Saturday 19 May 2012

Another 'Right' You Never Knew You Had!

“He’s not a naughty child, he has dyslexia and the school can’t seem to cope with learning difficulties. He got his attendance up from 63 per cent to 78 per cent. Then we find out short notice he’s not allowed to go.
It’s every child’s right to go to their prom.
Is it? Is it really?

Comments aren't sympathetic, in the main.

8 comments:

Captain Haddock said...

"Prom" ? .. Yet another silly American import we didn't need ..

In more sensible days, one walked along The Prom, after a Charabanc trip to the Seaside (provided one had behaved oneself) otherwise one incurred one's Father's wrath and went home minus stick of Rock and nursing a thick ear .. ;)

Jim said...

There are 195 school days in the year and (ignoring August) 11 with school in them. He apparently got his average up from 63% to 78%, probably after the February letter. So if his average to end of Feb was 63% I reckon he had at that point missed about 40 days out of a possible 106 (6/11*195). If he attended 100% for the remainder of the year his average would then be (195-40)/195*100 = 79%, or virtually exactly what he ended up with.

So either he had a miraculous recovery from asthma and migraines after Feb, or he had been playing truant on average 2 days a week every week up to that point, and not ill at all.

You decide.

Anonymous said...

Excluding the kid from the prom is a poor excuse for not sorting the problem out in the first place.

How did it even get that far that he missed that many schooldays?

And the 48 hrs notice seems a tad passive-aggressive too, seems to me that there are no adults are at all involved in this story..., just stupid children of all ages.

Anonymous said...

Going off Jim's statistics if the child had a migraine for that period of time, he would be under a consultant neurologist, undergoing serious tests, and possibly have a major problem. That level of illness you wouldn't even plan for a 'prom', (or school disco in my day).

Migraines can last days and are horrible, I truly wish a full blown migraine on someone who uses it as an excuse.

Bunny

Bucko said...

I was going to say that the 'Prom' is a Yank tradition that we didn't need, but the Captain has already been there so I'll just second his comment

Macheath said...

Captain/Bucko, the British prom 'tradition' - for so it is now seen in many circles - owes much to the creation of 11-16 comprehensives; everyone leaves at the same time so a 'leavers' event' is expected.

Add to that an influx of American 'teen movies' showing proms as a rite of passage and season with a helping of 'Big Fat Gipsy Wedding' and you have a kind of mass hysteria, in which familes spend vast sums of money on limos and ballgowns.

Worse, the practice is filtering downwards to primary schools; my niece's classmates were obsessed by February with what they would wear to their summer prom - aged all of 11.

Under the circumstances, it's hardly surprising that some parents really do think that attending a prom is a 'right' - unless, of course, they just misunderstood the phrase 'rite of passage'.

JuliaM said...

""Prom" ? .. Yet another silly American import we didn't need .."

Indeed! It's insidious.

"So either he had a miraculous recovery from asthma and migraines after Feb, or he had been playing truant on average 2 days a week every week up to that point, and not ill at all."

Gosh, tricky one, that... ;)

"Worse, the practice is filtering downwards to primary schools..."

Doomed, we are... :(

David Gillies said...

We had a ball, and formal dinners, not a fucking prom. But then I didn't go to scrote school.