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Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?



 
 
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  #161  
Old October 29th 03, 11:58 PM
Circe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

"Vicki" wrote in message
...
"Give us complete control over your children. If you don't like it you

can
homeschool"


I couldn't have said it better myself. I'm scarcely in favor of children
cutting school willy-nilly, but this trend towards giving schools more and
more power over children's lives and activities and giving parents less and
less strikes me as far from the "spirit of" educational reform, which was
supposed to be about parental involvement and choice. Right?
--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [6], Aurora [4], and Vernon's [19mo] mom)

This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop:
"Use repeatedly for severe damage." -- Directions on shampoo bottle

Daddy: You're up with the chickens this morning.
Aurora: No, I'm up with my dolls!

All opinions expressed in this post are well-reasoned and insightful.
Needless to say, they are not those of my Internet Service Provider, its
other subscribers or lackeys. Anyone who says otherwise is itchin' for a
fight. -- with apologies to Michael Feldman


  #162  
Old October 30th 03, 12:02 AM
Donna Metler
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?


"Circe" wrote in message
news:%iXnb.46654$hp5.9943@fed1read04...
"Donna Metler" wrote in message
. ..
"toto" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:16:47 -0800, "Circe" wrote:

My neighbor, who is a kindergarten teacher herself, just took her

first
grader out of school for a little over a week on an independent study
contract. I have a hard time believing she would do this to another

teacher
if she thought it would create a huge burden for that teacher.

I would suggest that the early grades are easier to do this in than
the later grades. If a child is reading well in first grade and is
up to speed on math skills some time off might not cause a problem.


I agree with that assessment.

In addition, starting in grade 3, standardized test scores count against

the
school. Depending on the state, it could be every year, or just specific
ones. The real crisis years here are 3rd, 5th, and 8th, although

students
are tested in grades 1-8, with exit tests in high school subjects.

Well, unless I see some evidence that the new California tests are a vast
improvement, both in content and scoring, over the old Stanford 9s, my

kids
won't be taking them, so no one need worry that their non-attendance will
negatively affect test scores (not that I plan on taking them out, mind
you). While I realize that the school is under a mandate to test 95% of

its
students, sitting the test is optional for any individual student. And by
the time my kids are graduating high school, I'm pretty certain that the
fallacies of NCLB will be wildly apparent to everyone because every single
school in the US will be failing by its standards and much of this testing
mania (including the exit exams) will have passed. But perhaps I'm too

much
the optimist...


And if more than 5% of the parents take this option, every year for the next
three years, the school faces state takeover. Not a good thing. While it may
eventually end with all schools failing, the results for a school on the low
performing list, and for students in that school are MORE boring workbooks,
MORE test prep, LESS hands on, fun learning activities, and LESS real
education. Oh, and MORE standardized and school-based testing (My school has
tested all students at least twice already this year on standardized-type
tests, including kindergarten)

So by sparing your children the 1 week of testing, they may end up in a
test-crazed situation all year long. Not good.

--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [6], Aurora [4], and Vernon's [19mo] mom)

This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop:
"Use repeatedly for severe damage." -- Directions on shampoo bottle

Daddy: You're up with the chickens this morning.
Aurora: No, I'm up with my dolls!

All opinions expressed in this post are well-reasoned and insightful.
Needless to say, they are not those of my Internet Service Provider, its
other subscribers or lackeys. Anyone who says otherwise is itchin' for a
fight. -- with apologies to Michael Feldman




  #163  
Old October 30th 03, 12:06 AM
Penny Gaines
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

H Schinske wrote in :

[snip]
My cynical thinking on this is that the math talents are less ignore-able
than the reading. For one thing, kids who read at a high level don't
always read at their highest level -- I read plenty of Ruth Chew (easy
readers, but very well-written and good stories) at the same time as I was
reading William Mayne or Elizabeth Enright or Frances Hodgson Burnett, or
for that matter dipping into Dickens and Charlotte Bronte. For another,
lots of people think of all "children's books" (that aren't obviously easy
readers, nor yet big thick things with small print) at about the same
level. They have NO CLUE how much harder _Tom Sawyer_ is than _The Bobbsey
Twins_. Furthermore, you get the "oh, s/he may enjoy it, but s/he doesn't
REALLY UNDERSTAND what s/he's reading, does s/he?"

