To the editor:
"Dumb Rule," your May 20 editorial, misses the mark on a number of points. Mandatory education requires that children attend school until they are well into their teens, regardless of learning abilities and social capabilites.
State Sen. Tell Bivins' bill, as you describe it, will push many underachievers out the door as dropouts and/or truants. We're not going to see a lot of teen-aged thrid-graders around.
Achievement is not just a matter of will and free choice. Any underachiever who can quietly endure a year (and a summer) of mandatory public school attendance has earned his or her promotion.
"All of us do not have equal talent, but all of us should have an opportunity to develop out talents," said JFK in 1963.
Franklin B. Keenan,
Mission
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