Children and School

Over the last little while I have noticed something in my neighbourhood that has concerned me and it is the number of school age children that are out and about in the neighbourhood during the school day. I was out in the neighbourhood around 2pm and noticed quite a few children that should have been in the public school at that time. What I did noticed that in some cases they looked like they had been out grocery shopping with their mother and it was their job to carry the groceries home from the store.

I know that when I was going to school the only time we ever started home was when we were sick and we had to be really sick to even think about staying home. I remember the farthest I ever went when I was missing a day of school was to the doctor's office and back home, there was no shopping done along the way.

I am not sure why parents are allowing the children to take the time out of school to help with shopping or such because the shopping could be done after the school day. The other thing I have noticed at least in our area is that when we go to the mall at any time of the day there are quite a few children with parents there instead of in school. What is interesting is the school is actually next door to the mall so if the child is well enough to be walking around the mall shopping they should be in their classroom.

I think if the parents are letting the children miss school it is teaching them a lot of bad habits. These are going to be the adults that don't want to show up for work on time or even to work at all if they just don't feel like going in. I know that we all want to miss work or school at some points but getting into the habit of going unless you are sick does make you a better person. It shows that you respect the system that you are in and are not taking things for granted. Our school system here is pretty good and I think that the parents should be doing more to encourage the children to attend classes and to be on time.