Sixty percent of high school grads ready for work or college

Who would have thought the success rate was that high?

Judging by what I see when I drive by the local high school, I'd have thought maybe ten percent are ready for anything other than spitting and smoking. That's what I see them doing in droves on the street out in front. Every since the do-gooders made it illegal to smoke on school property, the hooligans have been impeding traffic with their boorish antics.

The smoking part of it I get. I'm sure the anti-smoking lobby is secretly financed by the cigarette companies, who know full well that the more you tell teens they shouldn't do something the more important it becomes for them to do it. The best way to get teens not to smoke is to make smoking a mandatory part of the school curriculum.

As for the spitting, I'm not sure where that comes from. Don't remember having that much excess saliva in my youth. But for these kids today, it seems almost obligatory to splat down a sidewalk oyster between drags on the cigarette.

For a few years they had the hackey-sak thing going on, but that craze seems to have ebbed. At least it involved a modicum of physical activity. Had the social aspect going for it too. They might not be in class but they were getting a little exercise and learning the rudiments of teamwork.

Not sure what they're learning now, but according to the latest research only forty percent aren't fit for jobs or higher education.

But at least their self-esteem is great!