High-School Dropouts

The mystery of Audie Chatman (“Why Do Students Quit? Unlocking the Riddle of Dropouts,” by Ron Harris, Part I, May 28)?

What is so mysterious? Here’s a 17-year-old kid who is failing miserably at school, because he doesn’t study, stays out at night, wakes up late, and doesn’t go to class. So why are government officials, corporate executives and misguided sociologists so baffled?

This kid, like so many others, is lazy.

Which isn’t all that surprising since his mother has candidly admitted, “I’ve got this lazy thing. I got frustrated and started doing what I wanted to do--nothing.”

Instead of looking for fundamental breakdowns in our educational system to explain mass student lethargy, I suggest the well-intentioned guardians of our country’s future read the ironical profile of Dr. Serena Young, “A Surgeon Against All Odds” (View, May 28.)

A young woman, of minority descent, is struck down with polio at the age of 2, and yet through hard work and sheer determination is able to earn a medical degree. I doubt Dr. Young spent many of her idle hours hanging out at the mall.

There will be those who claim that individual circumstances make any type of comparison unfair. But the obvious similarities cannot be ignored. Here are two young people pitted against adversity. Both placed in unfortunate situations through no fault of their own. One chooses to wage a courageous battle and defy her disability. The other decides to waste away the hours and sleep until the afternoon sun.

RICH SIEGEL

Los Angeles