Tues. July 25, 2023
The Editor, AMANDALA
Dear Editor,
Tardiness or lateness is one of the most frustrating problems in our schools. The chronic arrival of our children to school after the regularly scheduled time is simply unacceptable. Student tardiness is caused by failure to do home-work in advance, parents’ bad timing for errands and commands, children watching late night movies.
Students’ tardiness to class is attributed to their failure to do home-work in advance. Parents at times take their child’s word as gospel when they say that they have no homework. The child then does other things such as watching television, texting friends, playing video games, among others. They then try to do their homework in the mornings, which causes them to be late. Parents should ensure that children do their assignments after coming from school and confirm with the teacher via text or WhatsApp if assignments were given. This will avoid them doing homework minutes before going to school.
A second contributing factor to students’ tardiness is parents’ bad timing for errands and commands. Sometimes, as parents we ask our children to do chores/tasks when it is time to go to school. Some of these tasks are time-consuming and deprive the child of getting to school on time. It is easy to lose track of time. Hence, we must discourage this practice if we really want to be a part of the solution.
A third contributing factor to students’ tardiness is children watching television late into the night and unsupervised. As a result s/he wakes up late. This late start has a ripple effect that results in them completing tasks late, thereby getting to school late. This is compounded by the fact that if they live far from school they will obviously reach later than others who live closer. In cases where the distance of the school is far from home, parents should ensure that children leave home at a time that will allow them to arrive to school on time. This makes it extremely important that late preparations of breakfast/snacks are avoided.
Arriving late to class disrupts the learning of other children in their classes. Attention is drawn away from the teacher to the child who has just arrived. Students miss out of the important part of lessons which can lead to poor academic performance. Furthermore, it causes students to struggle in school. A child may become a target as a result of repeated tardiness. This may consequently hurt his/her ability to learn. Finally, they receive fewer hours of instruction, which can translate to poor academic performance.
As parents and educators, it is essential to understand the causes of tardiness as well as its effects. Acquiring such information will not only help us prevent or minimize tardiness to class and acknowledge the dilemma we are faced with, but will also better help guide us to appropriate strategies and responses to improve our children’s behavior and performance. We can begin the process by teaching our children to organize. For example, they can pack their bags and lay out their uniforms the night before. This helps them to plan and be proactive as well as punctual to class. This will benefit them when they get a job. They would already be in the habit of being punctual.
As guardians of children, parents can help dramatically to alleviate this practice. Many of the solutions to address this problem lie in our hands. However, for this to materialize we must first address the causes of the problem in the first place. If nothing is done about tardiness, it can become a chronic problem that can spread throughout the school. To this end, I sincerely hope that the few suggestions and ideas I have shared will help address this practice in some of our schools. Together we can make a difference by ensuring that our children arrive to school on time, thereby taking full advantage of the many opportunities afforded to them by their institutions.
Delbert Garcia, Sr.
A retired teacher