um
i think life uh now i grew up on a farm i don't what kind did you grow up in the farm
i grew up in um well at that time i was in a uh Trenton New Jersey so and it was a suburb of Trenton so i really had mixture of suburb and urban living
uh-huh
i see i see well little little bit different i think though it was much slower and uh
yeah
much much more self-contained
i think you're right it's interesting i'm um i work in a high school
uh-huh
so uh i'm comparing my life when i was in high school thirty years ago to what i see these children doing
yes
and the pressures on the children uh you know you hear this as an excuse but it's true they are so much greater
unreal unreal by comparison
oh i cannot believe uh what they're doing uh academically the demands on them
and uh and i can see why children do drop out
yeah i think that's right i i can remember as a child you know nobody ever worried about me wondering out at night and going where i wanted to go
i can see i can see uh you know
uh-huh uh-huh
it wasn't it didn't occur to nobody to worry that anything would happen to me they were
and then you didn't you didn't have to lock your door
no no
and uh a live and some of these are urban worries but uh
it's uh it's a lot different all though i guess twenty years a go now in this area
things were um similar because twenty years ago let's see it was after
it's not all that long ago is it
yeah twenty twenty five years ago is when we had the Washington riots the first rights we've been having some problem now and it reminded me of that
uh-huh uh-huh
yeah we were living in New Jersey
uh-huh
uh in uh twenty years ago
whereabouts
uh in uh Allendal
uh-huh
and uh i use to have to go over to Patterson when those riots were going on at sometimes um
uh-huh
i don't know though it's it's kind of hard to really know because of though the news media had those riots
uh kind of blown up out of proportion
uh-huh well the Washington riots weren't because
because i went there many times and i never i never saw a riot
the Washington riots weren't because i lived right downtown Washington and uh and what you saw is was what you got i'm telling you
did you
that's what yeah well huh
yeah but you know it's it is interesting uh they're so many more they're different kind of dangers that face young people now
and social pressures uh the pressures of drug is so much the prevalence is so much greater the the kinds of diseases that you've got out the
uh-huh
uh i mean the consequences is so much what's going on is so much more serious
yeah i think that's true i think that's true
then when we were younger
i think the other thing is that uh
we have taken some rather drastic turns in our in our education and the way we approach things as of
maybe starting back when when i'm number one you know and uh uh uh worrying about the self and not
uh seeing the consequences of the disintegration of the family
uh-huh uh-huh
and uh and there have been many things that have happened that have not encouraged
uh closeness of families and uh support
for young people that the kind of support that they need to help them take care of the things if you don't have some kind of
yes and
of basic belief or something down inside of you then it's very difficult to
uh-huh
uh to have anything to turn to when you got when you've got something facing you like that
that's true
i also being involved in the school system see so many of problem children coming from their parents
um children who will lie and cheat and you approach their parents and their parents are constantly justify them rather than to
uh-huh
uh you know they're constantly uh uh excusing their child and you can see exactly why the child is that way you can as a teacher can't hold a child accountable
like
right
now exactly
yeah
if you're not going to get reinforced by that at home
that's right that's right
and you can't make up in a classroom of one hour a day what's not been done for fifteen or sixteen years at home
no
that's right
oh
and you're get you get mixed signals so it's it's not always the school's systems
i think a lot of it is the families and
no there's so much more then that it starts very much deeper then that i think that too i see some flickers of
the way you were mentioning yeah
yeah
of uh
of good directions turning
but whether they're soon enough and fast enough i don't know it's just
course life is a lot more complicated too in ways
um the kinds of jobs that people need to be trained for now
right
uh you know with farming being so mechanized uh people working on the family farm which was a traditional American way
uh-huh
if that uh becomes less and less likely factory jobs are so much more um uh sophisticated
yeah that's right
and the kinds of knowledge that uh you know it it's requiring an increasingly sophisticated labor force and some people just don't have it it's uh
right
and there's so much so so many people on the lower end of those who who are going to be the the drop outs and the
and you worry with you know the effects of
and the poor and the homeless and whatnot
the effect of drugs on the young children and the unborn children uh
in terms of what it's going to mean to a society in the future it's a some ways it's rather frightening rather
yeah that's just another
yeah
it really is it's just it it just is almost overwhelming sometimes when you think of
it certainly is
of the jobs that is out there to be done
well it sure is
in order to flip things back around the way they needed to be
it sure is
uh not that i really think that they were perfect ten twenty or thirty years ago but
it was a little easier though wasn't it
uh yeah just the volume makes a big difference i
that's
yes
as uh as uh mother you know i use to think sometimes it's not so much
uh it's not so much the kids it's just the volume of it to try to keep all wash done and all the things done and you know and everything
yeah
and they all the things demanded of the mother too i mean uh i look at my mother's life uh
right
i mean she she didn't work um um for a long time uh when i was very young she didn't drive
uh she learned to drive i think when i was um a teenager and her life was a lot simpler and i
right and and and children's lives were simpler because mother was there somebody was there
that's right
that's right that's right
and and when there's nobody there i always thought too that you know people worrying about going to work when their child when their children are little
and i and i think that's sad if they have to because they miss so much
but i i believed after having a few teenagers that the worst time you could go to go work was when they were teenagers
they need you more as a teenager
isn't that true that's why i'm working in a school system so that i'm home when they're home um
right it's not so much that they come to you every minute but it's that you are there when they need you
that's exactly isn't that that's so true uh uh i find working in a high school
yeah
it's very helpful because it let's me be a little more tolerant and understanding of what people do
yeah
and it keeps me from being the old foggy but at the same time it also it prevents kids from try to go pull the wool over your eyes
yeah
yes i think that's true
as to what's come but that's the same i'm home at the summers i'm home with the holidays
yeah that's
i'm home at three o'clock when the children are at home or where home one is now a senior in high school and the other's in college
yeah
well
and uh it's uh it does it
but that helps a lot i have a daughter who just uh had a second job she needed need to work and she
opted to go into a day care center where she could take her children with her
uh-huh uh-huh
and uh
and looked a long time before she found one that was laid back enough so they she would be able to interact with them and uh
that's right
and felt like they were getting you know uh a good kind of experience as well
well i'm
but uh i think that's really important i don't think people realize how important it is
that's that is that is so true and it's not that always that the children always say something but every once in awhile they'll come up and make a comment
yeah you
yeah
and you realize uh it's important that
and and yet you know we have to make that choice i think um twenty thirty years ago a lot of women didn't have to make that choice
yeah
yeah i think that's right what was what is your name again
well
Linda Lee uh-huh
Linda
okay
and your name was
well i think probably that we've just about
i don't haven't change the world but
well i enjoyed talking with you
well i enjoyed talking with you
yes it's nice talking to you too bye now
okay bye-bye
uh-hum
