Big Brother at School

It seems that students in San Antonio who are consistently truant will be required to wear an ankle bracelet in order to track their whereabouts. This is a true story and you can read about it here. Actually I think they should track the parents or guardians. Maybe the incentives to do right shouldn't be put on the kids but on the parents. If the kids don't have good parental support at home their success at school will be limited. Somehow (although I don't think it's 100%) parents today have lost the ability to discipline their kids and perhaps they are the ones who should suffer such indignities. Our governmental authorities should find ways to reengage the parents rather than seek ways to just punish the kids. Although the watchdog groups will be concerned about the kids' privacy they should really worry about the loss of parental supervision. If the parents are not fully engaged such efforts will fail in the long run. Focusing on the kids only creates a bigger chasm between parents and kids. New thinking is needed to deal with the problems schools face. Actually old thinking is needed. By-passing parents to get kids in school and do well will not work. Schools should figure out how to support parents properly and get them to do their jobs.