On Attendance...
If you had a choice, would you choose to go to school?
With the new school ranking systems and focus on improvement, one of the areas that everyone is trying to work on is attendance. And this is a tough nut to crack. But there are two answers to this question:
Yes--
--I want to learn. I am intrinsically motivated, I value education and I understand what it
can do for me. (This is obviously the answer of the dream student. The answer that
educators and politicians would like to hear).
--School is my only time to socialize with my friends, or it is an opportunity to escape
my home life. (Ouch--not what we want to hear--but can we use this? At least they
want to be there--)
2. No--
--School is boring. (By the way, most would say that learning is not though.)
--I am not really learning anything new. (Or not enough to warrant the time spent.)
--School is a waste of time.
--When will I ever use this stuff again? Why do I have to learn this? What is the
relevance?
--I can Google the same information in a fraction of the time.
All real answers from real students.
We need the students to be able to answer Yes to this question in order to address the attendance issue.
To be continued…
