Are perfect attendance awards stupid?

Harper is home sick today from Kindergarten.  This is her first ever missed day of school. She had a good run . . .  for a month. Looks like she won’t be the Cal Ripken of Royerton elementary.

Anyhow, all of this got me thinking about awards for perfect attendance. 

A perfect attendance award means:

a) a kid or employee was never sick;

or

b) they were sick, likely multiple times, and exposed the other students and their co-workers to their germs.

Never being sick is highly unlikely so that means awarding perfect attendance is encouraging the spread of germs in schools and the work place. And that seems kind of stupid, doesn’t it?

I could be wrong. In high school, before I had sinus surgery, I missed a lot of school. So much, in fact, that I got a letter from the school. So take my opinion with a grain of salt.

Right now Harper is on the couch watching cartoons experiencing her first sick day. I’m kind of jealous. There’s something really awesome about stretching out on the couch watching cartoons while all of your classmates are in class. It almost makes that sore throat or repeated trips to the bathroom worth it.

I remember a sick day where I was home alone and spent all day sitting in the bean bag playing Bulls vs. Lakers on Sega Genesis while listening to AC/DC’s Back in Black album. That was a pretty sweet day.

 
2 comments
Christa Ulich says:

As a teacher, I would rather have a student stay home when ill than come in and expose other students and staff to their germs! To hell with the Attendance Award!!! However, lots of parents treat school as a day care because they have no one to watch their poor, sick children, and they cannot take off work because of fear of repercussions! Shame on society!!!

Rebecka Vigus says:

I agree. I hated when kids came to school obviously sick. Several spent days in the office just sleeping. We made sure they got lunch and trips to the bathroom, but most of the time they were out. Calls were made to parents who could not take the time off work, no paid sick days. No one else was available to come get the child. Get rid of perfect attendance. The high school gives and extra 3% to the student’s grade if perfect attendance is achieved. I believe that is wrong, too, as suspended students are not considered absent for days they are not allowed in school.

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