The law passed in West Virginia in 1989 states that "although students may drop out of school at the age of sixteen, no dropout younger than eighteen can hold a driver's license" ( Barnet, 3-4) The West Virginia law was created to motivate kids to continue their education at least until they are eighteen. The fact that they can't get their license if they drop out of school gives kids a reason to stay in school. This law seams to be a good idea, but if we think deeper of the harm against the potential good we will discover it to be unfair and ineffective.
             Some teenagers are too young to understand the importance of education and they could choose to drop school for immature reasons. Their judgment is relative to their age and interests that could mislead them in their priorities, finding more interesting things to do at that age than studying, like being in a band or playing sports. Some still don't have a sense of how important education is since they've been living until then with the economic support of the family and the comforts of teenage life. Therefore it seams reasonable to create a law to make them stay in school until they acquire a higher and more mature judgment and realize the benefits of a higher education. So this law is meant to motivate kids using one of their higher priorities at that age, as having a car.
             Continuing school is not only for the good of the individual but also of the society: education is "for the public good" (Barnet, 6) . The more educated people are, the better citizens they might be because they are more aware of the laws and norms of society. Furthermore continuing school makes kids understand better their role in society since the first step in society is school where kids interact with each other and understand social norms, what is acceptable and what is not.
             So the law could reach its purpose and decrease the rates of dropouts, as it did "by 30 percent" (Barnet, 6) the yea...