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Show THE COST OF VACANT SCHOOLSEATS What is the cost to our school system of seats vacant because of intermittent absence of pupils? pu-pils? Parents as a rule are not conscious of the loss involved when their children absent themselves from school loss through insufficient use of a Ml time facility, ' loss through interruption of the child's progress pro-gress and loss through hindrance hind-rance of classroom advancement. The waste in money and opportunity op-portunity is large and school administrators ad-ministrators have, like other business executives, had to guard against it Business makes a strong point of looking after the health and morale of its workers. This attitude is not only humane but profitable. Loss of time through illness or otner preveniaoie causes to expensive ex-pensive to both employer and employe. It costs the taxpayers no more to operate a classroom with a hundrwl per cent attendance than it does with a ninety per cent. In the r latter case the schools are being operated at 10 per cent loss. , The importance of this fact may never have occurred oc-curred to the parents. There are those who are even inclined to consider the school meddlesome if it tries to keep close check on absentees. They regard it as an encroachment on their individual individu-al rights. They consider the school a place where children are to be taught when it is convenient con-venient for them to attend. The financial loss is not the only consideration. There is the - handicap i to the pupil through scattered absences, as wdll as the lowering of the efficiency effi-ciency and progress of the entire en-tire class. No business enterprise enter-prise would tolerate the percent-ace percent-ace of absence, as this would be too disorganizing to be profitable. Parents should bq impressed with' the importance of punctual and regular attendance, attend-ance, not only as a benefit to the child, a duty to the regular attendants at-tendants and a service to the community in getting the maximum maxi-mum value out of school funds, ! but also as a factor in habit-training. habit-training. It helps build a sense of responsibility and dependability dependa-bility in the pupiL The great burden of responsibility responsi-bility for attendance now falls, necessarily on the teacher. ' She has, of course, cooperation from various agencies, such as the visiting or home teacher, attendance attend-ance officers, etc., yet the major part of the task of keeping the classroom filled is on her shoulders. should-ers. She must face the monthly attendance percentage, ' a barometer baro-meter registering the interest generated in the classroom and the vigor with which the teacher follows up absences and insists on prompt and regular attendance. attend-ance. When the energy of the teacher is directed toward the attendance problem, it is being diverted from that supply which shoild be applied to her teaching power, or else is depleting the reserve energy, as essential in a teacher as is the cash reserve in a business or industry. It would seem, therfore. that the home should take more seriously this shifting to the teacher of an Added burden. It remains hers to do if the home does not do it. If she has concern for her own record, for the interests of other pupils and for the community making school finances possible, she has no alternative. Educating the child should be a cooperative labor divided between be-tween school and home. The ...... m .ii .11 1 responsibility 01 pupil attendance attend-ance rests on the parent and ought not to be shifted on the school. |