In Arkansas, kids can get their learner's permit when they are 14.

Some people are shocked by that and some people in Arkansas want to change it. But I think it's wonderful just like I did when I was 14 and got my permit (I started driving on the back roads when I was 13, in my own car, a red '67 Beetle that I had to park on a hill and pop the clutch to get going--we also turned in pop bottles to get 50 cents worth of gas. Man, those were the days.)

Back to my point...my two adult sons, aged two years apart, got their learner's permits at the same time. One was 14, one was 16. The 16 year old had his permit for 60 days, then he got his license and could drive everywhere (I trusted him and didn't worry about him). But the 14 year old had TWO WHOLE YEARS of practice with a licensed adult before he could drive. That's why I tihnk driver's permits at 14 are still a wonderful idea.

(Both of them are safe drivers and neither have ever had an accident, although they both had their share of speeding tickets. Now they both drive slow because they are cheapskates and don't want to waste gas or pay the "stupid tax".)

And if my kids had grown up in the same kind of tiny town like I did, with no local law enforcement to speak of, I probably would have let them drive as early as I did (I first drove the Beetle with my Dad when I was 10). I can imagine lots of rural farm kids learn to drive all kinds of farm vehicles, including the pick-up truck, early ages. It's not that kids can't be safe driving--it's that most kids are learning to drive in very, very heavy traffic, with thousands of possibilities for bad happenings.

Life gets so much easier when you have a kid in the house who can drive!!!

Karen