Wanda Willis: Students will learn soon enough, following the rules matters

Re “Required attendance cruel for seniors” (Letters, May 9): Why do absences from school matter? It matters because those are the rules, and once you leave school and start living in the world the rules set down by employers are not up for negotiation.

It’s just life, and there has to be rules or only the biggest and strongest will survive. Every time I read one of these little pearls of wisdom written by someone probably not 18 years old I wonder (on second thought, I don’t wonder) how they would have enjoyed the school system that I had. Teachers were courteously obeyed, not argued with, and parents insisted their child show respect for their teachers – what a novel concept.

There were no fights in classrooms, disruptions were handled quickly and parents were called to collect a disruptive child. It worked well, but now that we have become “progressive” there seems to be a lot of chaos in schools. I wonder if returning to courtesy, and insisting on respect being shown to teachers and each other, perhaps children may be better able to adapt to life outside of school.

This story was originally published May 10, 2017 at 12:40 PM with the headline "Wanda Willis: Students will learn soon enough, following the rules matters."