Excused Absences

Here’s the latest readers’ poll on Edutopia.com. “Should schools grant maternity leave to pregnant students?” I have two thoughts about this. My first thought is my answer the to question. I voted yes. I have two simple reasons why I said yes. They have to do with punishment and deterrent. The idea that allowing teens time off from school is making things too easy on them, and that they need to “experience the consequences of their actions” is ridiculous. Study after study shows that newborn babies need loving care from their parents. Denying this opportunity doesn’t punish the mother, it punishes the child. The baby already has a big strike against it, let’s not make it any harder on the baby than we have to. Otherwise, we’ll probably just be dealing with the exact same situation in about 15 years (or a worse situation). The second reason I voted yes is also very simple, one of the main tenants of punishment is deterrent. I find it hard to believe that two teens in the heat of the moment and with racing hormones will stop to consider whether they will be allowed maternity leave before “going all the way.”

The real issue here, in my opinion, is not whether schools should offer maternity leave, at least in Michigan that is not the issue. The reason for that is simple; the Michigan legislature has already determined that schools will offer leave to students – for any length of time and for any reason. You see, the Michigan government does not believe attendance should factor into a student’s grade. As such, our district has recently removed all attendance policies from the district. Not surprisingly, absences are way up. It doesn’t take an Ed D degree to realize that it is awfully hard to pass a class when you aren’t in class enough to learn any of the material…