"Spare the Ride and Spoil the Child"

Last year, Krista Ramsey over at the Cincinnati Enquirer discovered something the school transportation industry has been talking about for a while: the school bus is good for kids, good for schools, good for the environment; and not enough high school kids ride it. As part of her Earth Day investigation, she estimated that if 500 teen drivers rode the bus two days a week instead of driving they'd save $37,152 and 10,800 gallons of gas. In an update, she encourages parents of younger kids to put their kids on the bus.

But there's a more subtle reason for encouraging parents to help their kids learn the bus-riding habit. That's to move this somewhat sheltered generation out of the hothouse.

Our kids are in for tough economic times ahead, and probably years of them. Sacrifice is not only something we haven't wanted for them, but something we haven't trained them for, which may explain why they see cable as a birthright and their own car as a necessity.