Juvenile Truency and its Effects

Juvenile Truancy

For too many youngsters, cutting classes is the first slip down the icy slope

toward delinquency. As early as 1915, sociologists were calling truancy the

"kindergarten of crime." A 1979 study of 258 adult re-offenders showed that 78%

had been arrested for truancy, and two-thirds of the remainder admitted they had

been chronically truant but were never arrested. (Gavin 1997)

There is a sense that parents fear truancy as if it were an infectious disease

that will strike their own kids if it isn't eradicated. In the book, Fear of Falling:

The Inner Life of the Middle Class, Barbara Ehrenreich wrote that middle-class

parents now see education as the only way they can help their youngsters succeed.

Gone are the days when kids who hated school could still find a secure

home in the military or a high-paying job on the line in the factory. A high-school

diploma today is no guarantee of a job that pays enough to raise a family.

Concerned parents worry that high school graduation is merely the minimum their

kids must attain. So it is easy to understand why people are quick to demand

drastic action to bring truancy under control. Yet when challenged to think of all

the reasons that a youngster might cut school, it quickly becomes clear that

solving the problem defies a quick-fix, get-tough approach. Certainly, there are

kids who cut classes to hang out with friends and, left unchecked, today's lark can

become tomor...