1 in 4 U.S. teachers are chronically absent

Sure he is. He's complaining about chronic absenteeism. There are many reasons why teachers are chronically absent. Difficult pregnancies; catching every flu bug from each kid who should be sitting at home, but isn't because his working parents can't afford to lose a day's pay because their employer doesn't offer, or offers only a few sick days; family emergencies; staying home with their own kid because he caught something from his sick teacher, etc.

And yet, YankeeFan lumps them all in with an "off with their heads" attitude.

Let's take a teacher with two kids of their own. Each kid gets sick and needs to miss five days of school a year, for a total of ten days. Let's say their spouse takes two of their own sick days from their own job, even though the spouse's job offers much less sick time. So the teacher takes eight days off just to care for their own sick kids.

Then the teacher gets sick themselves and takes four days off in a year. Now they've been out 12 days, and that's not counting any other family emergencies. For taking those 12 days off, YankeeFan wants them fired.

 

It's not my idea to Fire a shitload of teachers. Im raising the question of replacements. Maybe there's a great roster ready to go. I'm just saying: There'd better be, or it's real fiasco.

 

No problem.

 

Who's "ready to go" when they don't show up on a consistent basis?

Kids are already falling behind as a result of chronically absent teachers. Get 'em out. You're not going to be firing the teacher of the year.

Replacing a bad, unmotivated teacher, who can't be bothered to show up, with a warm body that comes to work every day would be an improvement.

 

Don't you think 12 sick days in a year is a lot? Have you ever taken 12 sick days in a year at your job?
Have to ask to be sure, but my mom was a teacher, and I don't ever remember her taking more than 3 sick days in a year, except her last 2 years when she had quite a few saved and wasn't going to get paid for all of them.

 

Too late. I called dibs on the Poin Files.

 

No, he doesn't. But let's stipulate that he does. Seeing as how the research suggests that a "chronically absent" teacher costs his/her students the achievement equivalent of the difference between an experienced teacher and a newbie, how 'bout we just dock their seniority pay?

 

The evidence suggests you'd be replacing someone whose WAR is at best 0 ... doesn't seem all that risky to me.

 

Chronically absent had better consistently equal bad and unmotivated for a warm body to be an improvement.

If all you gotta do is show up and watch the clock, good achievement seems far from assured.

 

I've gone a couple of years straight without taking sick days, or perhaps one sick day, on a few different occasions. Just lucky to be healthy, plus, working at night, when my kids get sick, I take care of them during the day and my wife cares for them at night, so I don't need to take sick time to care for them.

Most sick days I've ever taken was, I think, 8 or 9. I had a couple of nasty flu bugs, and I took a few days off after getting banged up a little in a car accident.

As for your Mom, YF would have had her fired before her last year for burning all those other sick days.

 

Would you be in favor of giving them extra bonuses if they don't take any sick time, or perhaps one or two days?

 

The worst case scenario is likely a wash. I don't see the risk you do.

And, when we accept failure, without trying to fix it, we reward and encourage it.

It's contagious.