<p>Could I make a suggestion to sylvan?
Your teens don’t know how to call the school office? Slyvan could first put the school’s office # by the home phone and explain to teens it is the emergency #. If they have cell phones, they could also put it there too. Certainly the school could send someone to get sylvan in case of an emergency?
Secondly, sylvan should call home between every class and at every class break, to these 2 teens if it is necessary to be in touch that often. That way sylvan can check in as often as about every hour or hour and a half without taking attention away from students.
So to this comment- “but what are ya gonna do - he forgot I was in class” may I offer a suggestion? How about telling teen that you are going to work, and he is not to call you at work other than an emergency? You could even give him an example that you don’t call him just to chat while he’s in school.</p>
<p>I am guessing there is something particularly out of the ordinary back at the home if a teen doesn’t know how to call an emergency number, yet needs to contact a parent so often that merely having an emergency number isn’t enough. Naturally, such an extraordinary circumstance would present a whole different issue. My best wishes if this is a health issue.</p>
<p>Surely all of us here are old enough to remember not every person used to have a phone on them every minute of the day. The idea that <em>I must be able to be reached in a moments’ notice every minute of the day</em> is a relatively new way of thinking. ER doctors and maternity doctors have felt that way. but even police and firefighters have on-duty time and off-duty time.
I am quite familiar with the “peer pressure” discipline, having experienced it in the classroom and at the worlplace. My feeling though, and the feeling of some others, is that I am not in charge of the room and it is not my job to police others’ behavior. I am not likely to walk up to a stranger in class and tell him his/her phone annoys me.</p>
<p>I can understand and agree with the last sentence of post 46, though. As a taxpayer, I’d be disappointed to learn the teacher I was helping to pay was willing to take non-emergency calls during class and permitting some students to disturb others. So Sylvan, I wouldn’t shoot arrows, but I’d say that I respectfully disagree with your opinion.</p>