You're right that driving a car doesn't require lawn-mowing skills or
accomplishments.

But in the case cited above, Kid is part of the family. In order to use the
family's resources (the car, which Parents bought and paid for) Kid has to
contribute something - in the cited case, the lawn care. The relationship
between the car use and the lawn care is one of responsibility and being part
of a group.


I suspect that many kids see a disparity between their education
(like Physics class, algebra class, and such) and the kind of
paying minimum wage jobs they can get (flipping burgers, stocking
supermarket shelves) and may conclude that school work doesn't
really apply to anything in the real working world. And see no
real reason to graduate other than a vague argument that school
is "good for you". I've told kids to stick it out, and that
you will get your payoff later on (in the form of better paying jobs).
And that stuff like English class is actually valuable (you need to
be able to write well so your boss understands what you are doing
so he thinks that you should get a raise and/or not get laid off).
The subject matter in English class may be stupid, but it's just
what the English teacher knows about (Shakespeare plays and such).
History class is not that important; I got thru life without
knowing about King Louie the VII. Get the C and be done with it.