Reply to Increase Absenteeism in Midle/Upper SES students not due to illness?

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Reply to "Increase Absenteeism in Midle/Upper SES students not due to illness?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]The whole "I have nothing going on in classes" is a complete lie. I don't know why parents accept this. The fact that they don't have a quiz or test means they are learning something new. I would much rather my student miss a testing day compared to a learning day[/quote]

This skips over a hard truth - some kids learn faster and better than others. The 2nd day of a concept in math might be new to some kids and agonizingly boring to others. You can be mad that the kids who pick things up quicker skip school but the pattern continues. People at work get their stuff done and then surf the internet or walk around chatting (or do other things if working from home). That's just how life works.

There are things FCPS could do to address this but it would mean greater differentiation and accepting that not everyone should be able to take honors classes. They won't do that so things will keep going the way they are.[/quote]

Yes. This is what it's like for my kids.  We are a high SES family in a low SES high school.  Both kids skip a TON of school.  I gave up caring a few years ago. Kid #1 graduated 1st in his class and is currently at a T20 and barely went to school.  His common experience was that he would show up on test day or a day when a project was due and half the class would not have their projects done so the teacher would give the entire class period so that those kids could finish, or postpone the test to another day and let the kids use the entire class period to study.  Meanwhile, my kid is sitting with his thumb up his ass bored to death.  Half the kids in his AP classes didn't belong there.  And because FCPS does block scheduling, every wasted period is 90 agonizing minutes.

Not every kid who skips school is bound to fail.  Some are ready for a higher level of challenge that is not readily available in every FCPS school.  I support my kids to know how much school they need to go to in order to get the results they want from their education.  So far, FCPS hasn't cared how much school they attend.  Neither of my kids has ever been flagged by the school or any individual teacher for absenteeism.
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These will be the same people who claim “we value education” because it sounds like the kind of thing people in their social circle should say, but their actions and attitudes reveal they actually don’t value education at all. [/quote]

PP said kid graduated 1st in their class and went to a T20 school. Is "valuing education" to you doing what you are told without critical thinking? I can pass on that type of "education.'[/quote]

You continuing saying first in class is so annoying. Fcps doesn’t even have class rank and hasn’t for 10 years. What is you kids major? If it is a major that values creativity like writing or English or theater than fine regular school is not doing that much help, but I can guarantee he’s not first in class and probably struggling at UVA now[/quote]

FCPS schools do have class rank, they just don't publish it or report it.  My kid asked his guidance counselor at the end of the year what his class rank was and GC pulled it right up in a readily-available excel spreadsheet and told him what it was.  I'm sure PPs kid is doing well at his T20.  Maybe you just can't handle the notion that because your kid is struggling with APs and Honors classes and goes to school every day and studies all the time that means that it is impossible for another student to do better with less effort.[/quote]

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