Dr. Wendy Ghiora – Posting #82 – February 5, 2011
Is it okay to let kids miss school? When students miss school, they miss lectures, notes, class discussions, assignments, quizzes, and tests. It doesn't matter how conscientious students are about making up their work, they can never make up all of what they miss, even when they're absent for only a day or two. It’s hard enough to catch up after a legitimate absence, such as illness, let alone an illegitimate reason.
I have worked in schools where parents sometimes take their kids out of school for two to three weeks for a family vacation. Excuse me, but did they ever think of using the eight weeks they have off during the summer for this purpose? Then, when the children can’t catch up and receive low or even failing grades, the parents complain that it’s the school’s fault. There are also parents, believe it or not, that condone their children missing one or two days of school every single week!
Parents who allow their children to miss school when they aren't ill, not only hurt their children's education, they also send a message school isn't really that important. If your child doesn't want to go to school, or if you're seeing a pattern of excuses to miss school, talk to your child or to your child's teacher or school counselor and handle whatever the problem is.
Recently, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed SB 1317, a new statewide anti-truancy bill that officials hope will curb chronic absenteeism in elementary and middle school students. The new law will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2011, and allow state officials to prosecute parents when their kids don’t show up to school.
The initiative was pushed by California attorney general hopeful Kamala Harris, Harris has smartly tied crime rates with dropout rates; the correlation between kids’ educational achievement and the rate of their criminal convictions is direct. And yet the solutions are alarmingly punitive.
Parents whose kids miss any more than 10 percent of their classes can be charged with a misdemeanor and slammed with a $2,000 fine or a yearlong jail sentence if, after being offered state support and counseling, their kids still fail to improve their attendance. Before SB 1317, parents could be prosecuted under a child endangerment statute. Now kids’ absenteeism has become a crime all its own. The state labels a student as truant if they have more than three unexcused absences in one school year on their record.
On the lighter side, if you think that today's students aren't learning all they should, check out some of the writing by their moms and dads. The following are actual excuse notes received by teachers:
(I left all grammar and spelling in the original format and boy was my Spellcheck going nuts!)
Dear School:
"Please eckuse John being absent on Jan. 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, and also 33. "
"Please excuse Mary for being absent," wrote a parent. "She was sick
and I had her shot."
"Please excuse Gloria from Jim today. She is administrating."
"Carlos was absent yesterday because he was playing football. He was
hurt in the growing part. "
"Chris will not be in school cus he has an acre in his side. "
"Please excuse Ray Friday from school. He has very loose vowels."
"Please excuse Tom for being absent yesterday. He had diarrhea and his
boots leak."
"Please excuse Harriet for missing school yesterday. We forget to
get the Sunday paper off the porch. and when we found it Monday,
we thought it was Sunday."
"Please excuse my son's tardiness. I forgot to wake him up and I did not
find him till I started making the beds. "
"Sally won't be in school a week from Friday. We have to attend a
funeral."
"My daughter was absent yesterday because she was tired. She spent the
weekend with the Marine's."
"Gloria was absent yesterday as she was having a gangover."
"Maryann was absent December 11-16, because she had a fever, sore throat,
headache, and upset stomach. Her sister was also sick, fever and sore
throat, her brother had a low grade fever and ached all over. I wasn't
the berst either, sore throat and fever. There must be the flu going
around school, her father even got hot last night. "
Isn’t it absurd to have to go so far as possibly arresting parents to get a point across? What are these parents thinking? Children need good role models to say, “I know it’s a beautiful sunny day, but you can’t go to the beach; today is a school day.” Children must go to school the same way parents must go to work. By allowing children to decide when they will or will not go to school, you are setting them up for failure in the real world. This is what life is about, making the responsible decisions and choosing the right path.
To know what is right and not do it is the worst cowardice. ~Confucius
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I do not want government intrusion. We are being policed to death. We need to increase the responsibility level of the public and the purpose for a child learning. Sure the ethics of some parents is lacking but threatening with fines only serves to enrage people about the government being in the "family raising business". We definitely have an issue, no doubt, but threatening with a misdemeanor and file - what have we come to as a society? Maybe if my kids don't brush their teeth the allotted time each day we will have similar laws.
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