http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/when-it-comes-to-tardiness-shouldnt-the-punishment-fit-the-crime/2012/02/06/gIQAC4VUuQ_story.html?hpid=z3
I don't get the author's ultimate point, but this is the main thing that she's talking about:
If kids are late to school, their parents get hauled off to court! Apparently, this is the norm in this country! Can you get any more ridiculous than this???
This prompts such a visceral reaction in me because I am always late for everything. And what's more, I'm pretty damn proud of some of the excuses I have thought up of.
This is such a totally wrong approach to deal with tardiness. Instead of punishing the people who are late, they should reward the people who are on time.
From the article, it seems like the reason the parents get hauled off to court is because the deal is that each and every kid in school will spend the same amount of time in school. What about the kids who go early to school or who stay back in school for a bit longer, then? Shouldn't they be punished for spending too much time there? Why focus so shortsightedly on quantity instead of quality?
This stupid custom is going to go right down there with whipping kids on their butts or hitting them on the head. Just like we are appalled today that kids were made to undergo such punishments, sometime in the future (hopefully soon) we will be appalled that parents of kids were subjected to such trials and tribulations.
But... *deep breath*.. good thing is, I don't think Pittsburgh is on board with this stuff yet. For one thing, I don't think the courts here have the money to go around holding ridiculous trials like this.
People of whichever idiotic state goes about criminalizing its hapless, tardy parents: go spend that money on capturing some real criminals, okay? By hauling these parents off to court, you are losing money not only on the trials that you conduct, but also on all the time that those hardworking parents have lost at their places of work.
