"A national model for urban education."
However, it seems that the teachers have a problem getting to class...
If I had to teach in Chi-town I might have to take a few mental health days myself!
Try dealing with five classes of thirty kids,many of them bored and angry,and a myriad of problems ranging from outsiders roaming the halls to beatdowns in the middle of class.To add insult to injury,one must also have to interact and kiss up to administrators who enable this sort of behavior.
6% is about the student absence rate here, sometimes it is more. Sometimes teachers do get sick like others, sometimes a "sick" day is used to take care of their own sick child. It would be interesting to see a breakdown.
I am a teacher, but have never taken a sick day in 10 years. I have missed a few times (an average of about 1 or 2 days a year) for some things, chiefly being family-related like my brother's wedding and family reunions--whenever Momma says I HAVE to come, I do:).
The excuses I hear for absences are not what they used to be. Instead of just "he's sick" or something like a vacation, sometimes it's because "family came into town," or "we wanted to see a movie" or "our house wasn't clean" or "he didn't do the report" or "he was needed to help babysit the kids" or "we woke up late" or "we got home late from the basketball game" and so on. I definitely sympathize with family-related things like going hunting or vacation (though we have ample breaks throughout the year and some people don't use them). I also don't want sick students. But you hear a lot more excuses than you used to. I think the same is true for some teachers too.
Must be that a 3 month paid annual vacation just isn't enough these days ;-)