Swine Flu Makes Elite LIst

Over on The Gradebook, we can read Tom Marshall's article:



Swine flu could lead to 30 percent absentee rates in schools - St. Petersburg Times:

"The Hillsborough School Board created a flap last week when it suspended a popular incentive — fewer semester exams for students with good attendance records. Officials say the policy encouraged sick students to attend school.
Complaints about that change are still rolling in from residents who don't understand the threat posed by swine flu, said member Jennifer Faliero.
'It's not on the public's radar,' she said. 'Students are not taking it seriously.'"

Understanding the etiology of swine flu is one thing. Keeping up with the etiology of the HCPS Board policies is another thing.

Prior to the onset of swine flu, students who were legitimately ill and responsibly stayed home to take care of themselves were nothing but second rate when it came to exempting semester exams.

Now, there is no salt-in-the-wound rub that educators can use against those malingering ill kids and their enabling parents. No longer can we hear "that's what you get for missing so many classes because you were sick." No longer will there be any cathartic high for the teachers when those imps have to sit in their seats and agonize over the semester exam.

Because there are no more exam exemptions based on attendance.

In professional sports, performance is rewarded with incentives such as home-field advantage, preferred playing times, and the pole position. Exam exemptions, which tests performance of understanding and ability to express this understanding of a given subject, is tied to the behavior of physical attendance. The mind may be elsewhere, but if the body is there, exemptions are granted.

Keeping up with HCPS Board policies must be like a soap opera for psychologists and sociologists.

We are left to wonder on how they will address exam exemptions now.