Student skips school for a whole year

This is not a surprise. I know of one parent whose son was taking extra classes for a particular subject. The Tutor was being paid for a certain amount of students, but the kid never attended any of the classes, and she did not report it. what ever happen to roll call, if a child is absent for any length of time, it should be noted and reported accordingly. Needless to say, the tutor was still collecting the fees.

Another issue is the slack system allowed in this country. The kids are in control because they are out of control. No parental guidance. And so it goes, a society with discipline, boundaries and respect leads to desstruction.

when i was in school you got into immediate trouble if you did not show up for a lesson. our teachers kept a close count on as all, at all times. you had to bring a parent's written explanation and signature if you needed to go to the doctor for instance and you had to let the school know _beforehand_ if you were going to miss class.

@ lisaann: re: parental guidance: i don't understand why people believe the only way to raise a child properly is by corporal punishment and why people seem to have stopped raising their kids, period, after legislation was brought that forbade hitting kids.

my mum and dad never hit me or my brother, yet they still managed to give us values and a perspective. is it laziness? i guess it's easy to smack your child and difficult to come up with a different strategy if smacking is not an option.

yet, if i am not prepared to raise and educate my child, i should not have any kids in the first place.

@leprehcaun: sadly it isn't actually a bizzare statement to say "kids are in control". I was teaching in the UK for a year a couple of years ago and MAN, have i ever seen so little respect for grown-ups? these kids rule not just their parents but also their teachers. they simply do precisely as they wish and what more, make demands which they will enforce should they not be met in the most cruel ways.

it's 8-12 year old kids who will already behave badly and if you try to discipline them by cutting their freedom they will get back at you the mean way. not just funny little pranks like sticking a post-it to your back. they will scratch your car, they will damage anything and everything they can reach if they believe that you have crossed their will one too many times. they will come to your home at night and throw eggs, they will dig up your lawn in the middle of the night, they will send you death threats and some of the older ones even went as far as having a teacher beat up by a couple of thugs because he cancelled a field trip due to bad behaviour.

maybe kids in sweden are raised better. maybe parents and teachers are more in control. but i have seen how bad it can get. i have seen grown men and women afraid of teaching a class of 8 year olds.

7th grade is the first year of high school where i come from, which would make this kid about 13 yrs old. One thing to consider though is what the hell were the parents doing? it's fair to blame the school for poor monitoring but shouldn't the parents be taking an interest in the childs education? Maybe they should go to a parent teacher night or check homework or something? In my view the parents should be disciplined with a good hard kick up the arse!

I used to get the cane when I was at school and it hasn't caused me any damage. All it did was keep me in line. Yes there may be other ways, or better ways, but as a rebelious teenager you don't always listen to reason do you.

Correction to my post. last line, last paragraph should read, "A society without discipline.......

Well said pigeon hunter.

The ones to be blamed here are the parents. Nowhere else in the world could a 7th grade kid be absent from school for an entire year without the parent noticing it. Dint the parent tried asked about the homework, report card, parent-teachers meetings etc? I have an idea what the parent were busy doing; watching bingolotto, reality TV, playing the slot machine at the lonely boring shopping malls in Nässjö, getting drunk and cheating!

Students can be sneaky when they are in the mindset that they will not attend classes. Some will pretend to be their parents when teacher's call, delete messages from the school, write fake notes, and even send letters saying they've moved out of the area.

More parents need to make sure that they know where their children are; far to many are "busy parents" and don't take their responsibilities seriously. That being said, the school should have called the parents AT WORK to make sure they know about the lack of attendance.

Why is this kid still with the parents?

The parents actions were BLATANT CHILD ABUSE!

Maybe they just say sorry and pay a fine.

peropaco "shopping malls in Nässjö" Since when? I've not seen them. Must ask my brother-in-law(from Nässjö) about them when he comes up for the weekend tomorrow.

@the pigeon hunter

Lets not point the finger at UK kids. Its a big topic depending on what erea you were teaching. There is a difference between teaching in Battersea to teaching in Chelsea. I think this problem is worldwide. America not so long ago had a masked man come in with a gun and shot fellow pupils. Sweden are not exempt from this problem, and you cant blame this behaviour on the parents alone. Look at all the celebs who have came out with top education, top this and that, and look they turn to drugs...

Its a worldwide issue with loopholes in the law. Note also in UK class sizes can be big. Normally are.