[snip]

To some extent, I think it may also be because reading is 'fun' and doing
maths workbooks is 'not fun'. So the 9yo who is reading, is doing something
normal, even if chosing Lord of the Rings is unusual.

The kid who is doing high-level maths is doing something unusual - imagine
doing maths problems for fun? - and hence what they are doing is more
likely to be scrutenised closely.

--
Penny Gaines
UK mum to three
  #164  
Old October 30th 03, 12:25 AM
Circe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

"Donna Metler" wrote in message
...
"Circe" wrote in message
news:%iXnb.46654$hp5.9943@fed1read04...
"Donna Metler" wrote in message
. ..
In addition, starting in grade 3, standardized test scores count

against
the
school. Depending on the state, it could be every year, or just

specific
ones. The real crisis years here are 3rd, 5th, and 8th, although

students
are tested in grades 1-8, with exit tests in high school subjects.

Well, unless I see some evidence that the new California tests are a

vast
improvement, both in content and scoring, over the old Stanford 9s, my

kids
won't be taking them, so no one need worry that their non-attendance

will
negatively affect test scores (not that I plan on taking them out, mind
you). While I realize that the school is under a mandate to test 95% of

its
students, sitting the test is optional for any individual student. And

by
the time my kids are graduating high school, I'm pretty certain that the
fallacies of NCLB will be wildly apparent to everyone because every

single
school in the US will be failing by its standards and much of this

testing
mania (including the exit exams) will have passed. But perhaps I'm too

much
the optimist...


And if more than 5% of the parents take this option, every year for the

next
three years, the school faces state takeover. Not a good thing.


To the contrary, if more than 5% of parents in most schools begin to
*refuse* to allow their children to be subjected to these absurd tests that
foolishly waste classroom time and resources (both human and financial),
that rarely reflect the curriculum accurately, and that wind up producing
results that are consistently both misinterpreted and misrepresented, I
strongly suspect that the testing mania will come to an end.

While it may
eventually end with all schools failing, the results for a school on the

low
performing list, and for students in that school are MORE boring

workbooks,
MORE test prep, LESS hands on, fun learning activities, and LESS real
education. Oh, and MORE standardized and school-based testing (My school

has
tested all students at least twice already this year on standardized-type
tests, including kindergarten)

I hear you. Believe me, I do. But I ca

So by sparing your children the 1 week of testing, they may end up in a
test-crazed situation all year long. Not good.


Ah, but I'm not doing it to "spare my children" from taking the tests. I'm
doing it because I am diametrically opposed, both philosophically and
professionally (I am an instructional designer with *some* clue about
curriculum design and evaluation, after all), to the tests that have been
used. As I said, if I can see some evidence that the new CAT test really
*is* tied to the curriculum and that "consistent improvement" standards will
not be based on increases in percentile ranks but rather on getting more
children to achieve "proficiency", I don't have a problem with it. If it
continues the previous model of effectively insisting that the school
continue to achieve a higher percentile ranking on the tests in each
succeeding year or risk being targeted is failing, then frankly, I'll
boycott it, even if that means the school

NCLB *will* eventually result in EVERY school failing. Unless you believe
that autistic children and those with Down Syndrome and other forms of
serious retardation are going to achieve proficiency in all subject matter
by the time they reach the 12th grade, that is...
--
Be well, Barbara
(Julian [6], Aurora [4], and Vernon's [19mo] mom)

This week's special at the English Language Butcher Shop:
"Use repeatedly for severe damage." -- Directions on shampoo bottle

Daddy: You're up with the chickens this morning.
Aurora: No, I'm up with my dolls!

All opinions expressed in this post are well-reasoned and insightful.
Needless to say, they are not those of my Internet Service Provider, its
other subscribers or lackeys. Anyone who says otherwise is itchin' for a
fight. -- with apologies to Michael Feldman


  #165  
Old October 30th 03, 12:25 AM
Banty
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

In article ,
dragonlady says...

In article ,
Banty wrote:

In article , dragonlady
says...

