Musings: Truancy needs no fancy name
Students shouldn't be the ones deciding whether to skip a day of school. Credit: Getty Images/kali9
When I attended public school, chronic absenteeism was called truancy. Both my parents worked, and it was made very clear to me that missing school was not an option. Those who did skip school were regarded as truants. Parents were notified and often were required to meet with school officials to discuss the absence.
Nowadays, we have a topic called absenteeism. Adding "ism" to "absentee" seems to have changed the problem from a matter of discipline and/or parental neglect to something that needs to be analyzed, treated, and accommodated.
Children should be attending school, and parents should require their children do so. Parents who occasionally allow their child to miss school, for instance to give that child the freedom to make that request, have abdicated a parental responsibility.
It should not be up to the child to decide when to return to school. A child needs to be taught that going to school is a responsibility and an obligation and, in many less fortunate countries, a privilege. It prepares that child for the real world where employers expect employees to show up.
I have a suggestion: Remove "ism" from the word and advise parents of a truant that their child will not be graduating with a diploma unless that student shows up and earns it.
— Martin Dorfman, Plainview
WE ENCOURAGE YOU TO JOIN OUR DAILY CONVERSATION. Just go to newsday.com/submitaletter and follow the prompts. Or email your opinion to letters@newsday.com. Submissions should be no more than 200 words. Please provide your full name, hometown, phone number and any relevant expertise or affiliation. Include the headline and date of the article you are responding to. Letters become the property of Newsday and are edited for all media. Due to volume, readers are limited to one letter in print every 45 days. Published letters reflect the ratio received on each topic.
