Troublesome Tardiness Taking Teaching Time Away From Teachers
Recurring student tardiness creates distractions and gaps in learning, frustrating teachers and administrators.
By Riyana Siva
Recurring student tardiness creates distractions and gaps in learning, frustrating teachers and administrators.
By Riyana Siva
Being on time is one of the hallmarks of the education system in the United States. Students have been taught about the importance of being on time through many different methods, the most widely used being tardy slips.
Teachers have noticed a recurring problem of many students being late to class every day.
“I have probably a couple students late daily, anywhere from one to four and it is usually the same kids,” said physics teacher Trevor Davis.
Being tardy can have a lot of detrimental effects on both students and teachers.
“I feel like when you miss class for the first five or 10 minutes, teachers could possibly be going over some crucial information that the student would miss out on, lectures or maybe a pop quiz or anything that’s happening that week,” said academic counselor Judy Pataky-Hannon. “And because class time is so valuable to the teachers they don't have a lot of time so once the bell rings, they're going to get straight to the point and then start lecturing and teaching. It is a lot of crucial information that they could miss that could be on a test and they weren't there to hear it so it is important to be on time so they don't get behind academically.”
To combat this problem a tardy policy was put into effect and it is supervised by attendance clerk Corie Potter.
“The tardy policy is that if you are not at your seat when the tardy bell rings, the teacher will either mark you tardy or absent and you are to come and get a tardy slip,” said Potter. “Every time you get a tardy slip you are to go to lunch detention that day or you can go the next day. If you miss lunch detention three times, you get an automatic Saturday school.”
Although this policy was implemented as a way to give consequences to students who are not on time, this has not had the effect that was hoped for. Rather than deterring students from being late, it makes them repeat their same behaviors.
“I feel like for those kids that are consistently getting tardy passes, Saturday school is no longer a deterrent for a lot of them. They don't particularly care if they have to come to school on Saturday because people just skip that too,” said English teacher Theresa Kurzawa.
On the other hand, Davis believes that the policy is not at fault for the increasing amounts of tardiness.
“With my class of ninth graders, a lot of it comes down to parents getting their kids to school on time. I think the school’s policies make sense. I think it really comes down to kids wanting to be there or the parents making adjustments to get them here on time,” said Davis.
Others believe that additional measures such as working with the entire Pioneer community to educate on the importance of timeliness in addition to the existing tardy policy would be a more effective method.
“I think it’s just a matter of being able to work with the parents more,” said Potter. “I wish we had more manpower so that we could work with the parents more, which would allow them to be more aware and able to help their students more. I think that would help but I think the policy is fine.”
Another way to minimize tardiness would be looking further into the reasons behind them.
“The problem is we are not necessarily finding out why these kids are tardy,” said Kurzawa. “I think there are outside factors that need to be considered like the parking situation, the traffic out front and there are obviously personal things at home like when parents can’t take kids to school. Are they waking up by themselves every morning, or having to get siblings to school on time? There are a lot of things outside of just kids not wanting to come to class that influence their tardiness, I think if we start addressing more of those problems we would have less tardy problems.”
Although some teachers feel that the policy is ineffective or even harmful, others find that the policy actually does what it is supposed to do.
“It’s in place and it needs to stay in place because it really does work,” said world history teacher Darlene Dueck.
Some students such as Lyri Tripp, 9, also find that the tardy policy is effective.
“Most of my teachers are strict about the tardies and not so many students come late because nobody wants lunch detention,” said Tripp.
Teachers have noticed a recurring problem of many students being late to class every day.
“I have probably a couple students late daily, anywhere from one to four and it is usually the same kids,” said physics teacher Trevor Davis.
Being tardy can have a lot of detrimental effects on both students and teachers.
“I feel like when you miss class for the first five or 10 minutes, teachers could possibly be going over some crucial information that the student would miss out on, lectures or maybe a pop quiz or anything that’s happening that week,” said academic counselor Judy Pataky-Hannon. “And because class time is so valuable to the teachers they don't have a lot of time so once the bell rings, they're going to get straight to the point and then start lecturing and teaching. It is a lot of crucial information that they could miss that could be on a test and they weren't there to hear it so it is important to be on time so they don't get behind academically.”
To combat this problem a tardy policy was put into effect and it is supervised by attendance clerk Corie Potter.
“The tardy policy is that if you are not at your seat when the tardy bell rings, the teacher will either mark you tardy or absent and you are to come and get a tardy slip,” said Potter. “Every time you get a tardy slip you are to go to lunch detention that day or you can go the next day. If you miss lunch detention three times, you get an automatic Saturday school.”
Although this policy was implemented as a way to give consequences to students who are not on time, this has not had the effect that was hoped for. Rather than deterring students from being late, it makes them repeat their same behaviors.
“I feel like for those kids that are consistently getting tardy passes, Saturday school is no longer a deterrent for a lot of them. They don't particularly care if they have to come to school on Saturday because people just skip that too,” said English teacher Theresa Kurzawa.
On the other hand, Davis believes that the policy is not at fault for the increasing amounts of tardiness.
“With my class of ninth graders, a lot of it comes down to parents getting their kids to school on time. I think the school’s policies make sense. I think it really comes down to kids wanting to be there or the parents making adjustments to get them here on time,” said Davis.
Others believe that additional measures such as working with the entire Pioneer community to educate on the importance of timeliness in addition to the existing tardy policy would be a more effective method.
“I think it’s just a matter of being able to work with the parents more,” said Potter. “I wish we had more manpower so that we could work with the parents more, which would allow them to be more aware and able to help their students more. I think that would help but I think the policy is fine.”
Another way to minimize tardiness would be looking further into the reasons behind them.
“The problem is we are not necessarily finding out why these kids are tardy,” said Kurzawa. “I think there are outside factors that need to be considered like the parking situation, the traffic out front and there are obviously personal things at home like when parents can’t take kids to school. Are they waking up by themselves every morning, or having to get siblings to school on time? There are a lot of things outside of just kids not wanting to come to class that influence their tardiness, I think if we start addressing more of those problems we would have less tardy problems.”
Although some teachers feel that the policy is ineffective or even harmful, others find that the policy actually does what it is supposed to do.
“It’s in place and it needs to stay in place because it really does work,” said world history teacher Darlene Dueck.
Some students such as Lyri Tripp, 9, also find that the tardy policy is effective.
“Most of my teachers are strict about the tardies and not so many students come late because nobody wants lunch detention,” said Tripp.