Waning days, shrinking classes
This is a guest post from The Sun's multimedia editor, Mary Hartney:
Today was my last day at a city elementary school, which I visited an hour a week to either read to third-graders or be read to (depending on the kids' moods) as part of a volunteering program.
And though I was delighted at the cards the kids had written and decorated for me today as a goodbye (including a heart-shaped one from the classroom bully), I was mostly struck by how sleepy the school was. The parking lot was half-full, the middle-schoolers were wandering around aimlessly and my classroom had five kids in it. Five! Out of, oh, 20-something. It was hot, but that can't be the reason: The classroom had better air-conditioning than my apartment. The teacher told me the group of students had dwindled down slowly each day, to today's pathetic number. And what can she really do?
Maybe it's because my parents never let us off the hook with school and we attended every day until the end (which, to be honest, at the time I thought was unfair), but I believe if school's in session, kids should go. Parents have to be responsible for making sure their children attend, but teachers and administrators have to provide a reason for school to be in session. Half-days mean movies, coloring books and cleaning blackboards. I certainly don't think kids need any more tests to bring them in, but there's no reason school can't be school until the end.
It feels like a wicked cycle, like the "Field of Dreams" line, "If you build it, they will come." If you teach them, they will come. If you don't teach, they have no incentive to come, and there won't be a critical mass of kids and a reason to teach. Surely someone can break this cycle.
I get that kids need a break from what we demand of them; they need field days and recess and plays. Teachers, too. But just skipping out on school days because everyone else does it seems counterintuitive.
Today was only Tuesday. How many kids will there be on Friday?
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Comments
I think we started talking about this on Inside Ed here and on my blog here too. Having a whole week of half days for the last week of school is guaranteed to minimize attendance as early dismissals are nearly impossible for families with working parents to deal with. Typically attendance is a metric for schools, but records got turned in before the last week. I'm guessing there's a contractual need for a number of half days and by putting them as the last 5 days of school nobody has to admit that attendance was awful. Even if you can swing the logistics of dropping off and picking up your kid, when most are at home your kids will hate you for making them go in. So far we've made 2 out of 2 days, but it's a one day at a time decision.
Posted by: a parent | June 10, 2008 8:59 PM
My first year teaching in Baltimore City, I was stunned when our Master Teacher appeared at my door at 10AM on May 15th. She had two fifth-grade students with her, and she asked, "Where are your reading books?"
Confused, I answered, "Ummm... my students are using them?" (We were in the middle of reading.) Apparently, I missed the memo that said all textbooks would be collected on May 15th. That sure messed up my long-term lesson plans.
So, I'd say, student absenteeism is endemic in the system. The real goal is for teachers to be able to leave for the summer hours after the children do.
Forget about "field days," et al. Parents keep their children home because, "They're not doing anything in school, anyway." Teach until the last day, and the students will come until the last day.
Posted by: Kemmer | June 10, 2008 9:16 PM
Having been a former teacher of the city school system I would like to say that many teachers would like to continue to teach until the last day but in many cases it is not the teacher but the administrator in the building that has set the tone. The school system would be wise to pay teachers for 195 or 200 days and allow teachers the opportunity to set up a vibrant learning environment at the start of the school year and then a week after the students leave for the summer to take care of the professional responsibilities and paperwork that are required without requiring them to sit in endless meetings that make very little difference to teachers and students.
As it stands now in some schools text book, technology and other instructional resources are/have been collected and inventoried as early as the end of May. So teachers are teaching without the aid of curricular materials that are outlined in the school systems own published curriculum. In addition to this teachers are required to close attendance and also close grades and produce report cards a good week before the end of the school year not to mention update cumulative file for each student (which should in this day and age be electronic) but requires a teacher to handwrite the same information in different ways at least three times. If the school system simply extended the year and made report cards and attendance due a week after students leave then texts, technology could be collected without an impact on student learning without expecting teachers to complete these activities during the school year or without pay. That would make it an honest 180 days of instruction.
Posted by: A Former Teacher | June 11, 2008 8:31 AM
"A former teacher" knows what he or she is talking about. Therein lies the problem. Not teachers just not wanting to do anything.
Keep blaming the teachers and see how many we have left.
Posted by: Heather | June 11, 2008 12:42 PM
I'm definitely not blaming the teachers -- I certainly wouldn't want to hold official classes for two kids! It's an endemic problem across the board.
Posted by: mary | June 11, 2008 7:31 PM