In article ,
Penny Gaines wrote:

Banty wrote in :

Amazing what use can be made of summer and spring and holiday and other
breaks.
Say - Thanksgiving break is coming right up in a scant few weeks! What
a
wonderful time to visit a family member who may not be with the world
much
longer.

Doesn't that depend on whether you think the relative will still be around
for Thanksgiving? If they are really ill, maybe that four weeks is too
long
to wait.

I would add that the four days we got off for Thanksgiving might not be
enough time. At least for me, getting TO my relatives takes a full day
and costs a lot of money; spending the $$ to spend only two days there
is problematic. However, by adding 3 days out of school and work, one
could travel on a Saturday, stay for a full week, and travel back on a
Sunday.


Oh - well, yanno what? Need more travel time?? Just sooo happens that the
VERY
NEXT MONTH, right after the 5 day Thanksgiving break, there's whooooole long
two-week - what do they call it now? - WINTER HOLIDAY break. Very handy
for
those longer trips, unless said relative truly is at death's door.

Sorry to be snide, but there's ALWAYS going to be reasons like this that
people
give that they just haaaave to take the kids out now or this-or-that won't
work
out just as conveniently as can be.

If it's important, you work around it.

Maybe said relative really should have been visitied in August. Death's door
ain't exactly the time to make those last connections anyway in just about
all
but immediate-family cases. But, hey, since some folks think they can take
the
kids out just ANY time, why bother to have planned that.

When the reasoning gets weak, it's apparent that this is rationalizing that's
going on. Some families will do whatever, whatever the consequences, and
that's
the problem.

Banty


No need to get snotty to me; I was merely pointing out that the 4 days
of Thanksgiving break is not always enough time to visit family when a
family visit is necessary. Sometimes, family is a LONG way off.


It's frustrating to hear the "yeah buts". People say "its FAMILY time, and we
CAN'T DO IT OTHERWISE IT'S TOO EXPENSIVE" Well, *any* trip with parents can be
said to be 'family time', and "we can't do it otherwise" too often means "we
can't do this trip and the one we already have planned for summer and get the
deck built this year and...and..."

The thing is, if such requests were true (dying relative), and truly cannot be
done on the 365-180 days a year, they'd be rare requests. People and
institutions are willing to make way for rare requests. Think of approaching
your boss for 1 day's sanity time if you've only taken off 3 days the past three
years, vs. approaching your boss for 1 day's sanity time if you've taken off 20
days in the past two months. The OP could do her visit before Thanksgiving, few
questions asked, because the OP would not have had other absences, and teachers
wouldn't have already had it up to here with the 'we gotta visit grandma once a
month so we'll be taking off two days every month for family time Hey It's
Family' and similar stuff. Privelege extended and not abused.

Since my kids started school, I have not been faced with a need to make
a trip home to see a dying relative one last time. I have NOT gone home
for my father's surgeries, though had they not gone well I might have.
However, I have had friends in that position: when a call comes that
says Mom or Dad are terminal, and only expected to live another three
months at best, I, for one, would be hard pressed to criticise someone
for taking their kids out of school for a few days to see them one last
time. If they try to use a llong weekend (and that's all Thanksgiving
break really is) to minimize the time away from school and still make
the visit long enough to make sense I think that's probably a good idea.

The winter break may well be pushing it too far off, plus that can be an
extremely difficult (and more expensive) time to try to travel with kids.


Sure, it can happen for real where you'd really have to go. That would be a
relatively rare event - the kind people and institutions normally would be
inclined to accomodate. But if its because otherwise it'd be 'more expensive'??
Hey, since the school breaks are peak travel times ('cause of the rest of us
poor honest slobs who actually do try not to take our kids out of school,
y'know), it can ALWAYS be said that it would be more expensive not to take the
kids out of school for non-peak travel times. Most certainly not a rare case.
So I'm not convinced by that, and I dont' blame schools for not being convinced
by that.

Banty

  #166  
Old October 30th 03, 12:31 AM
toto
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 14:39:02 -0800, "Circe" wrote:

And by
the time my kids are graduating high school, I'm pretty certain that the
fallacies of NCLB will be wildly apparent to everyone because every single
school in the US will be failing by its standards and much of this testing
mania (including the exit exams) will have passed. But perhaps I'm too much
the optimist...


