LETTER: Others pay for school absenteeism
Karen Mansfield did a thorough job clarifying the mountain of problems and solutions concerning student absenteeism in her story in Sunday’s newspaper. There is another aspect of this problem that would be material for another piece: Others pay the price for absenteeism besides the students themselves.
When a student comes back from being absent, what then? It creates a whole set of problems for the teacher. How do you get this child caught up with the learning they have missed? After- school programs are a good solution, but they are often facilitated by others who did not teach the original material. Oftentimes, the classroom teacher has to find time during the day to squeeze in some one-on-one instruction. How do they do that? They have to schedule a way to help the student while the rest of the class is doing something else. When several students come back from being absent, many with different lengths of absence, it becomes an even bigger problem. It is extremely stressful to the teacher and involves some resourceful planning. It is important that the rest of the class is involved in some meaningful activity, not just a coloring sheet.
Obviously, the teacher has to spend extra preparation time coordinating instruction, but keep in mind the kids who weren’t absent are paying the price, too. They are missing instruction time while their teacher is trying to do two things at once.
No one can blame a student for missing school because they are sick, especially the unfortunate ones who have chronic illnesses; however, I think there is a bigger problem, and it is with the parents. It is too easy to find a convenient reason to keep a child home. As a former teacher I have seen children miss school because they are on a traveling sports team or have practice at some ungodly hour. Some parents don’t think twice about taking their children out of school for lengthy vacations in the middle of the school year. Isn’t that what summer vacation is for? I have seen some families routinely late at getting their children to school because they can’t get up in time. Besides damaging their child’s prospect of getting a thorough education and having a good start in life, these circumstances impede the goals of everyone involved.
Schooling is the most important aspect of a child’s development in life, and it should not be treated as a casual baby-sitting service.
Sally Brown-Pawlosky
Hickory