Man, there is some really weird opinons here. So much vitriol... and
you can really smell the differevces in people and their respective
generations, and for those playing the rec.woodworking home version
for some time, it has to be fascinating to see the personalities
reveal themselves. It sure has been for me.

I am surprised to see here that so many think that the only ones
affected by this would be homeless Asian lesbian single mothers of two
that have 3 eight hour a day minimum wage jobs that they ride the bus
to every day. All of those folks seem to work for pitiless tyrants
that perch like vultures waiting for any infraction to fire them.

In the rough and tumble world of blue collar construction workers, it
works like this at my company: "Hey Robert... can I have a long lunch
on Wednesday? The boy got his dumbass in trouble again, and me and
the old lady need to go meet his teacher before he falls to far
behind". It is Monday.. they show me some consideration, so it is
mutual. "Yeah, go ahead... just get back as soon as you can." Or I
may have to ask him to move it up or down a day or move the time of
day. I am not blowing my own horn; it is good business and employee
relations in the 21st century.

Strangely, all the construction companies I know operate this
way. It makes good employee relations, and that almost always comes
back to you. But there is another aspect, too. If I said no, they
would go anyway. Many of them are like me, without a strong family
life, so the in turn have made the decision that they kid will have
what they did not.

Also, as a card carrying member of the great unwashed like me, those
same guys see the value of education. They tell their kids what I was
told as a kid by my father. "You listen to me... I go to work every
day to feed, clothe and put a roof over your head. So does your
mother. If you think you are going to barely slide through school
when all you have to do is pay attention and do your homework to get
by, you have another thing coming". I paraphrased, and left out all
the colorful metaphors.

My Dad went to one parent teacher conference, and after the special
consultation he had with me when we got home, I made myself scarce
around the house for about a month. It straightened me out for
another three, too.

Having done a lot of work for school teachers (you get referrals from
one, and they are a referring bunch!) I have had a chance to talk to
many of them across the economic range. Believe me, it isn't just the
poor, downtrodden, and economically disadvantaged that miss these
meetings. Busy soccor moms, cheerleader moms, football moms and
dads, moms and dads with more than one kid, all seem to have great
reasons for not wanting to meet. I love what these teachers of our
upper class tell me the responses are when meetings are missed.

"I thought you would call me and remind me of the meeting"

"Well, since I already missed it, can you email me something?"

"I talked to my kid and he says he will take care of whatever it is
you are calling me about"

"Do you have a supervisor? I think this is something we can handle on
the phone and I have just enough time right now"

I don't know about anyone else's community, buy in ours the well to do
have just as many problems as the not so well to do. In fact, I think
in my almost 35 years as a blue collar man, the blue collar system has
less problems with the kids.

Someway, some educators got in their minds that face to face is better
than telephone conferences, etc. That has been a long held belief
here in sunny Texas for years and years. Ever since I can remember,
and certainly when I was a kiddo, we had telephones and telephone
consultations would have been used if effective.

In some school districts, the teacher (!) want this fine, as THEY are
getting blamed when the parents don't show up. They are bound to ahe
a certain amount of contact with each parent of their (average in
Texas is I believe 164 in high school) kids every semester. They are
further bound by the rules of their district to approach parents when
they cannot control or teach their kids. So whether they want to or
not, they are actively involved in the contacting of parents whether
it is an innocuous update or for discourse on a subject of greater
gravity.

The guys here should know too, that no one here thinks in their hearts
the fines will provide THE key to parental involvement. It will
provide impetus for some, and not for others. But the guy that wrote
the bill is a bit of an idealist, surrounded by other idealists, and
he felt like they would be successful it they just reached a handful
of parents they wouldn't have otherwise seen. Really, his bill has
almost no chance of passing, but was meant to engage people in
constructive commentary and to draw attention to the problem. Also,
having heard the man speak, in his bleeding heart it is a cry of
concern for the children.

In one way, it sounds too thin to me as it will not doubt take
millions to implement the plan, fight off the lawsuits filed by the
ACLU, etc. and for me, I am at all sure these kids and their parents
are worth my tax dollars. You cannot legislate the interest of the
parents, nor undo years of culture and parental upbringing with a
fine. A fine or two probably won't change the parenting efforts of
most adults. If the parents are raised a certain way, chances are
they will raise their kids that way.
In years past, rich, poor, middle class, and all in between made time
for their kids when they wanted. I don't think the parents of this
school generation of kids are any different; they will be as involved
as they want to be.

And if parents want to ecourage their kids to be successful, and have
the courage to insist on the type of discipline that makes success
happens, they will do it on their own.

In Texas, they have tried all kinds of plans, programs, ideas, rules,
etc., to make the parents more involved over the years. Politicians
have thumped the podiums telling us of why we need more money and
ideas thrown at our education system, and how we need to get parents
more involved. "Parental involvement is the key to success" they
say. But none of the ideas they have are more than moderately (at
best) successful in engaging the parents into the process of
education. (But God bless 'em, I would have given up long ago. Some
of those guys keep pitchin' year after year.)

So I guess the real question here to me is this:

If we just save a few kids, and I mean just a few, is it worth it to
the average guy on the street? Should hundreds of thousands be spent
to make this a bill, then the same spent again to implement it as a
law, and maybe millions in attorney's fees to defend the state against
the lawsuits that will surely come?

I dunno. I don't think we will have a bill that becomes a law to test
that, but I am not too sure I am interested in finding out the results
for a few million bucks.

Now if someone could come up with a surefire solution that would work
without doubt, I might get behind it. I am sure others would, too.
But until then...

Robert