[speaker002:] my name is Ferrell
[speaker001:] are you ready
[speaker002:] where are you calling from
[speaker001:] I'm calling from Miami
[speaker002:] Miami I'm in Utah
[speaker001:] Utah well we've got a long distance connection tonight
[speaker002:] yeah yes it is definitely
[speaker001:] you ready to start I am
[speaker002:] sure go ahead
[speaker001:] well you know the first thing I thought about whenever uh I don't have children but I um have a friend who's a school teacher and uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] she has told me some horror stories but uh other than that I was thinking about um the the fact that uh so many uh kids nowadays can't even identify on the map on a globe where they are
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and it's just astounding to me
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um
[speaker002:] I uh have a little bit of a background well my wife taught school for about six years and uh I'm almost convinced there's a lot of it has to do with environment uh she taught in a poor area poor area here in Utah and they recently did a big article in the local paper about the S A T scores in all the districts of the state
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and uh the district we're presently living in had like double the scores where she taught and it wasn't because she was a bad teacher or the teachers there were bad I think a lot of it has to do with the environment and the help the kids get from from home
[speaker001:] yeah and I think you're right I think an awful lot of it has to do with uh the kind of emphasis that uh the children get uh at home on education because um uh this friend of mine who's a school teacher was telling me she said uh you know uh that she has uh uh kids that uh are are Indian and Pakistani uh Oriental you know some of them who uh have only been uh in the United States maybe for two generations
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah uh-huh
[speaker001:] that uh she said their English is excellent uh their their social social skills are good and uh you know why is it that uh that they can be such model citizens and uh yet
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] you know other young kids uh uh kids who have you know been uh born and uh bred here in the US uh just don't seem to get it
[speaker002:] uh-huh yeah well you know you see these documentaries on uh on Japan for example and the uh rigors they put their students through I mean their high school students are going six days a week
[speaker001:] right
[speaker002:] uh to get into college is uh no small feat there I mean just to be accepted I'm sure there are other countries that put a little more pressure on their on their children than than we do
[speaker001:] yeah I'm beginning to wonder if maybe um year round school would not be a bad uh a bad thing
[speaker002:] now we have that to a to a degree here that's only because we have a little bit of a of a problem that's I guess peculiar to Utah and we have a a high population of young young people young children one of the larger uh uh student teacher ratios you know average class size is probably thirty five or something like that
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] and that poses another problem where the you know just the individual attention that's needed sometimes uh is lacking because of the you know the shear numbers of it and what they've gone to is a year round program here where uh in essence they have what they call tracks and you know the kids go year round but you have uh you go like for uh eleven weeks and you're off for two or three then you go eleven weeks and so you have these these four periods rather than than the classic summer vacation
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] these are just mostly the elementary grades however
[speaker001:] yeah well I don't know I uh I uh I don't certainly don't have the answer to it I know that uh um in Houston uh for example where I'm I have some friends who uh uh
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] were telling me that they have the option there of selecting the school that uh uh they want their kids to go to
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] and uh
[speaker002:] regardless of where they live huh
[speaker001:] yeah right and uh the idea of running a a school
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] sort of like a business in a way such that if enough people are interested in sending their children there it it gets more funding and those schools that are less successful uh uh uh less successful get less money uh
[speaker002:] oh that's that's interesting it's kind of like uh turning it over to the private sector to some degree
[speaker001:] yeah the
[speaker002:] and the the supply and demand works yeah
[speaker001:] uh-huh uh-huh
[speaker002:] that's an interesting concept
[speaker001:] but I don't know if that's the answer but I do think that there needs to be some changes made somewhere along the way
[speaker002:] yeah yeah I I the stories you read about the competency and the literacy of the high school graduates for example
[speaker001:] oh it's a nightmare
[speaker002:] I can't believe it you
[speaker001:] well and the very idea that anyone could graduate from high school and not and not know how to read or write it's scary
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] it's scary
[speaker002:] yeah their their awareness of the of the uh current events and geography like you were mentioned early
[speaker001:] uh-huh