Truancy, becoming School Politics?

Second Essay Under the direction of Ted Nellen Reflection on Education World Articles
The articles that grabbed my attention most from the Education World readings were the ones on truancy, which I feel is the biggest reason why most students are unable to pass these state exams given yearly from 4th-12th grades. Most teachers that I meet at many of the teacher workshops share a common thread and element which is truancy, and lack of academic retention in both the private and public school sectors. I realize it must be cumbersome for principals to deal with the endless excuses of absentism day by day; with hardships that range from not having clothes to wear, to no money to buy a uniform, or to a death in the family or personal/family sicknesses. I wonder sometimes where these parents get all these doctor notes from as poor excuses, because for the most part that's exactly what they truly are. I also depise parents who pull their students out of school for extended vacations or breaks. It is hard enough to cover the core curriculum in 10 months, in that 180 day school period, which is not even guaranteed teaching time month to month. Another big truancy reason mentioned in one of the articles was the shortage of grade level principals policing the school. Because many of our inner city students feel education is not important and the standing attitude, I can always get my GED, become a superstar, or win the lottery mentality exists and for many is a driving force for all adolescences across the United States. And, if indeed they truly hated school for lack of ambition, laziness, learning disabilities, etc. an internet education would be an alternatve solution for these adolesences. We can't have these kind of kids out on the streets or we're asking for more trouble. Students between the ages of 6-18 years of age are required by law to attend school. However, I believe the rights that the students have earned in the last decade, one inparticular immancipation from the parent(s), has been extremely counter productive to principals being able to punish the student(s) correctly. I did not know that the truancy fine is $300 a day which is run through the courts. And that 3 or more whole/part day school absences with unexcused absences in a 3 week period, or 10 or more whole/part school days unexcused within a 6 month period, is an offense under section C misdemeanors.

Many solutions were offered such as: counseling, learning activities consisting of having your picture on front of the school newspaper, videotaping or writing an autobiography about your misdemeanor and show it to the class, or put heavy rocks into a jar one by one with H20 and feel the excessive weight of not having an education and the impact that it will have on a student later down the road. I wasn't convinced these solutions were the be all as claimed since the national average truancy is about out of 60-80 visible students, 24% checking out questionable and 10% bad to no excuses at all. I still feel the best solution is maybe boot camp for six months if they refuse help/treatment and then eventually get them into an alternative school to find their gifts and advance into some profession or trade. However, if you disagree there was a telephone number to call (281-634-5500) for anyone struggling with truancy in their school district, just ask for Corporal Owens or Taylor from the Truancy Investigations Unit and they can guide you to the proper channels of your school location.

I wanted to mention that I also enjoyed the articles on ethics about "Payola Highway" and how a person is only legally allowed to borrow 2,500 field cell number space of 250 words from a text, 10% or less than equal to 30 seconds of music, 15% of a visual image or 3 minutes of visuals. due to the copyright age we live in. Napster sums it all. And the other great articles were from Earth Day which gave me some great ideas for the celebration of the planet's birthday on April 22nd as well as the articles from "Lessons from the Library." I downloaded a bunch of great teaching tools like Venn Diagrams, lesson plans (in cross disciplinces), research skills, etc. to use for geometry cooperative learning acitivities from the library. As always cruising the web is fun yet infinite.

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