It’s no wonder that parents sometimes are frustrated with their school or school system. For me, the Dassa McKinney Elementary School is a good example.

Some policies that Dassa McKinney (Moniteau Elementary School) has in place are injudicious.

For example, my son was very ill, missed a week of school and could not attend the choral program for fifth- and sixth-graders.

He had a doctor’s excuse.

Since he could not be present for the choral concert, he was told to write a five-paragraph essay and prepare a power point presentation on a composer, or he would not receive a grade.

I wasted my breath talking with the principals and the Moniteau superintendent. Their argument was that the choral program is a graded performance.

My argument continues to be — is it possible in this case for the music teacher to realistically evaluate and grade each individual student (more than 100 students) during the concert on phonation, pronunciation, tone and pitch?

Also, is the teacher able to evaluate whether a student actually is singing or whether the student simply is moving his or her lips?

This “policy,” as it affects my son, is a punishment for not showing up. This should not be a policy but be addressed on a case-by-case basis.

According to the American Choral Directors Association (www.choralnet.org/view/221854), there are several ways to approach this issue.

One suggestion is that the student sing the song or songs to the choral teacher when he or she arrives back at school after an illness.

The other solution is to have the student write an essay, which Moniteau is requiring, but it is not a comparable assignment.

Now, here is the other issue:

The school is fully aware of my son’s health issues and that he gets ill from time to time. But, my point remains steadfast that any child who is ill, regardless of predisposing disorder, should be exonerated from this assignment.