Novel Idea: Making Parents Pay for Children's Lateness

Bravo to Principal Susan Rappaport of the Manahttan School for Children. Now when parents drop their kids off at school late, they serve a 20 minute "time out" with their kids! Rappaport said in yesterday's NY Post, "You can't hold children accountable for being late. The parents need to make the breakfast, get the children dressed and get them to school on time." Yeah, the parents are the parents!

While some mommies and daddies who have meetings and appointments to go to are upset they are being punished, most agree that it's too embarrassing and they'll never drop their kids off to class late again. Until the next time their children refuse to get dressed and eat their breakfast. Anyway, we look forward to the day when parents who embarrass their kids are required to take a time-out - we're talking to you, annoying person who was screaming at the store while your child was making the "save me" face.

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By Jen Chung in News on October 2, 2006 5:03 PM

Comments [rss]

augra

This patently does not work. Read the book "Freakonomics". What instead ends up happening is parents say "Oh, it costs $20 for me to show up late with my child to drop them off?" and weigh that fact and gladly pay. Everyone collectively thinks "Oh - that's it? Then I'll be late every day and ante up". The reverse occurs - it's a great idea in theory though but human nature will always weigh the easiest way to get out of trouble.

Automocar

How exactly does the school force grown men and women to submit to this?

Rip rap

Sad and pathetic. The school, that is.

Crown Hts

I like making parents face their own issues with punctuality and responsibility. The real winner here are the kids. It teaches them to face the fact that their parents are basically adult children who occasionally need timeouts like them...and that if they're not careful they will end up just like them...