One Way of Reducing Tardiness

Abstract

Non-attendance and tardiness are two problems in the average school entitled to more attention than they generally receive. Our school efficiency must be reduced by something like io per cent if the average attendance of all the schools in the United States is not more than 90 per cent. This is only part of the loss from absence; the further cost must be estimated. The loss due to tardiness is less tangible and can only be estimated at the present time. Perhaps it would be fair to say that tardiness reflects individual habits and characteristics as well as an attitude toward the school in general. While we cannot say that tardiness makes poor pupils, the records show that pupils who are habitually tardy generally do poor academic work. The cause and the effect here are difficult to determine. One of the most important habits that a child can learn is that of punctuality. This is an essential virtue and is necessary for success in any endeavor. During the first four months of 1926 the Hutchins Intermediate School, Detroit, made a careful study of tardiness. The object of the study for the first month was primarily to gather data relative to tardiness. During the last three months of this period a campaign was waged against tardiness, and the study was continued. Throughout the study and the campaign which followed, the idea of punishment as a cure for tardiness was absent. Punishment has never produced a lasting influence on any group. We believed that, to make real progress, the educational thought must be in the foreground. The Hutchins Intermediate School enrols about twenty-four hundred pupils. For the most part, these pupils live in the better section of Detroit. Before the program was set up, we gave special attention to the possible excuses for tardiness that might be offered. We assumed that a large percentage of the excuses would be valid. While we might have 57 varieties of excuses, we chose four which we