“You Mean I Actually Have to Do the Make Up Work?”
Confessions of a Secondary School Teacher: Part V
During the fall months, my students found it necessary to miss up to a week of school. It was the height of hunting season. I couldn’t understand this need but then again, I grew up in the city. We didn’t go hunting. Or at least, my family didn’t.
Students would come brandishing the salmon colored paper I was supposed to sign like it was the golden ticket for Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory. Most students didn’t care about missing work. It didn’t matter what I wrote on their ticket, they weren’t going to worry about school until they got back.
Parents were a different story.
I can’t tell you how many times I had mothers calling me asking if their student could afford to miss school for a week. Not even the best of students can really afford to miss school for a week and trust me, it was not the best students looking for an escape. Still, I was supposed to reassure them that their precious child would easily be caught up.
Parents always wanted the work their child was going to miss upfront which made it difficult when I was planning day by day. I understood their reasoning. They didn’t want their child to fall behind, but parents rarely followed through, and their child would…
