Driving Them Up To The Edge

(My birthday is in late August, so I was among the youngest kids in my class to begin with. Then I skipped the first grade. As a result, I start high school two weeks shy of my thirteenth birthday. My mother has been looking over the list of classes I’ll be taking, has spotted a problem. She calls the school.)

Mom: “Yes, I’m calling because you’ve scheduled my twelve-year-old daughter to take Driver’s Ed this semester.”

School: “Ma’am, all incoming freshmen have to take Driver’s Education. It’s a school rule.”

Mom: “She’s TWELVE. There must be a way to make an exception.”

School: “No. All freshmen take Driver’s Ed.”

Mom: “What if she were blind?! Or had a broken leg or something?”

School: “Well, of course, then we would make a medical exception.”

Mom: “Okay, so give her one of those.”

School: “No. She’s physically capable of driving a car and she will take Driver’s Education this semester.”

Mom: “Okay, how about this. You call your insurance company, and ask them if they will insure a twelve-year-old driver. I’ll hold.”

(A few minutes pass.)

School: “Okay, fine, she doesn’t have to take it.”

(Seriously, you want to put a TWELVE-YEAR-OLD behind the wheel?! Even I knew that was a bad idea, and I WAS the twelve-year-old.)