Ok, I've decided to pipe in on this conversation! As a fellow teacher to
Wes' wife---not only has the village given up on their young ones, but so
have many of their parents! More often than not I get terrible grief over
being too strict/tough of a teacher. In fact, one parent told my principal
recently that I need to lower my standards, so her child can easily reach
them! (Eee! The begging for grade inflation at 4th grade!)
Well, about the street racing...It is very sad to lose so many young people
to illegal street racing, also to have innocent people who just happen to be
on the road at the same time killed in these accidents. It seems that most
of these young ones drive cars they clearly cannot afford on minimum wage
part-time jobs, but that their parents naively purchase for them without
enough thought about the respect such potent engines deserve. It's
unfortunate that these kids are not as luckily as I was/am to have a dad who
provided the opportunity to get that need for speed out in a safe
environment. Oh, but that did come with a strict warning that if I EVER got
a single ticket for anything close to speeding or exhibition of speed there
would be not LSR for me. (Ok, I finally did get one speeding ticket when I
was 19 for going 63 in a 55 zone on I-80, and he forgave that one for some
reason).
Enough of my sermon, and I'll tell you how I do try to teach those younger
than myself about respecting and appreciating what cars are capable of
accomplishing...I try to give at least one assembly for a kindergarten
through 5th grade school every couple years in our town. The kids love to
see our car and here about our racing. Also we take our cars to local cruise
nights to share what we are doing, stressing that there are safer locations
to race. I don't know if this would work for any of you, but they are just a
couple ideas.
:-) Katie Young Cortez
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