That is the point of the NCLB.

Don't you know that the whole idea is to destroy the public school
system so that the poor have no chance at an education at all?


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits
  #167  
Old October 30th 03, 12:35 AM
toto
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 16:55:20 -0600, "Vicki"
wrote:

"toto" wrote in message
.. .
On Wed, 29 Oct 2003 08:16:47 -0800, "Circe" wrote:

My neighbor, who is a kindergarten teacher herself, just took her first
grader out of school for a little over a week on an independent study
contract. I have a hard time believing she would do this to another

teacher
if she thought it would create a huge burden for that teacher.


I would suggest that the early grades are easier to do this in than
the later grades. If a child is reading well in first grade and is
up to speed on math skills some time off might not cause a problem.

But it sets a precedent. And I have found that most kids cannot take
so much time off once they are past the elementary level and still
manage to understand the work, particularly in mathematics.


I found mathematics to be the easiest to understand without a teachers help.
Picking up on symbolism in readings for English lit was much more
difficult--maybe b/c there were fewer aids for this, and you couldn't check
your work.

Perhaps so, but where many students fail is in algebra because they
must translate words into mathematical symbols with logical rigor.
Also, it's not the plug in and plug out and solving the numbers that
most math teachers are after but the ability to figure out which
formula to use, possibly to derive the formula for yourself and the
ability to explain why certain things work (proof).

And proof on the mathematical level does not come easy to most either.

I had a very good honors student who still got things backwards when
he attempted a geometry proof and who would argue about it too
though he was incorrect in his reasoning. Mathematical proofs don't
have the wiggle room that persuasive essays have.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits
  #168  
Old October 30th 03, 12:40 AM
Banty
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

In article f_Xnb.46659$hp5.28348@fed1read04, Circe says...

"Donna Metler" wrote in message
.. .
"Circe" wrote in message
news:%iXnb.46654$hp5.9943@fed1read04...
"Donna Metler" wrote in message
. ..
In addition, starting in grade 3, standardized test scores count

against
the
school. Depending on the state, it could be every year, or just

specific
ones. The real crisis years here are 3rd, 5th, and 8th, although

students
are tested in grades 1-8, with exit tests in high school subjects.

Well, unless I see some evidence that the new California tests are a

vast
improvement, both in content and scoring, over the old Stanford 9s, my

kids
won't be taking them, so no one need worry that their non-attendance

will
negatively affect test scores (not that I plan on taking them out, mind
you). While I realize that the school is under a mandate to test 95% of

its
students, sitting the test is optional for any individual student. And

by
the time my kids are graduating high school, I'm pretty certain that the
fallacies of NCLB will be wildly apparent to everyone because every

single
school in the US will be failing by its standards and much of this

testing
mania (including the exit exams) will have passed. But perhaps I'm too

much
the optimist...


And if more than 5% of the parents take this option, every year for the

next
three years, the school faces state takeover. Not a good thing.


To the contrary, if more than 5% of parents in most schools begin to
*refuse* to allow their children to be subjected to these absurd tests that
foolishly waste classroom time and resources (both human and financial),
that rarely reflect the curriculum accurately, and that wind up producing
results that are consistently both misinterpreted and misrepresented, I
strongly suspect that the testing mania will come to an end.


I hear what you're saying (and loathe the tests too - I won't even let teachers
bring up tests as a reason why my son should do x or y, other than being rested
and breakfasted on the day of the tests).

But of course, on the way to this test-free Nirvana, this nationwide surge of
High Stakes Civil Disobedience you propose would be disruptive and painful in
ways that really woudln't help to convince schools to relax their policies
concerning attendance. (Not that something like that shouldn't happen, but it
doesn't make a reason to take little Johnny to Hawaii).

In the meantime, the teachers hafta deal with what they hafta deal with. And
fourth graders going to Disney on school time don't help.

Cheers,
Banty

  #169  
Old October 30th 03, 12:45 AM
Vicki
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?


"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article ,

dragonlady
says...

