you say you taught school for a while
 	
 	
 		yes it's been some years ago i haven't taught in the last twenty years
 	
 	
 		oh what grades did you teach
 	
 	
 		i taught about half the time at the high school level and about half the time at the junior college level
 	
 	
 		okay uh and what general subjects
 	
 	
 		um business subjects
 	
 	
 		okay okay
 	
 	
 		do you have children in school
 	
 	
 		uh not yet uh my first son is uh about two months old now
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		none of them presently going into college
 		um
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		do you see anything in particular do you see you feel is wrong about the school system the way it's running now
 	
 	
 		uh
 	
 	
 		
  
 	
 	
 		well other than the fact that it it's not difficult enough and it doesn't last us long enough during the school year
 		uh i one of the the big errors uh that was made over the years is passing children along when they hadn't really completed the get grade that they were in
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		and allowing children to graduate from high school who couldn't read and write
 	
 	
 		yeah
 	
 	
 		and cipher
 	
 	
 		uh-huh yes
 	
 	
 		oh
 		when i taught at the uh junior college level
 		um
 		i taught uh business law at the sophomore level and we were on the quarter system so they had this was the last two quarters in the sophomore year so they had to
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		think up something for me to teach at the uh front end of the in the fall
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		so i taught a little course called office machines now if you keep in mind this was long before the days of the hand held computer calculator
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		so we started off with a ten key adding machine
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and
 	
 	
 		
  
 	
 	
 		uh ah one of the first problems was to add three tenths
 		and twenty four hundredths
 		and invariably a substantial proportion of the class would come up with twenty seven hundredths
 		so i would have to launch into a discussion of common denominator and explain that every figure that was entered into that ten key adding machine with two decimal places
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		was a number divided by a hundred and in order to add three tenths to anything it had to be changed to thirty hundredths
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and uh the only criterion for getting into the junior college where i taught was being eighteen years of age uh having a high school diploma was not a prerequisite it was for some of the the curricula but it wasn't for the business curriculum
 	
 	
 		yes
 		huh
 	
 	
 		so so that's
 	
 	
 		not not even a GED was required
 	
 	
 		i beg your pardon
 	
 	
 		a GED wan't even required or was that available yet
 	
 	
 		uh no it was not at that time uh to take courses all you had to be with eighteen years of age
 	
 	
 		huh
 		
  
 	
 	
 		uh so uh
 		the the new math i think ruined our math uh i was teaching at the high school level when it was being introduced to the seventh grade
 		and eighth grade and uh i went to a lecture and the math teacher said well we used to teach
 		business arithmetic at the seventh and eighth grade level but now we're going to teach the new math like how to to count in the binary counting system
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and uh uh the base twelve and that sort of thing and uh we're gonna teach the theory of mathematics and never mind percentage
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 		yes
 	
 	
 		so um
 	
 	
 		hm
 	
 	
 		i i checked my my son my son was uh let's see when would he have been in eighth grade about oh in the middle sixties he would have been in the eighth grade and i checked his eighth grade math book
 	
 	
 		so they try to teach a concept
 		
  
 	
 	
 		and uh there were no percentage there were two pages devoted to percentage and ratio and proportion
 	
 	
 		um-hum
 	
 	
 		and in in his algebra book there were no fractions no percentages and course he proceeded on to geometry
 		and um that sort of thing fortunately my boys have a very high aptitude in math
 	
 	
 		yes
 	
 	
 		but uh there's a a a great population out there that does not
 	
 	
 		
  
 	
 	
 		and uh so i went through this
 		uh lecture of counting in the decimal counting system
 		and i said if this doesn't make sense to you memorize it
 		and learn your two-doms
 	
 	
 		uh-huh
 	
 	
 		because it's a percentage world out there
 	
 	
 		oh yeah yes