Two stories, two different subjects, yet in my mind there was an obvious connection.

The first, a Page 1 story in Thursday's York Dispatch about additional jumps in gasoline prices, focused on how the increases affect teenagers.

The second, a different story in the same edition, reported an exchange between school board members and administrators for the York City School District having to do with reading performance, test scores and student progression.

"How do these kids get passed through all this time when we know these kids can't read," York City school board member Sam Beard asked.

Hey, that's a question many of us have been asking for nigh on to 20 years. And not only of York City students, either, but students in every district in York County. It became common practice years ago to automatically pass students from one grade to the next even if they hadn't done satisfactory work.

It's called "social promotion." Keep students moving forward no matter what -- including troublemakers, malcontents, truants and those who aren't motivated to learn, as well as students who just can't keep up academically.

So when students can't read or do math at grade level -- eighth-graders doing sixth-grade work, for example -- why do they end up in ninth, 10th and 11th grades? Why should high school seniors graduate with eighth-grade reading skills?

It's a reasonable question. And I'm glad Beard asked it.

That takes me to the other story -- gas prices. In it, it's

Advertisement
pointed out that local teenagers "are feeling the pain at the gas pump, too."

Geez, about time. I've been wondering for a couple years how teenage drivers can afford to cruise the York City loop or the larger east-west Route 30 loop that kids have adopted these days, when gas sells for $3 or more a gallon? Because I'm telling you, they're not driving hybrid cars.

I don't like driving six miles to work every day because of the cost of gas, and these teens are running all over York County like gas is as cheap as water.

Only now we find out kids are starting to feel the pinch, too. One teen said he might have to start riding a bike to his two part-time jobs. Another said it was hard to cruise for chicks with gas prices so high.

Have gas prices finally gotten so high that kids will cut back on unnecessary driving? If so, that's a great thing.

And if we take it another step farther, and those same kids decide they can't afford to drive at all, it could mean they wouldn't work one or two part-time jobs to pay for insurance and gasoline and vehicle maintenance. Hallelujah!

It's been my contention for a long time that kids would be a lot better off if they worked less outside of school and worked a little harder in school. In fact, their most important job is to do well in school.

If they took those 15 or 20 hours a week they work at after-school jobs and spent even half that time with their noses stuck in books, their grades and life skills would show considerable improvement.

Now I know that doesn't apply to all kids. Some kids working part-time jobs are on the honor roll every marking period. They play sports. They participate in other extra-curricular activities. They somehow manage to squeeze 26 hours into every 24-hour day.

But most kids who aren't performing well in school are kids who have a bad attitude about learning, kids who think a part-time job and a car are more important in the big picture than an education or kids who'd rather hang out than achieve something.

They think -- in truth, they don't think at all. They can barely read. They know enough math to count the change in their pockets. Maybe.

They're content to be less than what they could be.

We all agree that a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Who knows? We might waste fewer if the price of gas keeps going up.

Columns by Larry A. Hicks, Dispatch columnist, run Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. E-mail: lhicks@yorkdispatch.com.