In article ,
Penny Gaines wrote:

Banty wrote in :

Amazing what use can be made of summer and spring and holiday and

other
breaks.
Say - Thanksgiving break is coming right up in a scant few weeks!

What a
wonderful time to visit a family member who may not be with the world

much
longer.

Doesn't that depend on whether you think the relative will still be

around
for Thanksgiving? If they are really ill, maybe that four weeks is too

long
to wait.


I would add that the four days we got off for Thanksgiving might not be
enough time. At least for me, getting TO my relatives takes a full day
and costs a lot of money; spending the $$ to spend only two days there
is problematic. However, by adding 3 days out of school and work, one
could travel on a Saturday, stay for a full week, and travel back on a
Sunday.


Oh - well, yanno what? Need more travel time?? Just sooo happens that

the VERY
NEXT MONTH, right after the 5 day Thanksgiving break, there's whooooole

long
two-week - what do they call it now? - WINTER HOLIDAY break. Very handy

for
those longer trips, unless said relative truly is at death's door.

Sorry to be snide, but there's ALWAYS going to be reasons like this that

people
give that they just haaaave to take the kids out now or this-or-that won't

work
out just as conveniently as can be.

If it's important, you work around it.

Maybe said relative really should have been visitied in August. Death's

door
ain't exactly the time to make those last connections anyway in just about

all
but immediate-family cases. But, hey, since some folks think they can

take the
kids out just ANY time, why bother to have planned that.

When the reasoning gets weak, it's apparent that this is rationalizing

that's
going on. Some families will do whatever, whatever the consequences, and

that's
the problem.


You're right that we'll do this whatever the consequences. And I don't
think that's the problem. The problem is that a school feels they have the
authority to second-guess the decisions we are making for our family. Who
is the parent? Who has to decide what is in the best interest of this
child?

I don't think the school should be privy to the details of our family life
so *they* can *decide* whether our choice is, what, adequate? We had
planned to visit last summer but the effects of treatment were pretty bad
then. Now she is between treatments--her doctor is very agressive and will
start another round of chemo/radiation. This is the time. You don't plan
illness, or death. Maybe she will recover. You know, that is our hope.
That is our prayer. But we will see her, and her 6 yo daughter, before she
starts this next round of treatment. I can't imagine a family thinking
twice about this. To avoid truancy, eh? To save the teacher from the
difficulty of recordkeeping, eh? How do you judge the school to be so
all-knowing about what is best for my child and my family? I think that is
arrogant. I hope this slice of life on the internet is not representative
of what people believe.

I think the snobbery about people's decisions to go ski-ing, or to
Disneyland, is ridiculous too. You don't know what is best for that family.
Maybe they are working at saving their marriage. Maybe they are
reconnecting as a family. Our first trip to Mexico was instigated
suddenly--my folks decided to take my older sister away from her peer group.
She had started doing drugs and was running with a bad crowd. We were away
for a month in a foreign culture with none of the old distractions. It
worked. My sister figured out what was important, and what was not so
smart, and when we returned North, she started fresh, with a new group of
friends, and a new attitude. My *parents* decided what they thought would
work, and hey, it did. I can just hear the snobbery if parents did that
today--"Oh, that family thinks they are so special, they can just pull their
kids out of school for two weeks and go to Mexico. Who do they think they
are? Don't they think about what's best for their kids? Their poor
teachers. Send them the truancy letter. Fine them." Oh enough. The
parents and the kids live with their life choices. Not the teacher. When
does the state, the school, have the authority to step in? I don't believe
in totalitarian government. The arguments I hear here are not about what is
best for the child, and mostly not about education. They are about
recordkeeping, testing, grading, minor inconvenience... loss of total
control by the school. Small potatoes.



  #170  
Old October 30th 03, 01:05 AM
Banty
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Bright 2nd grader & school truancy / part-time home-school?

In article , Vicki says...


"Banty" wrote in message
...
In article ,

dragonlady
says...

In article ,
Penny Gaines wrote:

Banty wrote in :

Amazing what use can be made of summer and spring and holiday and

other
breaks.
Say - Thanksgiving break is coming right up in a scant few weeks!

What a
wonderful time to visit a family member who may not be with the world

much
longer.

