Originally Posted by bragi
I don't have to tell you that, among 13-17 year olds, the idea of being voluntarily carfree is not a popular one. When I bring the idea up in class, as I sometimes do, there's usually a short, shocked silence, followed by laughter at the sheer craziness of such an idea. (They won't say it to my face, usually, but most of my students, and their parents, think my carfree lifestyle is, well, dorky.)
I remember an economics instuctor I had in college saying that gasoline was going to go over 50 cents a gallon and would be in short supply, and all of his students, myself included, responded very much the same way that your students did. About a year later after that remark was made, the first oil embargo hit.