Have you asked your teenaged children how their day at school was recently?

Lately, I noticed that there are an abnormal amount of teenagers out and about during school hours. I am curious if they are out for lunch like I used to be allowed to do. But wait a minute. I used to go to school from 7:30a.m. until 2:45p.m. and had advanced placement classes that I had to go to the college for. To my recollection, Duval has those classes but these teens that I see are on foot. So what is going on here? Parents need to start asking their teens how their day went and ask them if they attended all their classes regardless of how much they trust them. Here's my other answer.

I am not sure about this but I believe that the only time attendance is taken is at homeroom. So as long as students are in their homeroom class they are present for the duration of school. Part one of my solution is to take attendance in every class in a simple manner of assigned seats. They might have assigned seats but the teachers probably don't take attendance.

The second part of this solution has some background to it. Nothing in America is free. The free clinics aren't free. Food stamps aren't free. Unemployment isn't free. Free public education isn't free. Every seat in every class costs something to each taxpayer. So my solution is simple. For every student that has four or more unexcused absences, the parent of that child should have to pay for the seat they have vacated for no reason. This will force parents to become more aware of what their children are doing every day. Yeah it is another way for government to get in our lives but this one I believe might be necessary. The simple fact is that parents today are ecoming more and more clueless as to what their children are going through in school (i.e. bullying). If parents got more involved in their own childrens lives maybe that family value we used to have here in America will return again.

If you know anything about me, you know that I am for less government and I am a Libertarian, not a Republican like some of you think. But this is one instance where government could step in and make a change and make the means fit the cause and end. It is not about getting in your house. It would be about making sure your children are getting everything they can out of school. I have looked up the statistics on this and most crimes commited by teens are commited late at night or during school hours. Keep your kids in school. They need it to save their life from going down the wrong direction. Parents, if you do nothing else for your children, just ask them what they are doing in school and be sincere about it. It will make a difference.