NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #26/NN_1992_26.iso/spool/ont/general/2049

Internet Message Format | 1992-11-10 | 1.8 KB

Path: sparky!uunet!utcsri!torn!news.ccs.queensu.ca!qucis.queensu.ca!ember!vicuna!gtm-inc!terry
From: [e-mail] (Terry Gerritsen)
Newsgroups: ont.general
Subject: Back to School
Keywords: Punishement
Message-ID: <[e-mail]>
Date: 10 Nov 92 23:52:51 GMT
Reply-To: [e-mail] (Terry Gerritsen)
Distribution: ont
Organization: G.T.M. Incorporated, Kingston, ON [phone]
Lines: 25
Content-Type: Text


     Teacher magazine reports that the Paterson, N.J., school system,
in cooperation with a local judge, has come up with a new approach to
combating chronic student absenteeism: ordering parents of traunts to
work in the schools. The municipal court judge, Nestor Guzman, has
reportedly sentenced at least 30 parents of habitual truants to spend
between a week and a month serving as hall monitors, filing papers,
and even scrubbing graffiti off walls.
     Critics of the program argue that it is unfair both in punishing
what may be innocent parents, and ineffective in motivating the traunt
students themselves to improve their attendance. Local school officials
say the new techique works, however, with average daily attendance
rising from 91 to 93 percent in hust the first two months.
     Other communities have required parents of truants to attend school
with their children, but Paterson school officials think their program
is the first to actually require parents to perform services in the schools.

Should parents receive punishment (Y or N)?
comments welcome

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Terry Gerritsen         |  G.T.M. Incorporated              [phone]
[e-mail]       |  Kingston, Ontario           Fax: [phone]
                      "Transportation is our business"
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