By Christine Rook
Gannett News Service

Ashley Ryerse never missed a full day of school from the time she started kindergarten through her recent high school graduation day.

Oh sure, she missed that half-day right before Christmas vacation back when she was 9, but that was because of an emergency appendectomy - a forgivable offense and one that still makes her a sort of schoolyard Cal Ripken Jr.

Ripken played a record 2,632 consecutive baseball games. Ashley attended more than 2,300 days of school in her hometown of Haslett, Mich.

"I kind of wanted to do something that no one else had," she says.

To be fair, Ashley considered skipping school, but anytime Mom thought Ashley might be working up an excuse, Mom did what most every parent does - handed out cold tablets and told the girl to get moving.

"Going to school was taking care of business," says her mother, Jean Klotz-Ryerse.

Perfect attendance in anything, whether it's work, school or club meetings, is rare.

Ferris Bueller plays hooky

It requires a certain sense of duty or obligation that's often missing in today's society, where people treat sick days like earned vacation. At the very least, American culture is conflicted, simultaneously lauding students such as Ashley and others like Ferris Bueller.

Ferris, an iconic 1986 film character, took ducking school to an Olympic level and still remained a righteous dude.

A century earlier, Tom Sawyer was playing hooky.

Some people are predisposed to act responsibly, and some aren't, says Gregory P. Smith, a management consultant near Atlanta, who specializes in helping companies hire and keep workers.

DNA alone, however, doesn't lead to loyalty. Leaders, whether they are bosses, teachers or parents, must motivate people.

If someone is a no-show, "the teacher or the employer hasn't found what turns the person's lights on," Smith says.

In 11 years of running schools, high school principal Randy Bowles of Lansing, Mich., has seen only one student lauded for perfect attendance, and that was for four years of high school, not the 13 that Ashley achieved.

Bowles' high school averages 95 percent to 98 percent attendance, and that's perfect enough, he says.

Changing attitudes

Many baby boomers and Depression-era adults might not understand why attendance and a sense of loyalty isn't automatic for recent generations. The answer gets back to "nurture" and how American culture has changed since 1950.

The boomers, those people born between the end of World War II and 1964, grew up different than later Generations X and Y.

"We grew up trusting our leaders," Smith says.

People felt dedicated because the company guaranteed they'd receive pension checks and even health care coverage.

Then came Watergate, President Clinton's tryst with an intern and Enron.

Boomers vs. Gen X and Y

Gen X, which includes people in their late 20s on up to age 40, doesn't trust authority. Gen Y, which is made up of teens and adults in their early 20s, questions it.

"That's why they're called Gen Y. They ask why all the time," Smith quips.

The mistake society makes is assuming that Gen X and Gen Y are motivated by the same things that move their parents. Who hasn't heard a boomer lament that "kids" these days don't have a sense of obligation?

Gen X and Gen Y do have a sense of duty, Smith says. More often, though, it's going to be sparked by some type of personal gratification.