Traveling student getting master's

To the editor:

In response to the story "A long ride to high school": This article struck home as our son went through the same thing from 1996 through 2000. He attended Notre Dame Regional High School and was hosted by two families for his first 1 1/2 years of school. We would drop our son off on Sunday evenings or early Monday mornings and pick him up Friday evenings to come home. After that he would ride to Sikeston where I work and catch a bus from Sikeston to Cape Girardeau and back to Sikeston at the end of the day, study here at the office and ride home with me after work. This is an 85-mile one-way trip from home to Cape Girardeau.

When he turned 16 in 1999 we got him a car to park at Sikeston to drive from there to Cape after riding from home to Sikeston with me each day. After all of this he made valedictorian of his class of 2000. He went on to Southeast Missouri State University on a Governor's Scholarship and completed work in a double major and is working on his master's degree at Murray State University in Kentucky. Besides these extra hardships, he was still only 16 when he graduated from Notre Dame, not turning 17 until June.

DARRALL HIRTZ, Campbell, Mo.