High Schools Today
 

My brother was late to school this morning by 4 minutes. He had a bloody nose when he woke up which put the brakes on him leaving to go to school on time.

My mom drives him to school since he goes to the high school one town over because it has a better baseball program and classes he likes.

So, she brings him to the office and its 4 minutes after the bell and they send him to "The Nest " [school mascot is the hornet]... So he gets to miss 90 minutes of Algebra for being 4 minutes late. He is not doing so hot in Algebra and I'm helping him and now he gets to miss more because he was late!

If a school bus is late by 4 minutes the students just go to class but my brother does not since he is dropped off. Two more "tardies" and he is suspended.

This is completely ridiculous. The school wonders why its FCAT score is so low. I disagree with this whole notion of sending a student to detention for being 4 minutes late, 15-20 minutes.. maybe.. Seriously


If I'm 4 minutes late to a college class I just get odd stares from people in class and nothing from the professor.

Back in 84, I had a teacher that would consider it a "tardy". When the bell goes, you are in the room or "tardy". 2 "tardy" = 1 unexcused absence. 4 unexcused absences = 1 letter grade. Make an "A" and if you are "tardy" 8 times and you got a "B". Mrs Lake Cooper. Calc I

Back in 85, my other instructor would mark his timetable on his office door. If he had a 1240 class, it would show Room XYZ at 1235. Barring a snowstorm, his bet was that he would give everyone in class ahead of him $5 if he was late. Nobody I know of has collected. Class has pop quizzes. Bell rings, door closes. After he hands out the quizzes, you don't get to take it if you aren't there and he has turned students away for that. Mr Dennis Karwatka. Quality Control.

It seems like many of the people running and teaching in our public schools lack common sense. In some schools there is no order or discipline, and in others disciplinary measures are absolutely draconian.

And someone will always complain about them either being too lax or too strict.

Ugh... I remember the F-cat horrible test....

My Dad was too strict from my POV. He was a silly moron who didn't understand anything about everything. The older I grew, the more I began to see his logic and why he was strict with me. In fact, if he didn't give me the spankings I so richly deserved, I suspect I would be doing a lot worse today and/or dead.

There are times when precision and punctuality matter, and times when they do not.


If you are 3 minutes late for a cookout that starts at noon, what is the damage?

If you are 3 minutes behind and miss your subway train and are delayed 5 minutes, what's the damage?

If you leave 5 minutes after the artillery barrage starts, it could be a problem...

If you put 63 oz of water in the gallon jug for KoolAid, does it matter?

If you double the dose of Plavix to a heart patient, it will matter. If you double the dose of metroprolol tartrate, it won't!.

Maturity is understanding what's important and what is not, and living thus informed.

PS NEVER EXPECT A SCHOOL SYSTEM TO ACT WITH JUDGEMENT AND/OR MATURITY! ESPECIALLY AS REGARDS THEIR STUDENTS, WHOM THEY TREAT WORSE THAN CONVICTS, IN MOST CASES.--

YOU SEE, EVEN CONVICTS GET CABLE TV! :eek::D

just like everything else public, its a product of lowest common denomonator. there is a rule for being late, this is the rule. If they leave it open to interpretation then there is an opportunity for bias and more complaints. best solution, get up earlier and get there on time, it will be the same even if he ends up working at McDonalds

All true. However, if you don't learn discipline and punctuality as a kid, when do you learn it? One thing I learned is that as a student, the penalty is very lax compared to as an adult. Fail a class? Take it again. Fail an assignment as an adult, you might be getting a copy of the Classifieds.

Not true. He gets into a habit of being late and McDonnalds will can his ass.

that was my point, sooner or later getting up a little earlier to avoid surprises like no clean clothes, car wont start, traffic accident etcetera. its a part of growing up, I get to work 15 minutes early and settle in

Yup. Can't win for losing. Damned if you do and damned if you don't. My guess is the kid can find his consequences in a student handbook that he and his parents signed at the beginning of the year to prove that they understood school tardiness policies. Schools can no longer afford to be capricious about this stuff and put it all in writing someplace.
Perhaps a different outcome might have been had with a simple parent's phone call to the office. "My son will be late to first block, he's having a bad nose bleed and we'll get him their when it's over, what can he do to avoid detention?"

That's truly odd. In my public high school's experience if I had a bloody nose and my mom drove me in and explained the situation they would have put me into the "excused tardy" category which would allow me to do that at least 15-20 times before the state starts getting angry.

I wouldn't have missed class too.

Sure. But I've only had a couple of jobs where I had to be in on time. I prefer otherwise.

Just send him to school and have him bleed allover the school nurse. At least he wouldn't be tardy.