Woody Allen once said 80% of success is showing up. I believe he is absolutely right in that assessment but many teens struggle with this notion. Attendance issues at school plague many teenagers and the concept of being where you are supposed to be at the right time is constantly escaping. If Woody Allen is correct, then too many teenagers are starting 80% in the hole. They are not showing up and that means they are forced to play catch up.
Attendance whether it is in the physical form or even logging in and having an online presence is really a question of time management and self-discipline. Neither of these have ever been strong suits for young people, but if adults don’t make an effort to intervene and correct those bad habits we’re setting young people up for a lifetime of absenteeism and tardiness.
Yes, I think parents often enable their children. I know kids get sick, crazy things happen, and special events occur. It is okay to take a day off here and there and having perfect attendance is impractical for most. However, I see students who consistently miss a third or more of school time a month. If you have things like headaches or other ills that are causing you to miss 7, 10, or 15 whole days a month, month after month, there is something wrong. You need to be in labs getting scanned and analyzed until they figure that out and treat it.
Not every parent enables this way. Some parents, try as that might, just can’t get their teen where they are supposed to be. Maybe they student refuses to get out of bed, maybe they just want log on to their school site, maybe the parent leaves for work before the child needs to get up--these parents face a larger obstacle and I’m afraid I haven’t found an easy answer to that. What I do know, is that these students need to face stiff consequences for not showing up, and the last thing parents need to do is to write notes or make phone calls that offer illegitimate excuses for their child’s absences even if that means detrimental grades for the child.
If you get kids where they are supposed to be, they are going to be in position to get a lot more done than if they weren't there at all. I don’t think anyone can say there are never days at work where they are dragging a bit, but if we are there we can at least hear a piece of that important conversation, read that timely email, answer that quick question, or at least get one part of that project done. When that happens, we stay on pace and get that 80% that Woody talked about. When we don’t show up though, the problems compile not only in the short term, but in the long term as well. We create habits of thinking a four day work week, every week, is okay and in the end that’s going to mean we are out-competed by our ever-present colleagues assuming we’re able to retain our positions to begin with.
