[speaker001:] so what do you think about a year or two of public service
[speaker002:] well I know it's hard for young people to think about giving up their years you know free their carefree years but people that I have known that have done that I like from other countries especially Germany and Finland
[speaker001:] uh-huh yes yeah
[speaker002:] they are just they have such a better more mature outlook on life and I think they're better people because of it they're much more responsible I know um
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] the church that I go to um the young men give two years of their life when they turn nineteen you know they're encouraged to do that missionary work and I believe I really believe that the people that do that
[speaker001:] uh-huh
[speaker002:] are better people and uh make our society better
[speaker001:] you know I I really agree with you um I uh though I've never done that myself I I'm was a basically an education major when I graduated from college and I accepted a job that at the time was just slightly above the poverty level to teach to um very rural children in a very low income district and I spent a year teaching there and I think it was probably one of my largest eye-opening experiences because I come from nice
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] middle class white suburban home and I did it um
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] for one reason I wanted I was working on a masters degree so I wanted to stay close to where I was working on a masters degree but also because I just thought that it would be interesting to live someplace else so totally different than my own upbringing and I it changed
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] it probably changed my political views it changed my understanding of the world around me
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and I think um in fact if if I had to do it all again I you know I I after that you know you never think of it because I guess because I paid for all of my college education myself I never thought about doing that because I had all these college loans I'd started paying back
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] um because so that was that was one reason why I never considered it but now that I'm further along and I'm still paying these college loans I I think realistically you know you can have your college loans delayed now because I had them delayed because I'm back in graduate school at thirty years old
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] um I've had them delayed because I'm back in graduate school and on that form it says if your joining the Peace Corps you can have them delayed
[speaker002:] hm
[speaker001:] uh and I thought that was you know very interesting and I I would have thought of that earlier I probably would have done you know just like is that is this is that the Mormon church
[speaker002:] yes yes but if
[speaker001:] that does that um-hum because one of my neighbors uh did that in Pittsburgh from Pittsburgh and I thought you know that really now that I'm thirty years old I think that one or two years out of my life would've probably like you said
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] to be able to travel someplace else whether it be the United States or outside the country I think would've been a very good um experience for me
[speaker002:] uh-huh well I think so it puts you out on your own and and in a time after high school um
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] there's kind of a selfishness I mean teenagers in our country are kind of kind of a year that parents don't look forward to and and things like that and I think that it would help people to become less self-centered and to be more responsible when you're out on your own trying to um
[speaker001:] um-hum yes um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] thinking less of your own needs but of other people
[speaker001:] yeah and I think you know we have such a need now you know I taught you know I I think I was paid uh about nine thousand dollars to teach for the year and I worked in a very rural school district and I I one of the things I taught was a computer class and these kids
[speaker002:] um-hum uh-huh
[speaker001:] um you know every girl I taught except for one was pregnant many of the boys in the room had children and they were they were high school juniors
[speaker002:] oh no  um-hum
[speaker001:] and I and I just there you know they came from poverty they were going to continue in poverty and it was it was the school district couldn't hire many people it was very difficult for them to hire and I think you know in the sense that aspect of public service for education in some of the inner cities
[speaker002:] right
[speaker001:] for um just social workers in some of the inner cities and some of the rural areas where they just need advice on medical um things I think it's a really good idea and even if it is overseas see I never I I tell you sometimes I worry about things overseas because we have such problems right here in our own country
[speaker002:] um-hum yes
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] it would really um and I don't the people that I've known like from Germany and Finland that have done that are they do military service which you know I don't exactly recommend but still
[speaker001:] yeah um-hum yeah
[speaker002:] they have benefited from it and um you know although I wouldn't want
[speaker001:] right um-hum
[speaker002:] military military to make people to go off to the military voluntarily but it's it has helped them and they are just a lot more mature than the average student and
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum yeah I think it would also help them if they then went on to college I know that my first couple of years of college were um uh probably too carefree at the beginning and then at the end I had to be too serious
[speaker002:] um-hum well that's right a lot of people they flunk out or they get they just
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] are so excited to be away from home they just spend all there time partying and they do a lot of things to themselves and that we don't really want our young people to be doing and
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah that's true um-hum that's right I yeah I think I think this was this was a very interesting topic
[speaker002:] um yeah
[speaker001:] uh because it's something that you know we don't talk about in this country probably enough
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] uh you know
[speaker002:] because because we're so we love our freedom and our freedom of choice
[speaker001:] um-hum yep that's true
[speaker002:] and um having people but you know our like in our church it it is you're free to do that or not you're encouraged to do it because um you know it it helps you and
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] of course we think it's helping other people and so
[speaker001:] oh I think it is I really think I think um people you should I you know the kids today I teach I spend a lot of my time teaching college students
[speaker002:] uh-huh
[speaker001:] and um I find great disgust in them in their in their um their self-centeredness
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and their inability to understand um multicultural or multiracial situations and I really you know they don't understand uh how other people live um they don't understand
[speaker002:] um-hum and they're preoccupied with drinking
[speaker001:] um-hum yep I think that's uh just just having a good time
[speaker002:] uh-huh and
[speaker001:] I uh a friend of mine is a psychologist and he always refers to it as uh short-term pleasure oriented I guess he's a technical aspect he likes to apply to it
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] you know today's young people are short-term pleasure oriented and everything has to be an immediate reward and it has to be fun
[speaker002:] that's true that's really true
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah
[speaker002:] yes well I I don't know how that would ever happen here but at least um
[speaker001:] well they say I think I um have read recently that uh the Bush Administration has increased the uh funding for the Peace Corps
[speaker002:] oh really
[speaker001:] uh-huh because I guess because of the changes in Eastern Europe uh they've increased funding for the Peace Corps some of the I guess it's some of the peace dividend in the sense you known when they're decreasing some of the military spending some of that money has gone into the Peace Corps and some of the other overseas programs uh
[speaker002:] um-hum hm well I have seen a big change I think in high school kids that my relatives and friends that um I know when I was in high school I had an idea of what I really wanted to do with
[speaker001:] um-hum um-hum
[speaker002:] what my what I was going to study and at least I had some interest in a lot of the youth that I come in contact with are they say oh I want to be a doctor I want to be a lawyer why because they make a lot of money
[speaker001:] yes yeah that's true
[speaker002:] and they don't have a goal they don't have a goal they don't have an interest in their own field of study they're just looking what's going to pay the biggest cash
[speaker001:] um-hum yeah that's very true you know how many is it they say we have so many lawyers in this country and I guess I I live near Washington being in in Baltimore it's something like one in four people in the Washington
[speaker002:] um-hum area yes
[speaker001:] area are lawyers and and I I just sort of think that's ridiculous yeah with
[speaker002:] yes there's too many people
[speaker001:] you know with the great needs that we need today in science and biology and uh you know the the problems we have with AIDS and cancer and and that how come everybody is a lawyer you know you know
[speaker002:] um-hum that's right and not enough people want to do that to for
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] uh because of a service that they could provide you know if you want to be a lawyer because you know that you can provide a service that people need because you have to have lawyers in this country um but if you're just doing it because you think that's the best way to be rich
[speaker001:] right um-hum um-hum yeah you saw statistics that lawyers and doctors make the most money in the long run yeah that's true
[speaker002:] um-hum that's kind of sad well anyway well I guess I better go
[speaker001:] that's interesting um-hum okay hey thanks so much for the conversation
[speaker002:] well good luck to you I enjoyed it
[speaker001:] well thank you very much bye-bye
[speaker002:] thanks bye-bye