In fact, there is a student on my roster who I wouldn't be able to pick out of a one-person police lineup. Now I will readily admit that I may be off a day or two in my calculations. After all, your eyes tend to get a little bit tired once you have passed the 200 absentee mark and all those A's and S's in your attendance book seem to blur together in a daze of amazement. Maybe I missed an update here or there with an absence turning into a suspension or a dismissal. Maybe it's 475 or even 470.
Empty seats equal empty minds.
Now this is only one reason why a kid, or a group of kids, may not be doing well in school. There are definitely other reasons, some school related, most not, but those are best left for another letter. Believe me when I tell you that more often than not it has little to do with who is teaching them or what is being taught. It is just that we educators are easy prey for publishers and politicians, and we are the ones who are constantly being tied to the whipping post to pay for others' sins, and I, for one, am sick and tired of being the scapegoat. On April 20, this writer paid a visit to the office of the attorney general of Massachusetts, Mr. Tom Reilly.