[speaker001:] okay well first of all I'm gonna to tell you I I have two little kids but they're not in public school yet I I get I get that experience starting next fall with kindergarten
[speaker002:] ah yeah
[speaker001:] yeah
[speaker002:] so you haven't really uh dealt with that in a sense
[speaker001:] no but uh being one of these late in life mothers I've listened to everybody else's you know complaints as to what's what what's the matter with either their kids or the school system so I've been surprised do are do you have school age kids
[speaker002:] yeah yeah uh mine are both out of school and uh
[speaker001:] oh
[speaker002:] you know I I've in hindsight seen some things that I wished that you know I had done something about that was you know within my power or uh you know wish that in some ways we as parents had more control over
[speaker001:] such as
[speaker002:] what's happening up there you know type thing um well just over the years there were situations that um uh came up that I didn't think were fair or handled correctly or the teachers didn't seem to be teaching anything of course it's a little hard to tell from the the information that you get from your child you know they they bring things home and I was never one to believe everything my kids said you know about something
[speaker001:] um-hum they
[speaker002:] but uh still I I question the ability of some of the teachers to uh really do a bang-up job and yet others I know are just wonderful
[speaker001:] well I heard a a frightening thing actually actually I didn't hear it it was told to me or suggested to me uh that to work as a teacher in the public school systems in the state of Texas and I think it's similar in in many other states if you have a degree in a technical field you do not need a teaching certificate because there is such a shortage
[speaker002:] hum
[speaker001:] of uh people to teach math and sciences and somebody said well you know you could go in and and substitute teach at seventy five dollars a day and there's always going to be you know uh somebody having a need for a math or science teacher I thought Christ they're letting me in to you know this would be this would be frightening I don't know anything about it
[speaker002:] yeah that's pretty interesting because just just because you know a subject matter doesn't mean you can teach it
[speaker001:] right right and even if I knew how to teach the subject matter I don't know if I'd know how to handle that kind of a a group of kids
[speaker002:] oh yeah in fact I think that's that's one of the big problems today is the the way the kids behave or act and and the way they are sometimes disinterested in what's going on in the class and disruptive
[speaker001:] I tell you what I'm finding frightening and this comes from you know the the aging hippie near forty mother so I went through this period of supposedly you know cosmic social enlightenment I'm on I'm in the Plano school system and living in Richardson and there is a real dichotomy in terms of educational and economic background of the kids that are going to be attending this school
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and I used to think well that's wonderful you know they can get a real life experience what I'm seeing now uh in terms of kindergarten preparedness just from in in in different preschools it's like day and night and I wonder how do they handle
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] a child who is obviously very ready and another child who doesn't even speak English let alone know her colors
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and they're in the same classrooms and I guess also you're going to see the first of the uh crack kids starting kindergarten my God I think it'd be next year is what I'd read I thought how well how do you how do you weed those out
[speaker002:] yes some of those certainly have a lot of disabilities difficulties you know with uh all sorts of things and I would imagine their learning disabilities are quite large in some cases
[speaker001:] and I was listening to NPR the National Public Radio and they've quoted statistics that I just about my throat just about fell into my toes they said at the bottom of the SAT scores of graduating college seniors are usually those people that go into education
[speaker002:] oh wow
[speaker001:] yes
[speaker002:] that's encouraging
[speaker001:] yes and I and I I got to thinking back when I was teaching college chemistry the people that took took you know the lower level courses I sometimes wondered you know are they really even educatable or trainable and it my God you know uh are the rest of us who went for the big bucks you know staying out of you know where where maybe we should be kind of socially obligated to spend some time teaching or something with these kids I don't know
[speaker002:] yeah well that's you know that's an idea maybe there need to be some radical changes made do some things that are totally different and unheard of
[speaker001:] well you you know you you sit here and you think about that at the same time you think God I just hope I don't sound like a stage mother because if right now if you ask my friends twenty put twenty mothers in a room and ask them how many have gifted children you're going to have twenty hands you know up there
[speaker002:] oh you're kidding
[speaker001:] oh no nobody has nobody has a non gifted child and I keep thinking you know uh gifted is is Einstein or you know uh musical prodigies it's it's not a kid who's you know precocious
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] you know what has you know has has the educational system been watered down to that anybody who's above average is now gifted
[speaker002:] hum that's interesting I don't know mine didn't did not fall into the gifted category
[speaker001:] I don't know oh don't say that
[speaker002:] nope and I would never have said so either uh but uh they managed to get through although not always with flying colors uh in fact one of the incidents I was thinking of that my son had um he was struggling with senior English and I had a meeting with the uh vice principal and the English instructor and uh she showed me a paper that he had just handed in and she told me what she had requested and I read it and while it had you know a few little grammatical problems it wasn't very long and so forth I thought it had some nice well thought out uh parts to it she gave him an F on that paper and I thought well now here you have a student who is trying to pass who is struggling with your subject and you give them an F
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] on something that doesn't seem that bad to me what are you telling that student
[speaker001:] um-hum
[speaker002:] you're telling them that well hey you might as well forget it you know
[speaker001:] well you see I think that that just harks right back to the elementary and junior high years because I have a stepson now who's twenty five and uh I was just absolutely shocked uh the first time that I saw his schoolwork uh I remember being you know taught and I think you know it you have to teach how to write an answer and you know how to construct a thought process
[speaker002:] um-hum
[speaker001:] and you know they can get a they they can grasp the points can they convey the data verbally or in writing and that's what's you know really scary to me um I would really you know there's such a a push push among among young mothers these days to make sure their child is computer literate I would really think that they should be stressing more can the kid write a thought and at an early age and if they can't I mean if they have missed that training then somebody you know before you're you you start penalizing them with bad grades for not being able to communicate what they're thinking teach them these basic skills
[speaker002:] yeah uh it's pretty sad to think uh about those who even even even today are graduating from school and they are telling tha t they don't know how to read you know
[speaker001:] well my stepson you know I he went into the Navy or Air Force I just really get my military I married into a military family and I don't know I really address them all as generals so I don't offend anybody but uh you know fortunately for him he wasn't dumb but boy he sure had trouble you know putting things on on paper
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and one of the things that that they did for him they tested him and they said that he's you know great in electronics but he yo u know he's really does need the basic skills and they put him through six months of composition writing in addition to all his electronic training and at that point he has now graduated from warfare electronics school with honors
[speaker002:] oh
[speaker001:] this is the kid who who really you you know barely made it through high school
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] and I keep thinking you know it's not it's really not too late at any point to do you know some
[speaker002:] that's interesting that the military saw that and did something about it you would have expected them to be the last ones to
[speaker001:] yes but yes and I kind of have always pooh-poohed military educations but I think that for this kid it's going to be you know his lifesaver otherwise he might have been driving trucks or framing houses you know from here to eternity
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] so I don't know you know it does make me nervous
[speaker002:] well I can see why if you've got little ones just coming along there's a a whole lot of stuff going on out there
[speaker001:] there is a whole lot of stuff going on out there and and part of me says I just would like to you know shut my eyes and pretend it doesn't you know go on or send them to private schools and then the you know the old social conscience says you know I'm not working I don't need to work maybe I should volunteer to you know teach what I know
[speaker002:] yeah
[speaker001:] maybe adult literacy maybe you know composition writing maybe you know uh volunteering you know on a tutor line or though the even through the elementary schools for help with homework or the other part of me says is God I've had enough kids do I really