Ok, this is one of those, “you have GOT to be kidding me. REALLY???” stories.
Marshalltown is down near Des Moines, has around 27,000 residents. So it’s kind of a medium-ish town. At least in Iowa, it’s a medium-sized town. In other states, it might be considered “small”. But I digress.
Apparently, Marshalltown High School has a bit of a problem. Approximately 250 of their high school students are chronically tardy. So they’ve come up with a brilliant solution! Are they going to fail those who are late the majority of the time? Nope. Will they drop a grade point if they continue with their tardiness? Nope. How about they keep the kids for detention, and make them clean the school every time they’re late? Not a chance. They’ve come up with a better solution….
The school is going to start making WAKE UP CALLS to the students.
Says Lisa Wunn, Dean of Students at the high school, “Students often give the excuse that they don’t have alarms.” They’re hoping that wake-up calls will solve the problem. “If we can get them out of bed and into school then it will work,” she said.
So Riddle Me This, Batman… this number you’re calling to wake the kids up? It’s their cell number, right? THEIR CELLPHONES HAVE ALARMS ON THEM!!! Honestly, many houses now don’t have a landline. Everyone in the house has a cell. How much you wanna bet those kids start setting their phones to “silent”?
On the upside of all of this, at least the wake-up call will be accompanied with a cheery message, “It’s time to get up and enjoy the day.”
I wonder if they’re going to initiate Maid and Room Service, too. ‘Cause if they do that, I’m totally moving to Marshalltown.
Us Girls..Our Views 
SHUT UP!!!
dead. serious.
i’m keeping a very close eye. The SECOND maid service is announced, I am SO there.
Ha ha! I hope they are at least automated. Why not just buy each kid a cheap, loud, obnoxious wind-up alarm clock? That’s what I did when I went to law school (where classes started at 7:45). Not that I had a tardiness problem or anything . . . a-hem. . . . Of course the loud ticking made the clock so obnoxious that I stuffed it into my underwear drawer, where I let it wind down until it shut up each morning before I rolled over and went back to sleep . . . .
But seriously, if you’re not a punctual or morning person, you’re going to roll over and go back to sleep, call or no call.
One of the commenters on the page I linked said that this was the perfect opportunity for Timex… They could donate 250 alarm clocks to the school kids and call it something like, “Wake Up To Education” Program. And get tons of advertising out of it.
You have got to be freaking kidding!!???!!I can’t even think of anything else to say to this…..
Just one more thing that kids don’t have to worry about. Why should a teenager be held accountable for getting to school on time? This does not help them in the long run. Will they then expect their employers to give them a wake up call too?
Once again they are going about this all wrong!
GIVE THE PARENTS THE WAKE UP CALL!! They are ultimately the ones responsible. Ya see, that’s one of society’s problems. Poor parenting. That is all this is. It is simply parents not taking responsibility for their children. Because we all know it’s the School’s responsibility to educate them. It’s the Church’s responsibility to teach them about spiritual matters. It’s the playground coach’s responsibility to teach them about sportsmanship. And in MANY CASES parent’s merely have to provide a few basic items of clothing and they are done.
CHECK THIS OUT!
Two weeks ago our little first grader brought a note home. One of the other student’s mother works for a Tshirt guy. She was going to design and have printed class Tshirts for all the students and teacher. The price for each shirt was modest $6.00. So my Mrs. emailed the teacher and told her to let us know if there were any children who would not be participating because they could not come up with the $6.00. A few days later we sent a check in the amount of $42.00! $6 for our little guy and $36 for the other six children who’s parents couldn’t scrape up the $6.00!!
Parent to child (while holding a cigarette in their mouth and a beer in their hand); “We ain’t gunna pay no $6.00 for a stupid Tshirt! You got plenty of clothes!”
It’s all about parenting.
End rant.
Good for you. That was very nice of you. I hear people complaining constantly too about being broke but meanwhile they can afford their cigarettes!
I know – my brother wants me to help his kid go to college, but would he quit his cigarette habit during the past 18 years of her life? Or even today? Half of me wants to politely suggest that – but I know he would not take it well.
I know. It’s hard telling people stuff like that.
I wouldn’t have paid $6 for a t-shirt unless I thought it was quite a nice one. (Not even for myself.) I opt out of most of the stuff the school invites me to buy and even some of the “free” stuff (like having my kids fingerprinted by the cops – gee thanks). It’s not because I am a shitty parent who doesn’t want to take care of my kids. It’s because I have different priorities than some other parents. Maybe I don’t WANT my kids to have that t-shirt. Maybe I hate the color or the message. Maybe I know my kid won’t wear it. Maybe my kids have so many clothes I can’t wedge another T-shirt in there without donating something I like better. So please – don’t buy my kid a T-shirt when you know I’ve opted out of buying it.
BUT I agree that it would be more effective to call the parents – because then the parents would get on the kids’ butts so the calls would stop.
On the other hand, my mom used to come in and “beat me out of bed” if I didn’t get up on time, and that still didn’t help. Nor did the glasses of water my siblings threw on me. Nor the daily detentions. Maybe I’m an extreme case, though.
And ps, I neither drink nor smoke, so that is not the issue.
It was a white T with red lettering (the school’s color). The front pocket shot was the name of the school. The back is a Mustang (horse, school mascot) with some wording about the Field Day.
All the kids wore them for their Field Day (sorta like a mini track and field day) for their grade. Each grade competed against their grade level. Because the entire class had the same class Tshirts their’s was the only class that had sort of a uniform. They looked pretty cute (for you girls) and cool for us guys. 😉
The only problem I have with calling the parents is this… Many of the parents in this area work, and they work away from where their houses are. So I’m guessing that a phone call to Mom or Dad would produce, “Sorry, I’m not home. I can’t help you.”
It blows my mind that by high school, even freshman year (which is what, 14-15 years old?), you’re old enough to haul your lazy butt out of bed to be at school on time. And if you can’t, you get your grade docked. Too many docked grades and you fail your grade. How shameful is it that you cannot pass freshman year because you couldn’t wake the heck up?
I wonder if, for freshman/sophomores, they could dock Driver’s Ed time? If you can’t make it to school on time, you don’t get your Drivers Ed time. And if you don’t get those hours, you don’t get your license.
I get that the parents need to teach responsibility, and they’re obviously failing miserably, but I also know that there are plenty of parents out there who are working two jobs and relying on the kid to get where he needs to be. In that case, Kid needs to step up.
Ha ha! What finally worked for me was, after a particularly bad week (I’d missed about half a day because twice, I got half the way to school and there was a sudden downpour that soaked me to the skin. I only had 2 pairs of clean pants so I had to do laundry in order to have something to put on my butt. And then I was tardy every other day that week too, and the attendance lady didn’t like my flip answer, so . . . .) – anyhoo, after a particularly bad week, the principal told me he was not going to approve my request to graduate early because my attendance record was so bad. After that I miraculously got to school on time every day for a whole semester. Then the dude signed the paper and I started being tardy again.
For the record, my HS GPA was 3rd from highest in my class, and so was my ACT score (despite the fact that I was 2 years younger than the competition), so . . . .