Doesn't that depend on whether you think the relative will still be

around
for Thanksgiving? If they are really ill, maybe that four weeks is too

long
to wait.

I would add that the four days we got off for Thanksgiving might not be
enough time. At least for me, getting TO my relatives takes a full day
and costs a lot of money; spending the $$ to spend only two days there
is problematic. However, by adding 3 days out of school and work, one
could travel on a Saturday, stay for a full week, and travel back on a
Sunday.


Oh - well, yanno what? Need more travel time?? Just sooo happens that

the VERY
NEXT MONTH, right after the 5 day Thanksgiving break, there's whooooole

long
two-week - what do they call it now? - WINTER HOLIDAY break. Very handy

for
those longer trips, unless said relative truly is at death's door.

Sorry to be snide, but there's ALWAYS going to be reasons like this that

people
give that they just haaaave to take the kids out now or this-or-that won't

work
out just as conveniently as can be.

If it's important, you work around it.

Maybe said relative really should have been visitied in August. Death's

door
ain't exactly the time to make those last connections anyway in just about

all
but immediate-family cases. But, hey, since some folks think they can

take the
kids out just ANY time, why bother to have planned that.

When the reasoning gets weak, it's apparent that this is rationalizing

that's
going on. Some families will do whatever, whatever the consequences, and

that's
the problem.


You're right that we'll do this whatever the consequences.


Yep.

And I don't
think that's the problem. The problem is that a school feels they have the
authority to second-guess the decisions we are making for our family. Who
is the parent? Who has to decide what is in the best interest of this
child?

I don't think the school should be privy to the details of our family life
so *they* can *decide* whether our choice is, what, adequate? We had
planned to visit last summer but the effects of treatment were pretty bad
then. Now she is between treatments--her doctor is very agressive and will
start another round of chemo/radiation. This is the time. You don't plan
illness, or death. Maybe she will recover. You know, that is our hope.
That is our prayer. But we will see her, and her 6 yo daughter, before she
starts this next round of treatment. I can't imagine a family thinking
twice about this. To avoid truancy, eh? To save the teacher from the
difficulty of recordkeeping, eh? How do you judge the school to be so
all-knowing about what is best for my child and my family? I think that is
arrogant. I hope this slice of life on the internet is not representative
of what people believe.


If such requests as yours were relatively rare, there probably *woudln't* be
questions asked, except to get a general idea. And the extra resources and work
and time would get done because people like to be decent human beings.

But if folks get the feeling they've been taken advantage of and bothered too
many times for the same favor, or resources get tight, then things get more
scrutinized. Given your record - yeah, there's a problem. And not only for
you, for other families too by reflection of your actions. Public schools
simply can't afford to extend themselves to everyone if your attitudes are at
all common.


I think the snobbery about people's decisions to go ski-ing, or to
Disneyland, is ridiculous too. You don't know what is best for that family.
Maybe they are working at saving their marriage. Maybe they are
reconnecting as a family. Our first trip to Mexico was instigated
suddenly--my folks decided to take my older sister away from her peer group.
She had started doing drugs and was running with a bad crowd. We were away
for a month in a foreign culture with none of the old distractions. It
worked. My sister figured out what was important, and what was not so
smart, and when we returned North, she started fresh, with a new group of
friends, and a new attitude. My *parents* decided what they thought would
work, and hey, it did. I can just hear the snobbery if parents did that
today--"Oh, that family thinks they are so special, they can just pull their
kids out of school for two weeks and go to Mexico. Who do they think they
are? Don't they think about what's best for their kids? Their poor
teachers. Send them the truancy letter. Fine them." Oh enough. The
parents and the kids live with their life choices. Not the teacher. When
does the state, the school, have the authority to step in? I don't believe
in totalitarian government.


Yeah yeah. And little Sue needs a big sister to watch her, so teen Laurie has
to stay home two days a week, and our car broke down but whoopsie little Johnny
keeps missing the bus, and... and...

The arguments I hear here are not about what is
best for the child, and mostly not about education. They are about
recordkeeping, testing, grading, minor inconvenience... loss of total
control by the school. Small potatoes.


Yeah - must be "Small potatoes." They're just, y'know - - how your actions
affect others.

Banty

 




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