i was wondering what is everyone's take on attendance policies? i've always struggled with them, because sometimes i just don't feel like i need to come to class. i missed at least 25 days of school in my junior year and senior year of high school....i had to appeal to get credit for my classes, and i was granted my appeal, because my grades put me in the top 10 of my class.

i've always felt that forcing student to be in the classroom when they didn't want to be was just asking for disruption. i believe it is the teacher's job to make his or her students want to be at school, and attendance policies just don't seem to be the right way to do that. do you guys think there should be a penalty for missed classes in school? other than the natural punishment of missed material on the part of the student?

I do think that attendance in the classroom especially k-12 is important. We have to have some sort of structure so the kids will be there everyday. I do agree that we must also be responsible for providing an environment that the students will willingly want to be there. There should be a penalty for excessive absences after the teacher has investigated the reason for the absences. I do think that college is different since we do pay to be here and we punish know one but ourselves by not being there since we are missing the material. I think as a teacher i will inforce an attendance policy but will also be open minded on each students situation and work with them if there is a problem.

I think it is really important to find out why a student skips school. By talking to students and parents we can try to fix the problem. An attendance policy can be necessary to show students the importance of being at school but if they don't want to be there anyway there is a problem that needs to be address. Maybe there are issues at home. Maybe the student is stressed because of the pressures of school. Maybe they have a hard time with their peers. We should be concerned about these issues.

I think young students (all the way up to high school) should be disciplined as far as attendance goes. I think it is crucial for students to learn the importance of being responsible and going to class, on time. It is important to teach them at an early age that attendance and punctuality is really important throughout one's life-(job interviews, work, college, etc.) If we don't stress this importance, we are ignoring a huge part of what it is like to be in the real world. However, I think once the student is paying for classes, than there should be a more relaxed attendance policy. We are paying the teacher for our eduction, therefore, we should be responsible enough to know that if you don't go, you are hurting yourself.

I agree that attendance policies are a big deal, especially in college, and I don't have any definitive answers to the subject, but I will say this. As Woody Allen stated, " 80% of life is just showing up." So on that note it would seem that by attending class you are better off in the long run. At the very least the teachers know you, which never hurts at grade time, but I'm no guru, take it for it's worth. My two cents

Aaron I really like the quote you posted from woody allen 80% of life is showing up...I think that does justice to the topic at hand. I think attendance is very crucial in those earlier years where children need to learn the importance of responsibility, still having an attendance policy in college sometimes drives me CRAZY!!! We are old enough to know when we should go to class.