I take it back already
What was I thinking, tempting the fates? I dunno, but obviously when I said sometime back that we were fortunate having a really mild winter here in the NY/NJ Metro area, I did just that and now we are paying for it!
The temperature as I left for work this morning was 9… NINE!!! That is not a temperature, that is a lack of temperature! With the windchill it was negative seventeen (-17) degrees. That is farenheit (just a reminder).
Now I am sure there are people that are laughing at how I am whining about these temperatures. (I have been in these colder places myself a few times (Sioux Falls South Dakota, Minniapolis Minn.)) But those people live their by choice. I am not used to such things. Fortunately, I am still fareing better than TheWife and LatteGirl who have spent the last three days sick in bed.
Of course, I guess I should consider myself lucky that LatteGirl attends a school that is good with sending home work when she is sick. I found it amazing that in the past couple of days have found incidents not just once but twice (and I am sure if I look I will find more) where I read about parents that worry about sending their children to school while still sick because of pressure from the schools! What the hell is that? Do we have a new No Child Left Uninfected Act that nobody told me about? Sure, you want kids in school. And if no doctor’s notes were accompanying many absences, I could understand inquiring to ensure the child is actually sick, etc. But to threaten parents, where they need to actually consider rolling the dice and hope their child is “well enough” to go to school and make it through the day without relapse is not only cruel to the child, but to every other child in the classroom. And then these clueless wonders of nature try to figure out “Why?” all these kids are getting sick so often.
I joke about it, but in reality this is actually a product of the abysmal No Child Left Behind Act. In it, they dictate that schools must set a protocol for high attendance rates. While a laudable goal (We all do actually want the kids to be in school), the practice of setting some artificial number or percentage, and threatening the funding of the school if these rates are not met is tantamount to blackmail, and the very reason for these preposterous and inane policies by the schools. (I could continue my rant on No Child Left Behind, but I will save that for another day.)
So, fortunately I have no such problems… yet. But if any school thought I would be risking my daughter’s health so they can hit some stupid quota… well, let us just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Of course, if we could ditch these temperatures, it would be much easier now wouldn’t it?
So what would you do in such a situation? Would you send your child to school? What do you think?
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4 Responses to “I take it back already”
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Oy! I could vent all day about NCLB. What a crock of dookie!
I keep my kids home when they’re sick. These parents who brag about how Little Susie hasn’t missed a day yet and has perfect attendance for the entire year, three years in a row are met with “Oh, so your kid coming to school sick is the reason that Emily is on ’round-the-clock breathing treatments again. THANKS!” (When a virus is passed to Emily, it is REALLY bad for her and if her lungs get bad enough while waiting out the virus, she could actually end up in Pediatric ICU again.)
I think those parents that don’t keep their kids home are idiots.
Oh, and it’s YOUR fault our weather is like this, eh? (Nice little package comoing to YOU in the mail…bwa ha haaaaaaaa…..) Kidding – maybe. ;0)
Drives me up a friggin’ wall (can you tell I’m a Jersey girl at heart?) My son is only in preschool and he spends 2 weeks out of 4 sniffling because everyone and their brother comes to school with like tuberculosis – I don’t get it – if my kid is sick, I keep him home – sounds kinda crazy, but there ya have it – oh, and i have big issues with NCLB too – you could do a whole post on that!
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