RevCyn

As my letter in Part 1 of this series illustrated, it's fairly easy to have a truant child.  Missing two weeks due to illness is quite easy to have happen, and the requirement that many districts have that a doctor's note is the only way to excuse the absence means a classist system of who can and will have absences excused and who will end up with a truant child.  All other things being equal, two children out for two weeks with the same two colds can end up with very different fates, not because of the nature of the child, or the diligence of the parent, but simply for economic reasons. That income levels and truancy are related is no surprise.  A recent MLive article reported: "Some districts, including many affluent suburban ones, reported little or no truancy. The Forest Hills schools outside Grand Rapids reported five truant students among 10,147 enrolled, and Bloomfield Hills in suburban Detroit just 32 out of 12,306. But Kentwood, another metropolitan Gra...

Two years ago, I wrote our school district about the truancy policy.  At that time, I was told that I had presented a good case, and they were going to change their policy.  I don't know if it actually did change and then changed back, but looking at the policy on my school district's webpage, the policy is the same as the one I complained about.  In this post, I'll share that letter.  In my next post, I'll talk about why it matters, and what the Michigan government has just done that makes this even worse. Dear JPS School Board, I’m writing to you because I’ve been disturbed about the JPS elementary school attendance policy for some time.   Specifically, I find it disturbing that the only way an absence can be “excused” is with a doctor’s note.   My chief issue with this policy is that I think it is, in a word, classist.   In addition, I think that it represents a misuse of the medical system and it fails to respect a parent’s reasonable judgm...

In the last week or two, I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bivocational ministry" as the potential saving model for sustainability in our movement.  The subject has come up in a number of collegial conversations, and Scott Wells introduces the subject in a recent post .  First of all, as far as I can see "bivocational ministry" is just a fancy term for "part-time ministry" that makes it sound like something the minister wants because they have some other wonderful job they don't want to give up. What are the problems with bivocational ministry?  It can be a great choice if: You're independently wealthy You're a second-career minister with a lucrative first profession You have a spouse with a good income On the other hand, it's not so great if:  You're a first-career minister You're not independently wealthy You don't have a spouse with a good income I was a part-time minister for a couple of years.  You ...

Tomorrow we vote on what Study/Action issue to adopt for 2012-2016, and I haven't made up my mind yet which one I'm voting for.  I talked with a proponent of "CSAI 1 - Climate Action and Adaptation Plans: Why Greenhouse Gases and their Effects Matter to Us" today, who points out that if we don't save the earth, none of these other issues will matter.  Well, yeah.  That's a point.  And he also points out that some of the other issues are related to this one, particularly "CSAI 2 - Families, Population, and the Environment."  I've also seen that a lot of people I know are walking around wearing anti-slavery buttons and that there seems to be a lot of support for "CSAI 5 - Ending Slavery."  The advocate for CSAI 1 asked me, "Well, what is your congregation engaged in?"  We're engaged in all these issues to some extent.  Our JXN Community Forum series has often engaged in environmental issues.  Our members are individually in...

Registration for General Assembly starts on Monday.  I haven't been to the last two General Assemblies -- I haven't felt like I could afford it.  This year I intend to go, even though, well, I still can't afford it.  There are some ways to cut expenses for GA--you can have a roommate, or stay in a cheaper hotel far away from the conference center, and spend the time and energy and money to figure out how to get to and from the conference center.  I will most likely do this.  But there are some ways that the expenses can't be cut--there's no reduced rate based on financial need for the GA registration.  I look forward to the day when I can vote on everything from my home computer, watch the events on the streaming video, and have no need to travel across the country to participate in our democratic process.  This past year it got closer--I was able to vote for president by absentee ballot, and I was able to watch some of the proceedings.  Meanwhile...