Going For The Gold!

As you can imagine, I get voice-mail messages weekly from parents who want one thing or another from me. Surprisingly often it is a request to talk to their son or daughter about something; a failed exam, poor attendance, questions about lab... I tell my students in the beginning of the year that they don’t have to have their mommy call and ask me to work with them....they can ask themselves. I usually reply to these requests by telling the parent to have their child come to see me...many times they don’t.

Last week I got a new request; one I had never gotten before. A parent called and asked me to change an marked absence I had recorded for the student to a present. The student had not been in my class when the bell rang that day, arriving late after attending a meeting with a guest speaker. The student had permission from the administration to attend this meeting and arrived with a pass about 20 minutes into the period. I collected the pass and went along with class, failing to change the “absent” to an “excused tardy” on my computerized attendance list.

A few days later the student approached me to tell me that she was marked absent on a day when she was here...though not here at the beginning of the period. When students are marked absent and not on the formal absence list for the day the attendance office calls them in and questions them on where they were. I returned the pass to the student–I keep all passes of this kind just for this occasion–and told her to show it to the attendance person when called in. She seemed satisfied and sat down with her pass in hand. About a week later the girl came to me again and said that her attendance record still showed an absence and that the attendance office had not called her in to discuss it. I told her not to worry–the attendance office must have a list of the students who missed class that day and didn’t need to check with her. I assumed that she was worried about being accused of skipping class. I learned the truth last week.

Last Tuesday I got a call from her mother asking me to go to the office and have the attendance record changed. She explained that her daughter had not missed a day of school--not even a period--in all her years of school. Perfect attendance for 10 years. She explained that her daughter was “going for the gold”, whatever that means, and it was a “matter of family pride” that she have perfect attendance, my absence mark the only blemish on her otherwise perfect record. Her voice on the recording was close to hysterical.

Many other teachers would have made a big deal about her really being absent, even if still in school, but they teach English. On a scale of 1 - 10 where 10 is an important issue to stand firm on, this is a 0.03. I went to the office and convinced the attendance person to change the record to reflect that she was there that day. It took all of 90 seconds to accomplish. The next day I noticed that her attendance record had changed.

Students can check their attendance and grades online from home. Parents can also access the information. The attendance and grades appear on the same page when called up by either parents or student, making we wonder why the call wasn’t about the fact that the girl was failing my class. She has a 53% and 47% on the two exams so far this quarter and two missing assignments. Apparently “going for the gold” doesn’t apply to grades. I still find it troubling that a parent would appear so concerned about a one period absence and so uninterested in failing grades.