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School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

nytimes.com

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Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#161

Post by tejohnso »

williamcotton wrote: post #87
candiddevmike wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my area, you get 10 days of unexcused absence per year before parents and kids start receiving fines and possibly a referral to CPS. That number is way too small IMO, and it forces folks to go to the doctor constantly for getting small illnesses excused (school policies are 24 hours without a fever, but they don't take temperatures, it's honor based...), since you want to keep those 10 days for an actual vacation.

Why would you take your kids on a vacation during school? There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer.

> There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer.

When everyone else is doing the same thing. If you do it at a different time you could benefit from reduced costs and reduced traffic. You can also provide your child with a more rewarding and engaging experience than the drudgery and frustrating inefficiency of the typical school pedagogy.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#162

Post by mattw2121 »

whywhywhywhy wrote: post #142
mattw2121 wrote: post #9

"because teachers must slow down and adjust their approach to keep everyone on track." Do this and then you'll have your top performers start being absent as well -- out of boredom. I'd suggest sending kids that are lagging behind, and those that have high absentee rates, into remedial classes. Education should get kids excited about learning. From my experience, nothing gets kids more excited than the feeling that t…

Ah yes put the kids struggling (let’s ignore it could be the teachers being bad that causes this) with the disruptive kids so it’s even harder for them to learn. Great solution.

I don't think I mentioned disruptive kids, but I have another solution for them. If they are disruptive, keep them out of the classes. First, in school suspension, then out of school suspension, then expel them.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#163

Post by bnralt »

danpalmer wrote: post #110
williamcotton wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you take your kids on a vacation during school? There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer.

Not sure why you're being downvoted. Education is important, missing a week can set a student back by a long way. Holidays are fun and if you have the resources they are certainly worth doing, but not at the cost of keeping up with a child's education. If you can't afford the holiday at the prices when schools are off, maybe you can't afford the holiday! There are plenty of affordable holidays always available and ki…

> Education is important, missing a week can set a student back by a long way.

It will set some back, it won’t set others back at all. Telling a kid who can keep up or who is ahead of the class that they can’t take a vacation because another kid couldn’t keep up if they took a vacation is bizarre. It’s like saying that someone who’s ahead of where the class is needs to go to summer school because a kid in the class who’s behind needs to take summer school.

Why should we use the lowest performers as the baseline, and tell higher performers that they aren’t allowed to do things they’re fully capable of doing?

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#164

Post by pavel_lishin »

williamcotton wrote: post #87
candiddevmike wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my area, you get 10 days of unexcused absence per year before parents and kids start receiving fines and possibly a referral to CPS. That number is way too small IMO, and it forces folks to go to the doctor constantly for getting small illnesses excused (school policies are 24 hours without a fever, but they don't take temperatures, it's honor based...), since you want to keep those 10 days for an actual vacation.

Why would you take your kids on a vacation during school? There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer.

Because those breaks don't line up with things like the solar eclipse.

Because those breaks don't line up with other cousins' breaks.

Because those breaks don't line up with great-grandma's 95th birthday, and she lives a full day's journey away.

Because those breaks don't line up with your work schedule, or your partner's work schedule.

Because my child is excelling academically, and I absolutely don't think that she'll get as much value out of being in school on Thursday & Friday as she will visiting her relatives in a foreign country for a long weekend.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#165

Post by oldpersonintx »

jawns wrote: post #18

Is it possible that expectations around attendance have never been reasonable or even safe? In an ideal world, people shouldn't go to work or school when they are sick. Not only does it slow their recovery, but in the case of communicable diseases, it spreads the illness. Yet a lot of schools have released post-pandemic guidance about how students should still come to school with minor illnesses. And most workplaces…

[dead]

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#166

Post by annoyingnoob »

fullshark wrote: post #81
alpaca128 wrote: post #30

> school administrators have tried almost everything, including pajama day, to boost student attendance Because "school but with one funny twist" is still school with the same broken system. It's like the workplace memes about ping-pong tables and free food, you can't fix the problem without fixing it.

Ping pong tables and free food worked pretty well for a while, but the true motivator there was the illusory value of startup equity lottery tickets it appears.

> the illusory value of startup equity lottery tickets it appears

Kind of like the lottery, you cannot win if you do not play. I could have a job with a paycheck, or I could have a job with a paycheck and a lottery ticket.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#167

Post by ajmurmann »

tejohnso wrote: post #161
williamcotton wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you take your kids on a vacation during school? There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer.

> There are plenty of breaks during the year including all of summer. When everyone else is doing the same thing. If you do it at a different time you could benefit from reduced costs and reduced traffic. You can also provide your child with a more rewarding and engaging experience than the drudgery and frustrating inefficiency of the typical school pedagogy.

Even without that summer is a terrible time to travel to many destinations. IMO much of Europe and southeast Asia is way too hot at that time. Mid to Late Spring and early Fall are much better.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#168

Post by willcipriano »

shrimp_emoji wrote: post #71
the_sleaze9 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I understand it, USA is one of the highest funded education systems in the world. Funding for education even outpaces USA's um.. robust defense spending. The trick is to look into total funding - beyond federal funding and into state funding. I strongly agree that education in the internet age needs to evolve. I would love to see an education system centered around critical and entrepreneurial thinking, financial…

But it's also one of the biggest countries in the world. It's simply too big and undeveloped for education to work as well as in, say, Switzerland. See also public transportation.

It's near the top per student as well.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#169

Post by Workaccount2 »

mikewarot wrote: post #152

Kids have been soaked in the news that we're all doomed because of climate change, and they won't ever be able to afford the American dream, no matter what. Consider the filter bubble your friend from the other side of the political aisle is in. The kids have their own and they don't have any real life experiences to weigh against it. They know they don't have a future. They have no evidence to the contrary. Why woul…

Economics and climate change?

I'd be slacking off because it is clear that AI is going to be the brain job top dog by the time I get to career stage.

Re: School absences have ‘exploded’ almost everywhere

#170

Post by [deleted] »

freitzkriesler2 wrote: post #131
williamcotton wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minor sniffles and sneezes should not result in anyone staying home. The pandemic has clearly altered this mentality but it doesn’t seem like a good trajectory. A little cold is barely an inconvenience.

Pretty much this. People keep kids home now for almost any reason at all and you'll get a chorus of replies telling you that your opinion is wrong. People need to toughen up. Not every cold is covid.

[deleted]
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