A kid said to me during tutoring today "I love my mother." I answered her "I know. I met your mom and she is great." She then said, "My mom is picking me up at 11:30 to take me to the beach." I said, "but you will miss math if you leave then." She said, "Life is short, you only live once."
I'm all for kids spending time with their parents. I value every minute I had when my own children were living home and keep valuing the time I spend with them. I treasure the time I had with my mom and still have with my dad but school always had to come first. I never would have taken my kids out of school to go to the beach or to a movie and my kids were good students most of the time. I especially would not have allowed my kids to miss classes that they were failing. This girl is failing math. She has a final exam next week and the regents two weeks after that. I know the weather was beautiful today. Not being on the beach today meant missing a great outdoor opportunity. Unfortunately, summer school will cause her to miss many more of these opportunities. Maybe I am just a prude. Maybe her mom made the right call. Who am I to judge?
5 comments:
I had a student who told me last week that she would be missing school to go to the beach. I informed her that she would be doing the essay for her final exam on that day. She hemmed and hawed, but she showed up for the exam (which actually had to be postponed). I can't believe parents would pull their kids out of school to go to the beach. Get real. Like you implied, if they do their work during the year, they'd have plenty of time to go to the beach during the summer... instead of spending the whole time in summer school!
At least yours only go to the beach for part of one day. We have kids missing a week or better of school to go on Caribbean vacations (after all, those hotels and airfares are just too darn expensive during our vacation weeks).
Last year we had two 5th grade sisters enroll just before the math TAKS test. They don't show up in school for the Math TAKS test. The school phones and tells the parents to bring in the girls. The Mother swears they are horribly ill. School points out they are home alone (parents were contacted at work). School explains they will be sending Social Worker over for a home visit NOW. Kids come in, they are not ill. They failed. They had already failed the first round of the reading test.
The Day of the Reading retake, they are absent and no answer at home - parents aren't at work. They miss the next day also (Science TAKS test). Friday they come in very tanned. Bragging how Mom and Dad beat the school. They missed the test because they were "sick", so the school has to pass them to 6th grade.
The person in charge of the TAKS test has a surprise. We can give the reading test as a make up during the week and even over that weekend. So they are taken to the office literally screaming to take the test - which they fail.
Now they disappear from school without withdrawing. When a home visit is conducted Mom informs us she is home schooling. (Mom is barely able to read and write).
Next fall we get a request for their records from the 6th grade campus of a neighboring district. Our principal calls the other principal directly and informs the new school both girls failed the TAKS refused make up 3 on reading and make up 2 and 3 on Math, and they failed the year in every subject.
Father shows up yelling and threatening - fortunately 2 cops happened to be on campus. Father left and never came back. If this family put the energy they used to get around the test into helping their girls learn - they would possibly had passed the tests and the year. pe
Who are you to judge? You're her math teacher. It's clear that the set of values being brought to school here is not correlated with success. If success is unimportant, then why is she bothering to attend at all? This implicates values, yes, but also common sense: If something (school in this case) is worth doing, then it is worth doing right.
Some parents neither see nor take the long view when it comes to raising their children.
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