I listen to the education pundits every single day speaking on the problems within our schools. Most teachers have ideas about why so many of our students are failing or not living up to their potential. There can be many causes but I believe one of the most prevalent within our society today is the lack of parental push for the importance of education. One of the ways this can be measured is how often students are either allowed to miss school or are pulled from school because their kid called them to come and get them.
I think a lot of this can be attributed to lack of respect for education and the idea that it doesn't really matter if students are in school one day a week or 5, whatever the child wants is okay with the parent.
I am not speaking about students who skip school. Those are still around and it still happens, especially when you teach high school as I do. I am speaking of students who tell their parents they just don't want to go that particular day and are allowed to stay home. It seems these teens make the rules in their households and the parents follow along because they feel what the students may learn in school takes a backseat to what their kid wants.
It is not unusual for me to have 8 or 10 students missing from my classes every day. Out of a class of 24 or 25, that is huge. I have some students who are in my classes that I have never met. Never is the optimum word. They may be late to school every day and in my first period or they may leave every day and miss my last. I receive no email or phone call asking me about assignments, which are all posted in our online platform and if I try and contact them, I get recordings or no response at all.
That is until the last day of the last week before report cards. Then they want to know what they can do to catch up. They couldn't help it if they missed school due to _____________. You fill in the blank.
Where are the parents? Or parent or guardian or whomever is responsible for this child? They are normally driving the car. Or signing the excuse. Or yelling on the phone that we cannot possibly fail their child because it is their right to pull their child out of school whenever they want, for whatever they want.
When I was a kid, we couldn't wait for Christmas break to come home to Florida and see our grandparents. I can remember Daddy picking us up from school after the last bell of the day, his thermos full of coffee and the car packed. He would never pick us up before the end of school because he held education as the most important thing he could do for us.
I know their are reasons why students must miss school. I understand family emergencies. I also understand using family emergencies as an excuse to go out of town and take your kids. I understand doctors and dentists. I also understand that there are very few doctor visits that last the whole day.
I know we have social workers and truancy officers and a whole plethora of experts who work on this problem but I also know whatever they are doing is not working.
How do you get the students to come to school? I am not sure of the answer but I think it needs to begin with parents and until they take school more seriously, we can't expect our students to.
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