Sunday, June 28, 2009

License to Graduate

Thomas Friedman, writing for the New York Times, offers this:

Craig Barrett, the former chairman of Intel, [when asked] about how America should get out of its current economic crisis. His first proposal was this: Any American kid who wants to get a driver’s license has to finish high school. No diploma — no license. Hey, why would we want to put a kid who can barely add, read or write behind the wheel of a car?

There is a lot of sense in this idea, though it must be in conjunction with proposals to allow graduation and entry into trade schools and associate degree programs after tenth grade, at age sixteen.

4 comments:

Happy Elf Mom (Christine) said...

What??? Can the state get any more involved in your private life than that?

Oh, wait. Yeah, it can.

Daughter of Eve said...

You're supposed to be in tenth grade when you're sixteen?? Oh yeah, I guess I'll have just turned 16 at the end...

Anonymous said...

So if a kid finished the 8th grade but did not finish the 9th, 10th, 11th or 12th grade, does that mean that you think they can barely add, read or write? Why should the ability to operate a motor vehicle be contingent on whether someone had a high school diploma? This proposal sounds perfectly ridiculous to me. It's about punishing kids because they don't do what the state wants them to do.

Anonymous said...

I agree with anonymous.

- yet another Anonymous