Well, Ana got a note home about the prize(s) for 100% attendance

[conuly]

First off, stylistically this note is a mess. They have words in bold for emphasis. They have words in bold and italics for even more emphasis. They have words in bold and underlined for when they got bored with bold-and-italics. And sometimes, to really make a point, they put words in bold, italics, AND underlined! I should be grateful that somebody got through to them about overusing exclamation points. But I'm not!!!! They only have one at the end of sentences (yay!), but they still have far! too! many! of! them!

Now, there's two different awards for having 100% attendance (no lateness - reading is taught in the morning! By my estimation they have three different reading and writing lessons a day, so I'm not sold on the argument that missing one of them once is going to ruin their literacy for life.)

The first is an individual prize. Children with 100% perfect attendance (no lateness!) for a month get tokens! And they can pick out a prize!

Now, this is... not my thing? But whatever, they're committed to this little token economy of theirs. Except here's something that actually pisses me off. Every month, the class with the most perfect attendance gets a pizza party at the start of the month. (Because "this school is a serious institution of learning and students spend the entire day engaged in meaningful educational activities... except when they're spending the first day of the month engaged in throwing pizza at each other.)

Now, they give a sop to those of us rightfully concerned that prizes for attendance encourage children to come to school sick and infect us all. "Of course we understand that when a child has a fever they must stay home and be under the care of a doctor...." Except that children who are absent for a legitimate illness - something well beyond their control - are still penalized! So if a classmate is truly seriously ill, or if they lack a car and are *just* too close to the school to get bus service on a day of truly inclement weather, or if they have to go see their great-grandmother (conversation overheard on the way home. Friend's comment? "But she CAN'T see her, she'll miss the basketball game!" (the special prize for attendance next month). Message learned, apparently? 93 year old relatives aren't as important as cheap trinkets and basketball games and pizza), will the class have sympathy for them? Well, maybe. Theoretically, the school wants to encourage compassion and other aspects of character. But more likely they'll resent their classmate for making them lose the pizza party. (They'll also resent that one perfect kid who skews the average for the class next door. That kid will ALSO keep them from winning a pizza party.)

This problem could be alleviated by counting excused absences as being present, or by asking for high (and not totally perfect) attendance instead. Of course, that'd overlook what is probably the most crucial reason they want perfect attendance, something they curiously avoided mentioning.

They get paid based on how many kids are in class each day.

So really, it's not what's best for each individual kid, it's what's best for the school - full funds. And I don't blame them. It's not like their costs actually go down just because there's a flu epidemic in December, they still have to heat and light the building and pay the teachers the same. But it would be nice if they just admitted that upfront, you know?

Comments

[beezelbubbles.livejournal.com]

I was the kid who ruined it for everyone because I had asthma, and chronic bronchitis. Lucky for us, our school also gave pizza parties for honor roll, and so I managed to redeem myself there. In fourth grade, my class racked up so many parties that at the end of the year we "gave" them away to other classes, because it would have been impossible for us to have them all without having pizza every day for a month.
I do think it's good to give kids a sort of light at the end of the tunnel in school. There is plenty of time for soul crushing when they hit the adult world. Even then, in my horrid evil corporate job, we still got cake once in a while.

[conuly]

Better for the schools to be designed not to be totally ebil in the first place rather than to try to pretty it up with parties, right?

Ana certainly enjoys school, and it seems different from how it was when I was a kid, although I don't know enough about their days to know that.

[beezelbubbles.livejournal.com]

Yeah. I mean, what's the point of making kids hate school for being boring and monotonous? Odds are good they'll start thinking of learning as boring and monotonous.
My daughter isn't anywhere near school-age, so I have a while before I have to start personally dealing with this stuff. I think really, as long as they're learning, school should be enjoyable. We'll still probably be doing a lot of supplemental learning once she is in school. (And pre-learning until then.)

[conuly]

What your child does before school starts isn't pre-learning, it's learning. And very important learning too. We do no favors for kids by acting as though academic skills (readin' and ritin' and rithmatic) are the only ones that "count".

[leora.livejournal.com]

I am unbelievably glad my school had no such policies; I was disliked enough already as a kid.

I don't know what my absence rate was in Elementary or Middle School. Partway through High School I started to pay attention when a teacher made a comment about me being absent yet again. I was so used to frequent absences; it was just life. Once I paid attention I noticed that there was ~never~ a school week where I was in class for all 5 days of the week. Most weeks I went for 4, some weeks I went for 3. I had chronic migraines and was just generally sickly. However, I learned the material and kept up. As far as I know, my schools simply faked my attendance records and I was recorded as having no more than could legally let me graduate each year.

At some point I simply stopped bringing in absence notes when I realized that absolutely nobody cared about me bringing them in.