THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, March 1, 1996 TAG: 9603010050
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Jennifer Dziura
LENGTH: Medium: 63 lines
SCHOOL, when first instituted, involved things like lessons on tribal rites and papyrus notebooks. Now, it involves calculus and federally subsidized lunches.
However, those who are and were supposed to attend school have a long history of finding other, often better, things to do. Very often, a student in a rural schoolhouse would offer an apology such as ``Sorry, ma'am - our best cow was in labor and I had to stay home to help with the birth.'' Even in ancient Greece, one of Socrates' students would occasionally avoid Socrates because his clay tablet had been cleft in twain by large, toga-clad Greek bullies.
Recent local controversies over attendance policies and the making up of snow days have caused much stir over who comes to school and who doesn't. This has led me to contemplate why anyone should care.
Today's topic, as you may have guessed, is skipping school. Now, picture this scenario: A hard-working honor-roll student who has never said a mean word to anyone in his entire life is applying to Princeton. We'll call this young man Harvey, just so I don't have to keep using pronouns.
OK, so Harvey's Princeton application is due next week, and he's been having trouble writing a good essay. He decides to skip physics today and instead sit in the library, where he decides that he should write his essay about how his trip to Woodrow Wilson's birthplace changed his life forever. Harvey gets into Princeton and spends the rest of his life writing award-winning books about linguistics, a field which has less to do with the fundamental principles of physics than does professional jump-roping.
Has Harvey done anything wrong? Yes, according to the establishment. It thinks that Harvey should be in school, because the establishment can plan his time better than he can. So much for making an independent, self-reliant adult out of Harvey. He'll probably be calling his guidance counselor for advice well into his 40s.
So, what are we to do?
I realize that no one wants gang members roaming high school halls without bathroom passes firmly clutched in their drug-dealing little hands. But I am not simply a muckraker - I also have a solution. In his State of the Union address, President Clinton proposed a $1,000 scholarship for everyone who graduates in the top 5 percent of his class. I, however, have another way of rewarding the Harveys in our high schools.
How about just waiving attendance requirements completely for honor-roll students? If necessary for security reasons, require that they leave school grounds (or else work quietly in the library) when not in class. Such a policy would constitute meritocracy as well as efficiency in one fell swoop.
So that's my opinion. If you didn't much care for this column, well, maybe it would have been better if I'd missed basket-weaving to work on it a little more. MEMO: Jennifer Dziura is a senior at Cox High School. Her column appears
bimonthly. If you'd like to comment on her column, call INFOLINE at
640-5555 and enter category 6778 or write to her at 4565 Virginia Beach
Blvd., Virginia Beach, Va. 23462.
by CNB