Truancy

There have been a couple of articles in the paper this week about students skipping school. The school system is now asking the police department to get involved. It sounds like skipping school will be treated as a crime. Kids can't be convinced to stay in school? send the cops after them!

When I was a kid, I think there was only one day when I flat out skipped school (that I remember... there might have been more.) I love learning and education (and I love being a teacher), but the public schools were misery. I hated going to school. It was drudgery. You were trapped in a room with a large number of other kids, and the teacher would drone on and on about the subject at hand, most of the time ignoring you, but every now and then you would suddenly be expected to provide an answer. I remember endless hours of watching the second hand spin slowly around the face of the clock on the wall. School was boring and sometimes emotionally painful. I used to fantasize about the school blowing up, imploding, or otherwise ceasing to exist so that we would all be free.

So. Based on my experience, I would guess that kids are skipping school because they think it is a waste of their time. Getting the police to force them to attend school is not going to help. I'm willing to bet it will make things worse. Now, instead of empty seats in the classroom, we'll have angry, sulking students in those seats. Fining the parents isn't going to help either. That's just going to create a more hostile home environment.

If the school system really wants to keep the kids in school, make school more interesting. Get better teachers. Find a way to reduce the classroom size to twelve students per teacher. I know it's expensive, I know everyone is moaning about high taxes (myself included), but this is important. If the public schools had a class size of no more than 12 students, the kids would be getting a better education.

If a teenager really doesn't want to be in school no matter what, then check up on their home life and make sure there aren't any serious problems. If the home life checks out okay, then let the kid drop out of school. They can always go back later if they decide they want to. It might be harder later, but they'll get more out of it. As a teacher, the last thing I want in my classroom is a student who doesn't want to be there. At best, that student is going to sleep through class or sit quietly and doodle. At worst, that student is going to disrupt the classroom and interfere with everyone else's education.