AUSTIN, Texas -- Parents beware: Miss a meeting with your child's teacher and it could cost you a $500 fine and a criminal record.
A Republican state lawmaker from Baytown has filed a bill that would charge parents of public school students with a misdemeanor and fine them for playing hooky from a scheduled parent-teacher conference.
Rep. Wayne Smith said Wednesday he wants to get parents involved in their child's education.
"I think it helps the kids for the parents and teachers to communicate. That's all the intent was," Smith said.
Sounds like a good idea to me. Your child is more important than anything else in the world. If it takes a $500 fine to get the parents to be responsible then so be it.
"Leon" wrote in news:MaUwh.1329$ snipped-for-privacy@newssvr14.news.prodigy.net:
I was part of a school that wanted parents to get involved. They came up with one activity that they got everyone to do, and that was take the rule sheet home and have a parent sign it. That's really getting involved now. (All it really did was create hassle for me, having to remember to bring the thing home and back again.)
I can see where this may be a good idea. Particularly in schools that are having "behavioral" problems with students whose parents are barely older than the children the school is trying to educate. What is a school to do when you have a discipline problem with a child and the parents continually avoid meeting with the teacher? Since education is mandatory and provided at taxpayer expense, there are some responsibilities that parents should assume.
Of course the application of this law needs to be reasonable. Trying to apply it to a parent who has an emergency situation the first time a meeting is scheduled should not result in a fine, after the second or third missed meeting however, it seems that the school should have some recourse.
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Well, even if the others here won't say anything, I for one am proud of you for standing up for your rights as a parent. As there are many just like you that feel that skipping part of your child's needs are there prerogative, that is no doubt what brought this about.
My best buddy is a teacher in a disadvantaged district, and believe me, people like you make his job easy. Less than 30% of the parents that make appts. to see him show. That's right, less than 30%. The students that need a parent/teacher/prinicpal conference are not his star students, and he feels since their parents have sent them to the school to be raised rather than taking that on themselves (hey... they just pumped 'em out), the school should get a little help with the kids. Most likely source in their unenlightened eyes are the parents. Progress reports go unanswered; emails ignored; phone calls are unreturned.
As he will tell you, most of >those< kids never make it to their senior year.
But as we all know, the kiddos have rights, too. Their dumbasses have a right to stay just as stupid, uncaring, and ignorant as their uncaring parents. It is a tradition with some that has been passed from generation to generation. And my buddy will tell you too, some of the parents that do show up have a lot of bad attitude about their day being interrupted by the school calling; the only reason they show up is the threat of expulsion or long term suspension. Then the school would no longer baby sit; the parents would be fully responsible. Sensing the lesser of two evils (and impending responsibility), the parent go to the conference. I know you see their point; really, who wants to put out any more effort than you need to to take care of your kid?
Imagine someone wanting to break that cycle.
Thanks for standing up for all the other that are too stupid and lazy to take care of their kids. Without people like you to bravely speak up about how stupid it is to get parents involved in the education and affais of their children, we wouldn't even realize how far out of hand this whole parental involvement bullshit has gotten.
Good for you!
I will say though, I am not sure what being a Texan has to do with anything... you weren't by chance sticking your tongue out when you said that were you? This is the internet, so if you were you need to let us know.
It's really sad that a LOT of parents view school as something akin to sending raw materials into a factory. They just want to pick up a finished part at the end, and they blame the school for the problems.
My wife sees this even in Pre-K (She's a teacher for kids with special needs).
Go get 'em. It would be a whole other story if one of the teachers was to strike one of the students.....you wouldn't be able to keep the parent away from the school and they would attend every meeting between their attorney and the school!
Yep, the ones who attend conferences are the parents of the kids whose effort and results are generally the best. Can't say it publicly, or in the lounge, which might be wired, because it's not the position of the NEA, but over partitions in the john most teachers will confess to believing that parental concern may be the reason for the kids' positive outcome.
Sometimes it's the village idiot who wants to raise your kids, what?
Leon, I'm sorry but your credibility just nosed dived here.
This is SO beyond anything close to an acceptable answer that it's laughable. You really think that good parenting, like morals, can be legislated? Wake up.
People that habitually ignore the teacher will not give the meeting any effort. Attend or be fined? They'll show up and play cards or something.
The idea that a civil authority thought this was a real way to do something useful for children's education is nuts. He should be impeached.
Trouble is that thanks to bussing kids all over Hell's half acre, some parents can't _get_ to the frelling school. Poor people in the inner city don't always have cars to drive to the suburban paradise that the courts have decided is appropriate for schooling their kids, and the school bus may be the _only_ bus that goes near there. Was the school willing to send a bus to pick up the parent?
Working the 2.5 minimum wage jobs required to pay the rent and put food on the table perhaps... Outside of that or being in the hospital or jail, not much...
The schools simply want the parents involved and especially when the kid gets into trouble. You might as well piss your pants because you child has to go to school also.
The HS that my son graduated from had heavy parent involvement. At all of the parent student meetings the principal an teachers preached that the students that had parent involvement at the school were the ones that did the best. His graduation had 130 students of which half intended to go on to college. His graduation class was awarded 1.5 million dollars in college scholastic academic scholarships for those 65 students.
Well the parents should have thought of that before neglecting their children. You child is more important than any job or rent. Where there is a will, there is a way. If the parent gets fined because he cannot attend to his child's needs he needs to do better parenting at home so that the child does not require a parent teacher meeting. The parents are responsible for their children and the schools are not baby sitters.
I agree that bussing is stupid but that a long buss trip for the parent is simply one more lame excuse for not tending to your child's needs. There is plenty of before hand warning of the consequences if a parent misses a meeting. If it would present a hardship to attend a meeting for my child's benefit I would see to it the my child understood what a hardship it would be to attend a meeting far from home. Its time to quit making excuses for not taking care of our children.
There are going to be a million other reasons this would be inconvenient for the parents. My suggestion is to take steps to see to it that your child stays out of trouble.
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