Why do kids skip school?

Here’s one answer, from Leroy Pompia, a man in his 50s who’s learning how to read better at the Tomlinson Adult Learning Center in St. Petersburg. “I played hookey because I felt I wasn’t learning and I was embarrassed,” he writes in the latest newsletter from the Literacy Council of St. Petersburg.

Here’s Pompia’s story as it was printed:

As a little boy, when I was coming up in life, I didn’t go to school very much. My mother moved a lot because of her relationship with her husband. As a child, I had to move with her and didn’t get to go to school very often.

When I was at school, I felt different from the other kids. I didn’t think I was as smart as them. I also never was in one place long enough to make friends.

I made mistakes. One was playing hookey. I played hookey because I felt I wasn’t learning and I was embarrassed.

My life moved on. As I grew up I worked helping my mother. I worked on a farm cutting flowers and loading trucks with produce.

In my 30s I realized I didn’t read as well as I should and was always asking people to read things for me. I enrolled in Dunbar High School, but I couldn’t continue because I had to go back to work.

After my mother died, I left Fort Myers where we had lived together and came to St. Petersburg. I joined a church and met a friend who told me about Tomlinson School. I came and enrolled and have been going to classes now for about two years. I have finished three Skill Books and have read many stories. I hope to improve my reading even more and get my GED.

Ron Matus, state education reporter

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Comments

[fred]

In Pinellas, kids skip school (HS) because there is no attendance policy. Miss as many days as you want, fail the final exam. But get 1 c and 3 f's and you pass for the semester...

[John]

I started school in California, moved to Florida in the middle of the 1st grade, changed schools in the second grade, went to 3 different schools in different states and Canada during the 4th grade, moved back to the states and went to another school, moved to the middle of absolutely nowhere for 2 years and finally finished high school in Tampa. The first time I skipped school was when I went to USF. Finally I got a Master's degree from USF and 36 years later I retired. What was consistent during all this time was my Dad and Mom encouraging my to do my best and that once I get a diploma, degree or certification no one can take it away from me. Pretty good advice,I think.

[Money, Baby!]

Two things that are blaring, yet no one lookes at:
1. An unstable home situation. The bottom line is, regardless of whether you blame parents or not, the home situation plays the largest role as far as a kid's education is concerned.
2. Is it the government's role then to step up and become a parent? Should taxpayers pick up where the family (for better or for worse) has failed? Do we need to rescue everyone?

[Ron]

This is the secret lesson for our drop out factories. Low performing Students are not in school very much. Of course they are embarrased at being slower, but attendance is the key. I can educate children when they are in my classroom and settled. I cannot do anything with them if they are acting out, or not in school.

If parents knew how much time is lost when a teacher has to stop the class and deal with a low perfoming student who is disrupting class they would be in front of the TAJ with pitchforks!

This person has learned the hard lesson of education. Tomlinson has a fantastic staff, but all the bad that has happened to this student could have been avoided if he/she had gone to school regularly and not fallen down due to outside influence. All the studies by thelearned people I read about say the way out of poverty is education!