I shouldn't be a spokesperson, either.

I forgot my book the other day, so I spent my lunch break flipping through an old "Parade" magazine I found in the break room. It had a little blurb about how Christian Slater was working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation on an initiative to reduce the high school drop out rate, because he had been a high school drop out himself and felt very strongly about the whole thing.
All I could think of was this: Do you think a celebrity who dropped out of high school and became famous and successful anyway is really the role model for kids who might drop out of school?

Okay, his "success" is debatable by Hollywood standards, but he looks pretty damned successful compared to unemployed roofers and people working at Taco Bell. I might get behind this thing if he was working on an initiative to encourage adult drop outs to get a G.E.D. (like Slater recently did). That makes sense. But I don't get just standing up and saying, "Hey, kids, I'm a high school drop out who went on to make such films as 'Broken Arrow' and 'Hollow Man II' -- don't be like me! Stay in school!"

Wait, maybe that is persuasive. Nobody's too proud of "Hollow Man II."

Never mind.

P.S.
I have a G.E.D. I am not dissing that at all, though I should add -- in the spirit of full disclosure -- that I didn't drop out. I was homeschooled and went to college early.