Students Must Show Some Responsibility

I believe the truancy problem is bigger than you indicated in your articles (June 28-29).

Below are the statistics for my classes the last two semesters. I meet with six classes--one advanced placement calculus, one Algebra 1, three basic math and one home room--with a total of 219 students in each of the fall and spring semesters.

Fall 1994 Spring 1995 Total Absences 3,241 3,098 Uncleared absences 1,116 947 Verified truancies 287 205 Unexcused tardies 1,011 350

The figures that add insult to injury are those for uncleared absences. The students were absent, but for a variety of reasons I was not able to obtain the reason for the absence. I would guess that a good percentage of these are truants as well.

Teachers, administrators and parents are falling all over themselves trying to determine what can be done to improve students’ attendance and performance. Every trick in the book is being tried except one: holding the students responsible for getting an education.

Instead of writing letters of recommendation for my calculus students, I now get to write letters of performance to the court for my students on parole. Instead of spending time getting ahead with my students, I spend time giving out makeup assignments for my female students who have babies or are pregnant.

Recently, one of my 16-year-old students was found drunk with two of her friends during school in the girls’ restroom. I had been working with her father trying to get her to do her assignments, and her father was monitoring her attendance by having her take around a daily attendance report. Regardless of how much we cared, she cared for herself even less.

CHUCK HALL

Woodland Hills

Hall teaches math e matics at John F. Kennedy High School in Granada Hills.