My spouse has taught for over two decades, I taught for 10 or so years before transitioning to gasp administration.
Kids miss school more often today than when we started; our original attendance books prove that, at least for our classrooms. Reasons now range from spa days, to the kid didn't feel like getting up, to, and this is p.e.r.v.a.s.i.v.e., 7-10 day long vacations in September and October.
This year, my spouse has not had a full classroom any single day due to family vacations. Pre-covid, it was not better, either.
I'm afraid that I come across as a grumpy old man, but this is a problem that did not exist in the past. Education is seen as a burden, and a box to be checked anymore. Take from that sentence whatever you want.
I also hear technology is destroying what is left of their actual class time. Kids are now given laptops so they have plenty of opportunity to tune out class work and do whatever they want and the teachers just have to deal with it. When I was in school tech gadgets were confiscated be it a beeper, gameboy, calculator or walkman, and later on, cellular phones.
Just last night I was talking about this with my brother who told me about his co worker who is a former NYC school teacher. He said he spent half of his teaching time telling kids to stop playing fortnight or browsing social media. After talking to my brother I called a friend who is a 4th grade teacher and said he also deals with social media browsing and gaming in class.
Feels like we're actively working on building an actual Idiocracy.
Interesting—my spouse has only been in a little over a decade, and has switched districts enough times that we hadn't put together any kind of pattern of changes over the years. I just know that the frequency with which kids are out for a week to visit family in another state (not even around a holiday!) or out for spa days / nails / haircuts et c., seems totally alien to me. I was only out for, like, funerals, or if I had a fever or was vomiting or was in the hospital. I think there might have been one or two times, in my 13 years of school, when we cut out one day before a break to get a jump on a long drive, but that is the entire extent of "optional" days off I had, for all those years. One or two days, total, in 13 years, and I'm not entirely sure we actually did that ever, or maybe my parents just discussed it but ended up not doing it. I grew up thinking that was the overwhelming norm for attitudes toward schooling. It blows my mind that quite a few parents think nothing of pulling their kid out for a whole day, or taking them out early, just to go hang out! Often several times every year!
> This year, my spouse has not had a full classroom any single day due to family vacations. Pre-covid, it was not better, either.
I've got some friends saying their schools are hovering around 80% daily attendance this year, between the usual stuff and COVID. And I think some of the more lax parents are using COVID excuses for their usual BS, making things even worse. Plus the too-frequent days when they can't find enough substitutes and just have to stick 3+ classes in the cafeteria or gym for babysitting. Educational outcomes for this ~2.5 years (once this school year's over, it'll have been about that much) are gonna be really bad. Online, in-person, barely matters, it's all bad. :-(
>Educational outcomes for this ~2.5 years (once this school year's over, it'll have been about that much) are gonna be really bad.
And depending on what grade the student is, that 2.5 years could have repercussions for anywhere from 6 months for the older students trying to be competitive in college, to the rest of their lives. I really, really, really am afraid for students who are just learning the fundamentals and are missing so much social/emotional/educational development.
My money says this is going to have repercussions for decades.
It really will have lasting repercussions and I'm afraid of what some of the administration is doing to band-aid it. I spoke to an IB coordinator last week and I was told that the finals grades had dropped so significantly that the curve system had to be reworked. Not just made stronger, but completely changed.
In fact, the in-class tests were curved according to this formula: 10sqrt(x). A 10% is curved to a 31%, a 25% to a 50%, a 40% to a 63%, a 50% to a 70%, etc.
I spoke to an AP World teacher and he said less than a quarter of students got a 5/5 and less than half a 4/5 compared to pre-pandemic.
> and this is p.e.r.v.a.s.i.v.e., 7-10 day long vacations in September and October
Any theory on why that happens so much nowadays?
My pet hypothesis is that travel got cheaper so more people do 1-2 weeks vacations abroad, and at most companies, summer months are overbooked for leaves, so people use September and October as backup vacation time.
No, I don't think so. We work in very low-income districts. These people are not taking vacations abroad. They're not really planning outside of "it's cheaper then". No thought put into the repercussions, or the absolute lesson they're teaching their kids about the value of education.
The other poster is correct. In a vast majority of cases, k-12 education is just seen as babysitting, so missing a week or two isn't that big of a deal.
It has gotten so bad that my spouse's district now allows 9 unexcused absences before getting the truant officer (who is useless) involved, because they had too many referrals to the officer three years ago.
It's not even vacations abroad. I worked at a poorer district, and it's really parents just not caring. They go when they can get off or get good deals and pull the kid with them. Sadly enough, they can often get it excused as a "learning excursion", even if the teachers don't sign off on it. There's no value being seen in education; it's seen simply as babysitting, and it shows in the students' attitudes as well.
Kids miss school more often today than when we started; our original attendance books prove that, at least for our classrooms. Reasons now range from spa days, to the kid didn't feel like getting up, to, and this is p.e.r.v.a.s.i.v.e., 7-10 day long vacations in September and October.
This year, my spouse has not had a full classroom any single day due to family vacations. Pre-covid, it was not better, either.
I'm afraid that I come across as a grumpy old man, but this is a problem that did not exist in the past. Education is seen as a burden, and a box to be checked anymore. Take from that sentence whatever you want.