[speaker001:] well Wendy have you had any uh experiences with your nieces in school to indicate that something's wrong with the school system
[speaker002:] well they they don't seem to discipline the children like they used to
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] now when I was in school I'm I'm only twenty nine and I I hadn't been out of college that long but when we were in grade school we you know if you got in trouble you definitely got paddled or you know something something was done and now they can't touch the children
[speaker001:] yeah do you think that's the fault of the school system or society or
[speaker002:] well it's really a combination the fact that so many parents refuse to let the school discipline their children and the fact that they let
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] parents or or people file law suits for one thing I have a friend that is a teacher in Houston
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] and she says the kids can hit you kick you stab you and you can not touch them and if you touch them then they can sue you and they can sue sue the school system
[speaker001:] yeah so it's really no more a failure of society
[speaker002:] I I think so I think so and and I you couldn't pay me enough to be a teacher in a bad in a bad city
[speaker001:] no
[speaker002:] and and and our town where you know maybe thirty thousand people there's not a problem
[speaker001:] I have a friend who's a principal of a Dallas school the stories she tells oh yes
[speaker002:] oh really yeah it's unbelievable the things and and of course the sweet little kids
[speaker001:] within well the neighborhood that she's in is is very economically deprived and that is reflected in the students abilities I mean they have no support at home
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] so for if you casually looked at it you could say maybe the test scores in that school are bad and and therefore there's a failure of the public school system but when the parents are not interested or don't have the resources or can't even read themselves
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] that sort of thing it it's bound to affect the education of the children
[speaker002:] well yeah and the fact that they're not putting enough money into the schools
[speaker001:] oh well
[speaker002:] you know and they don't even have adequate facilities is
[speaker001:] I just wonder where all the money goes I mean my
[speaker002:] well isn't isn't that the truth
[speaker001:] my taxes are exorbitant and I I I don't think you solve problems too much by throwing money at it I think you have to get the parents interested and have to get the community support and that sort of thing
[speaker002:] um-hum um-hum and and let the school give them a little more you're right give them a little more support and a little more to work with and as these kids you know as the kids get older it's it's even harder yeah because then you know their minds are made up as to what they're gonna do by then
[speaker001:] oh I'm sure it is I'm sure it is well yes and if you don't develop an interest in reading at an early age it gets awfully hard a lot later on
[speaker002:] oh yeah yeah they see no point you know we've gotten away with it this far
[speaker001:] that's right but again society's uh influences I think can affect how well the students perform more than this than what the public school is or is not doing
[speaker002:] yeah oh yeah
[speaker001:] I mean certainly drugs and and peer pressures of that sort can again make the students fail and therefore look like that there's something something deficient about the public school system
[speaker002:] yeah and it just frightens me when I think about having a child and sending them to school where they're they're selling drugs in in grade school
[speaker001:] isn't that scary
[speaker002:] I can't imagine I mean we wouldn't even have known what they were talking about let alone take something or you know sell it buy it I I just can't imagine that it has has come so far that there's little kids dealing drugs and older kids dealing to the little kids and
[speaker001:] that's right but then then again that's something that that's very difficult for the schools to try to control
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] this principal I know does the best she can in terms of dealing with students this is a grade school students who are members of gangs
[speaker002:] oh my goodness
[speaker001:] yes students who carry weapons to school
[speaker002:] um and when we were little when we went to grade school we lived in Waxahachie and little bitty town you know little bitty school and there was I I I just it is beyond my comprehension to imagine grade schoolers with weapons and and gangs
[speaker001:] oh yeah
[speaker002:] and it's just you might as well just have a police file on them
[speaker001:] that's right
[speaker002:] you know because you you know you you learn who the leaders are and you know what they're doing and it's you can't do anything to them
[speaker001:] that's right but when there are disruptive influences like that in the school I think it makes it especially difficult for the children who want to learn
[speaker002:] it really does because even even the ones that are that want to will let the other ones bully them out of it