Keep the Law

Keep the Law

Considering the numerous challenges schools already face Roger Sipher, author of

“In So That Nobody Has to Go to School If They Don’t Want To,” points out numerous reasons he believes in about putting an end to the compulsory attendance law and the many advantages it would produce. He makes an argument about abolishing the law, but provides few concrete facts, and without facts, his opinions are just shallow and useless opinions. Although Sipher argues that if we abolish the compulsory attendance law, students that want to be in school will get a better education; and as a result, standardized test grades would be higher. On the other hand,  the compulsory attendance law should not be abolished because some students are just poor standardized tester takers, grades do not accurately reflect on the progress a student is making, and elementary students cannot comprehend the idea of flunking.

Roger Sipher, author of  “So That Nobody Has to Go To School If They Don’t Want To,”

 argues, that abolishing the compulsory attendance law would be best for the whole educational system and blames the decline in American education on the fact that schools systems have students there only because they have to be and with no ambition to learn.  He states, “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink”  meaning we can make students go to school, but we cannot make them learn; at the same time, teachers could stop trying to teach all students and only teach those that are willing to learn.  He points out many flaws in the compulsory attendance law, but does not provide enough facts to back up the arguments.  He then argues that if we abolish the compulsory attendance law the entire educational system could again do what they are put in place to do, which is to provide the best education for students that desire to learn.  Throughout the whole article, he is straightforward, opinionated, and very bias against the compulsory attendance law; in addition, the article could appeal to anyone that can read and understand, but the purpose was to try to persuade parents and teachers to agree with his arguments about the compulsory attendance law.  

First, Sipher argues, “That a decline in standardized testing is the most recent indicator that American education is in trouble” (184).  The decline in standardized test scores is an inaccurate representation of the problems with the American educational system because many who are excellent, above average students may not perform well on those type tests.  For example; C. War, a twenty-four year old Duke Law student, who performed poorly on all standardized test, but graduated as valedictorian of his senior class,  graduated Summa Cum  Laude from a prestigious four year college, and will graduate in 2013, Summa Cum Laude from Duke Law School.  This shows that standardized testing has nothing to do with why American education is in trouble, but it does show the compulsory attendance law should stay in effect, so all children have the opportunity to excel as he has.

Second, Sipher argues, “Grades would show what they are supposed to: how well a Student is learning.  Parents could again read report cards and know if their children are making progress” (185).  For example, from own personal experiences, with our child, Rachel, my husband and I knew how to read a report card, view her grades, and listen to comments, from teachers, about how well she was doing. In other words, her grades did not show the reality they should have, but only showed the lack of incompetence of teachers and school system to do what was right. We could not blame students that were causing a disturbance in class because they did not want to be there, but we did blame the teachers and the school system for giving grades not deserved, to avoid the expense of special testing to find out why this happened.  If they had done correct thing, we would have found out early that she needed to be in the Exceptional Child Program, and she would not have been in the situation where she struggled to perform at grade level.  How can we say abolish the compulsory attendance law when it had nothing to with another child?