Comments about ‘Skipping school in kindergarten can cause academic problems later’

Remember, according to today's politicians, it is all the teacher's fault when the kids are truant--even in Kindergarten. Remember, there is no accountability for parents, just teachers because that is what we do best in America--blame someone else.

Is education a government service, or a forced involuntary activity that one cannot opt out of?

We have to ask the question: Are our children prisoners against their will?

Who should make the decision as to what a child must do? Whose child is it anyway, the parents' or the State's?

Unless our children are being held against their will, without having done anything criminal except to be a child, then the parent must be free to decide whether a child attends or not.

Otherwise, we must admit that we are allowing the state to holding our children hostage. Why?

I always made school attendance a priority with my kids. We never once skipped school to ski, go to the mall, Disneyland etc. They missed school for illness, medical or dental appts that couldn't be scheduled any other time or a funeral.

I felt that regular attendance at work is important and they would realize that by regular attendance at school.

Besides that, there are plenty of vacation days sprinkled throughout the school year to do fun things.

100% attendance is so overrated. I resent it when parents send their sick kids to school.

I liked how my parents treated school attendance. They saw being a student as a job and didn't mind if we took off "sick" days or "vacation" days, so long as we made up the work. Allowing kids to take a break from school, such as a family vacation, would sharply reduce the number of "hooky" incidents, I think.

I really enjoy the truancy stunts...those crazy kids!

Since kindergarten is not legally required in Utah, how on earth can a kindergartner be "truant"??? State law requires that children who are 6 years old as of September 1st be in school, whether public, private or home schooled. Not age 5.

If you deny a child an education, isn't it a form of abuse? You are damaging them mentally in a way they most likely may never recover from. Child are not possessions. Parents shouldn't be considered owners of children. I'm not advocating not having parental rights, but the children also have rights. They have a right to a good loving home, without physical and mental abuse. They have a right to be able to reach their own potential. Anyone who thinks that a child should be denied these things is selfish. Shame on them.

In high school there is a very high correlation between attendance and grades. It seems as though those who enjoy school and have a good attitude are rarely sick, while those who don't enjoy it find ways of missing school. So, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, so to speak.

Parents who take their childen on vacations and cause them to miss significant periods of school are another problem altogether. There are some things that can never be made up and whose loss may come back to haunt them later on in life.

If parents don't think that school attendance is important, their children won't either. Parents who stress good attendance will probably have children who are academically more proficient and well-rounded.

It isn't the attendance that bugs teachers. If you want your kids to stay at home or go to Disneyland, fine, they're your kids.

Just don't expect me to tutor them on my time to bring them back up to speed for the entire week they spent in Florida.

Vacations quickly become the burden of teachers.

I have not seen one poster tie this problem of truancy in with the issue of judging teachers on student performance. There is a DIRECT CORRELATION on attendance, student performance and the judging of teachers. No one wants to touch that issue on Capitol Hill because it is easier to complain about lousy teacher performance. As an educator judge me based on the test results of my students who have a 90%, even 85% attendance rate. With the way it is set up now teachers who use criterion referenced tests (CRT) are judged on ALL students on their rolls, even if a student rarely shows up. That is why teachers are against performance testing because there is no attendance requirement linked to it.