Not even counting my own experiences, I'd dealt with eight public schools in five states, spanning more than two decades, before I encountered something rather odd. It was a strange school policy concerning student absences. Similar to my own experiences as a student, every other school had the policy of expecting students to return after an absence with a note from a parent. The note would explain the reason for the absence, and the student would deliver it to the nurse's office or the attendance office.
I didn't know what to make of this unusual policy. Specifically, a note from a parent, even if followed up with a call, was not valid. These approaches, acceptable everywhere else, were considered an “unexcused absence.” To be considered an excused absence, the student needed to produce a note from a physician. Initially I thought perhaps the school staff wanted to ensure students not return with a contagious illness, but when I decided to check with the Board of Education I found that was not it at all.
Although a new Board member was equally frazzled by this policy, only one longtime Board member responded to my inquiry. I was stunned by her reply. She said the reason they required notes from doctors: there are too many parents who don't care if their kids go to school or not; and, she added: and the parents are perfectly willing to write phony excuse notes for their kids.
In other words, even in instances when students do not need medical attention, and need nothing more than a day of rest and relaxation for a headache, stomach ache, or similar minor condition, students must be dragged out to an ER or clinic so a doctor can write a note to verify the student is actually ill. More to the point: inconveniencing students, parents, and health care providers whose time should be spent assisting individuals who actually need medical help, because, as the Board member asserted, many parents are unconcerned about their kids' education, and are also liars.
This viewpoint, which is absolutely outrageous to most of us, was backed up a number of times in a local news site's comments section. I've read remarks such as Kids should not have to go to school if they don't want to, and If they don't want to be there, they won't learn anything anyway. And while this particular state is downright cheap when it comes to school funding, and the school district doesn't seem to manage its money very well, the bottom line of the education problem was summed up by the Board member: there are too many parents who don't care...
At the same time, they boast about their impressive high school graduation rates. Awhile after this incident, I happened to come across some information: the largest percentage of dropouts were students who were not yet in high school; the largest percentage of kids who quit school did so when they were in the eighth grade. So, as quitting school requires parental consent, and students cannot legally drop out until they are at least sixteen years of age, we might wonder how so many eighth-graders managed to do this. Ages vary due to birthdates and other factors, but when I was in the eighth grade I was twelve years old. But even if a student is thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen, it still means they were dropping out illegally.
Education is only one aspect of too many parents don't care.
And if people are tempted to assume- on this or other topics- “that's the way it is these days,” naturally my curiosity led me to do a bit of checking. I checked both the school I attended and a school my kids attended- two districts around fifteen miles apart from each other. Both schools currently have the same absence policy I was familiar with: after an absence, bring in a note from the parent.
And my former school- covering grades 7-12- is said to average less than one dropout per year.
However, the fact that my home state spends nearly twice as much per pupil on a public school education is not the deciding factor. Certainly it's important to make education a priority... but education cannot be a priority for students if it is not a priority for their parents. And when too many parents don't care, and demonstrated their lack of concern to the extreme that excuse notes from doctors became necessary, everyone suffers- not only the kids whose parents don't care, but kids and parents that do.
There is more to education than education itself. Although the more time that passes, the more important it becomes, there is an additional point to consider. During the years a student attends school- whether public, private, or homeschool- it is generally the student's #1 responsibility. And when parents tell their kids “Go ahead and quit if you want to,” or “Be truant, I'll write a fake excuse note for you,” they do more damage than depriving their kids of an education- they're teaching kids dishonesty, that responsibility is to be shirked off, and that 'do whatever you want' is what life is all about. Uncool- and not o.k.
I didn't know what to make of this unusual policy. Specifically, a note from a parent, even if followed up with a call, was not valid. These approaches, acceptable everywhere else, were considered an “unexcused absence.” To be considered an excused absence, the student needed to produce a note from a physician. Initially I thought perhaps the school staff wanted to ensure students not return with a contagious illness, but when I decided to check with the Board of Education I found that was not it at all.
Although a new Board member was equally frazzled by this policy, only one longtime Board member responded to my inquiry. I was stunned by her reply. She said the reason they required notes from doctors: there are too many parents who don't care if their kids go to school or not; and, she added: and the parents are perfectly willing to write phony excuse notes for their kids.
In other words, even in instances when students do not need medical attention, and need nothing more than a day of rest and relaxation for a headache, stomach ache, or similar minor condition, students must be dragged out to an ER or clinic so a doctor can write a note to verify the student is actually ill. More to the point: inconveniencing students, parents, and health care providers whose time should be spent assisting individuals who actually need medical help, because, as the Board member asserted, many parents are unconcerned about their kids' education, and are also liars.
This viewpoint, which is absolutely outrageous to most of us, was backed up a number of times in a local news site's comments section. I've read remarks such as Kids should not have to go to school if they don't want to, and If they don't want to be there, they won't learn anything anyway. And while this particular state is downright cheap when it comes to school funding, and the school district doesn't seem to manage its money very well, the bottom line of the education problem was summed up by the Board member: there are too many parents who don't care...
At the same time, they boast about their impressive high school graduation rates. Awhile after this incident, I happened to come across some information: the largest percentage of dropouts were students who were not yet in high school; the largest percentage of kids who quit school did so when they were in the eighth grade. So, as quitting school requires parental consent, and students cannot legally drop out until they are at least sixteen years of age, we might wonder how so many eighth-graders managed to do this. Ages vary due to birthdates and other factors, but when I was in the eighth grade I was twelve years old. But even if a student is thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen, it still means they were dropping out illegally.
Education is only one aspect of too many parents don't care.
And if people are tempted to assume- on this or other topics- “that's the way it is these days,” naturally my curiosity led me to do a bit of checking. I checked both the school I attended and a school my kids attended- two districts around fifteen miles apart from each other. Both schools currently have the same absence policy I was familiar with: after an absence, bring in a note from the parent.
And my former school- covering grades 7-12- is said to average less than one dropout per year.
However, the fact that my home state spends nearly twice as much per pupil on a public school education is not the deciding factor. Certainly it's important to make education a priority... but education cannot be a priority for students if it is not a priority for their parents. And when too many parents don't care, and demonstrated their lack of concern to the extreme that excuse notes from doctors became necessary, everyone suffers- not only the kids whose parents don't care, but kids and parents that do.
There is more to education than education itself. Although the more time that passes, the more important it becomes, there is an additional point to consider. During the years a student attends school- whether public, private, or homeschool- it is generally the student's #1 responsibility. And when parents tell their kids “Go ahead and quit if you want to,” or “Be truant, I'll write a fake excuse note for you,” they do more damage than depriving their kids of an education- they're teaching kids dishonesty, that responsibility is to be shirked off, and that 'do whatever you want' is what life is all about. Uncool- and not o.k.