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.

Prizing the right choice and punishing the wrong one is definitely an effective way of controlling people's acts but it doesn't usually effect their thinking. If the motivation comes from the outside, their beliefs could very well be opposite to what they're doing, but they do it because they are forced to make a choice. Their choice is led by their certainty of how important a car is for them, not on how important education is. We can compare this with the education methods of parents. Which is more effective, a parent that lets their kid watch television just if they get a good grade or a parent that rewards the efforts of a kid with supporting words, telling the kid how well he/she did and how proud the parent is? The kid that was rewarded just with words will find motivation in his or her only actions, and will understand why studying is so important and that it can be rewarding for itself. The kid that is prized will study until the reason why he/she is doing it is present and necessary, then he won't find any other reason to keep doing it. Therefore this law doesn't give a genuine motivation to continue school. Education should be a reward for itself.

Maybe we should aim for a more open system with not so much competition but more considerate of the effort of every student, that is not based only on studying and getting good grades, but that also stimulates students' thinking and imagination, that enriches their mind and finds its motivation in itself. I agree with the statement Barnet makes in reporting his thoughts on the West Virginia law ( 7) : "What is needed is not legal pressure to keep teenagers in school but schools that hold the interests of teenagers".

Teachers are very important for this: they have the power to stimulate the imagination of their students in the subject they are teaching and make them quest for knowledge. Students of such teachers experience how fulfilling education can be and will want to continue their education.

Moreover, this law seams unfair for those who come from a poor fami

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Approximate Word count = 1390
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)