, right, survival becomes more of a priority than, than education,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and unfortunately, you know, there's, uh, there's and old joke about, uh, you know, education's wasted on the youth anyway.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] You don't, you don't really appreciate it until you're much older anyway.
[speaker002:] Right, exactly.
[speaker001:] I know when I went to school, uh, my attitude was kind of one of, you know, these people are, you know, taking a tremendous amount of my time,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] you know, and I've got better things to be doing than sitting here listening to this stuff over and over again.
[speaker002:] Ex-, exactly.
[speaker001:] I guess today that would be, uh, some how or other there would be a program of some sort that would take care of that sort of thing, but.
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER] [breathing] Um.
[speaker001:] The, uh, the cure, some of the cures that I've heard for this that, that sort of make sense,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] uh, most teachers after they have taught for a very long, especially at the, the lower grades can spot a problem almost immediately.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, it's kind of these intervention programs. Now, a lot of people will get to looking at these and say hey that's socialism and that's communism,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] and that's, you know, and then it gets political.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] But, uh, boy.
[speaker002:] When people start talking about programs that help, for me, I don't care if it's socialist, or I don't care,
[speaker001:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker002:] as long as it's something that's going to do some good or that looks like it could be beneficial,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, yeah.
[speaker002:] I mean, that's the point I'm at now. I mean that's the point we all should be at, is like finding some solution,
[speaker001:] Um, yeah.
[speaker002:] I mean, you know, nothing totally radical, but if it's something that, you know, might help, you know, because there's not a lot being done.
[speaker001:] Well, you know, the, the radical programs in some cases are just totally unacceptable. There are kids, families, that should just simply be taken out of the homes, you know.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And, uh, uh, you know, uh, just removed from those situations,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] or they're never going to get anywhere. But yet, politically that is not a very popular view.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] I'm sure that if you, you know, ran on a platform of, you know, we're going to find the kids that are having trouble at home and we're going to take them out of the home.
[speaker002:] Take them out.
[speaker001:] Yeah, you know how far you're going to get with that.
[speaker002:] Yeah, not very far at all.
[speaker001:] Uh, but unfortunately it's, it's something like that, in lieu of that, you know, is the intervention programs in school where the, these kids are, are spotted fairly early on,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] and, uh, you know, there's, well that's get to be a problem in Texas, you know,
[speaker002:] I mean it's, it's almost like,
[speaker001:] because different school systems have got more or less money to take care of that sort of thing,
[speaker002:] Right, right.
[speaker001:] you got counselors and all that. But you know, you can counsel a kid eight hours a day and then he goes home and, and, uh, you know, in the, in worst cases he's got parents either on drugs or, or something like that,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] or they don't care. You know, mamma, wha-, guess what I did in school today, well who cares, you know.
[speaker002:] An a lot of it, a lot of the parents now are so young.
[speaker001:] True.
[speaker002:] You know, that they're, they still, they still don't know what's going on and how are they supposed to, you know, teach their kids that are coming up, you know, what's going on. I mean it's just, it's a vicious cycle,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] that we're, you know, dead, smack dead in the center of and we have to try to swim out. You know, kind of like the Bermuda Triangle, we're just sinking and it's almost impossible to swim back up.
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] But, um, yeah, there's definitely problems,
[speaker001:] Yeah I'm,
[speaker002:] its just the solutions that, you know, they're going to be in our political system, they're going to be on everyone's mind for quite a while, too long.
[speaker001:] I don't know if you've ever had too much to do with, uh, oh, especially Asian, Japanese families coming, here in Plano we've got, uh, quite a few.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, [throat clearing] uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Uh, engineering types, people who have come from Japan,
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] and they put their kids in the U S schools and they're appalled.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] You know, not so much at what the schools are teaching, but what they let the kids get away with.
[speaker002:] Um, uh-huh.
[speaker001:] You know, they, they see most, uh, they're, they're quite upset about the, uh, the disruptive influence of school. Most of them would say, you know, those people should be removed from the school system.
[speaker002:] Uh-huh, uh-huh.
[speaker001:] And in Japan they would be, you know.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] But, uh, here again, you get back into a political thing, where, uh,
[speaker002:] Yeah there's, there's, right. There's definitely too much leeway as far as,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] I mean, I've only been out of, I've been out of college only two years,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] and you were saying that you don't appreciate education until you get out and I, I already, you know, I really didn't, I really don't see myself going back to school or anything, but, I appreciate more what I had.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] And I had all these classes and all this knowledge and this big library across the street from my dorm,
[speaker001:] Yeah, were you at Baylor?
[speaker002:] and I just didn't take as much advantage of it as I should have.
[speaker001:] Yeah, did you go to Baylor?
[speaker002:] No, I went to U T at Austin, uh-huh.
[speaker001:] Oh, oh, okay. I'm, uh,
[speaker002:] So, I mean all kinds of resources and, you know, just there,
[speaker001:] Yeah.
[speaker002:] and I'd give anything to have that right now in my, in my regular li-, I mean you, you have everything given to you. I don't see why people wouldn't want that. I don't know, I, but then, if I was young, I wouldn't see it.
[speaker001:] Uh-huh, well that's, that's it you, you don't have, uh,
[speaker002:] But you know, now that it's gone, I,
[speaker001:] you don't have the view.
[speaker002:] Right.
[speaker001:] I graduated from Texas Tech,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] more than two years ago, I guarantee,
[speaker002:] [LAUGHTER].
[speaker001:] and, you know, I kind of look back at it sometimes, well that was a lot of fun, but, we-,
[speaker002:] Uh-huh.
[speaker001:] you know, I'm not sure that, that I took the greatest advantage of, you know, what, I went through there.
[speaker002:] Right, yeah, I did a lot and I experienced a lot and I, I feel like I got a good college education but just when I got out I feel like I should have spent more time in the library, I should have taken those continuing educations classes or whatever they were, you know,
[speaker001:] Uh-huh.
[speaker002:] the informal classes that you don't get credit for, you know...