An Amusing Anecdote From the Halls of Academia

[tarnok]

An Amusing Anecdote From the Halls of Academia

On Thursday afternoon the principal himself rather than the normal announcements lady came on to make a special announcement after third period. In addition to the normal announcements that one expects to hear at the end of the school day he summoned a long list of students. Friday at lunch I learned for what purpose they had been called.

The students so singled out were arranged in the gym where those who already had their liscense were asked to identify themselves. They did so, immensely proud of their mobility. These were given forms to fill out and the rest were told not to bother applying for theirs. You see, there is a state law here now which requires students to pass a certain fraction of their classes (three fourths I believe) or forfeit their driving privileges. These poor unfortunates were those students who had failed to meet the standard. The teacher's lounge had a good chuckle over that at lunch on Friday.

 

[Deramhus]

On Thursday afternoon the principal himself rather than the normal announcements lady came on to make a special announcement after third period. In addition to the normal announcements that one expects to hear at the end of the school day he summoned a long list of students. Friday at lunch I learned for what purpose they had been called.

The students so singled out were arranged in the gym where those who already had their liscense were asked to identify themselves. They did so, immensely proud of their mobility. These were given forms to fill out and the rest were told not to bother applying for theirs. You see, there is a state law here now which requires students to pass a certain fraction of their classes (three fourths I believe) or forfeit their driving privileges. These poor unfortunates were those students who had failed to meet the standard. The teacher's lounge had a good chuckle over that at lunch on Friday.

OMFG thats the most ridiculus thing I've ever heard.

 

[Steve_Kow]

I fail to see how being failing academically relates to being a hazard on the road.

edit: Why did I type "being"?

 

[Chief JB]

That is goofy. I'd still have my license though. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

 

[Steel_Avatar]

I like it. Driving is a privelege, not a right. What better way to slam that point home than to make kids earn it?

 

[Chief JB]

Well maybe they should start taking away adults driving priveledges if their employer decides that they don't do a good job at work.

 

[SuggestiveName]

Seems to me it might increase the dropout rate. I figure if I was failing that many classes and then lost my license I would rather drop out and drive.

 

[Steve_Kow]

Driving may be a privelege but all citizens should have equal access to it, unless it can be proven that these students were operating their vehicles unlawfully then I don't see how the state is justified in this instance.

 

[Chief JB]

Seems to me it might increase the dropout rate. I figure if I was failing that many classes and then lost my license I would rather drop out and drive.

I bet a lot of kids will get into trouble when they have bad grades and drive anyways.

 

[AeroJonesy]

Is this driving priveleges in general, or is this for parking passes at the school?

 

[Choogy]

Where i used to live, if you dropped out you would lose your license too...unless u were 18

An we had hte same thing about passing classes = driving

 

[SuggestiveName]

In addition, under Tennessee driving law persons under the age of 18 may lose their privileges for:

• Convictions of any drug or alcohol offense, whether or not the offense occurred while driving;
• Dropping out of school (which is defined as having ten consecutive or 15 total days in a semester of unexcused absences);
• Failure to make satisfactory progress in school (which in general means passing three subjects per grading period); or
• Weapons violations

ALSO: It appears a similar law was voted down here:

http://www.courier-journal.com/localnews/2003/12/19ky/wir-front-pass1219-4333.html

 

[AeroJonesy]

Fine by me. Driving is a privelege and the only way you can learn something is a privelege is to have a risk of losing it.

 

[Steve_Kow]

Fine by me. Driving is a privelege and the only way you can learn something is a privelege is to have a risk of losing it.

Shouldn't the loss of a driving privelege have something to do with driving? What if adults could lose their licenses for bouncing a cheque?

 

[Chief JB]

It wouldn't really bother me, but if you're doing that why not have adults lose their liscense if their performance at work is poor?

 

[LunarSolaris]

Hard to say how I'd feel about it... on one end I agree that driving is a privilege and that grades should be tied to it, yet on the other hand I agree with the thought that doing this could potentially increase the risk of drop-out. However, I would add to it that if a student has failing grades as it is, then they are a risk anyhow.

Dunno.... I can imagine it would have made for some shocked students in the gym that day.

 

[Canadia142]

Will they get the license back if they get their grades up?

 

[IDupedInMyPants]

Driving isn't a privilege or a right. For some reason people think that the licensing process exists to weed out retards and that only the most elite and skilled testers will pass, and this is clearly false. The licensing process is to insure accountability in vehicle related crime, e.g. traffic violations, vehicular manslaughter, etc. I mean, you know, if anybody could hop into any car at any time and do any thing, these crimes would all occur much more frequently and very few would ever be caught.

Secondarily, the licensing process makes sure you meet very low bare minimum requirements for ability to watch your surroundings and general knowledge of road rules.

Drivers have to be licensed for the same reason full-auto machine gun owners have to be licensed. Not because it's a special skill that few people can develop, but because lives are in your hands and a system of accountability must be in place to prevent abuse of that.

So there are really only two issues here when debating the absurdity of the school's ability to revoke licenses.

Do grades alter the ability to track a driver down and hold him/her accountable for a crime if necessary? I feel pretty ridiculous even hypothetically asking that question, so I'll assume I don't need to address it.

Do grades reflect upon the ability to safely drive? I can say with relative certainty that there is no correlation between low grades and unsafe driving.

For the school however, the issue is keeping kids there and keeping tax dollars flowing in. The ability to revoke a 16-18 year old's most prized ability is a pretty big victory towards this end.

 

[TurdFergusen]

If they like, start totally banning us from like the mall, for like bad grades and stuff, i'll like totally freak.

 

[IDupedInMyPants]

I totally didn't get carded for my smokes, but the jerkass in Hot Topic checked my report card and, like, totally tossed me out. I was like "Oh... migod..."