The New York Times published an article last week noting that chronic absenteeism in American schools has “exploded,” reportedly transcending narrow silos of region, race, class, and age. But why wouldn’t students skip school? These days they aren’t missing out on much.
The most powerful quote of the Times piece summarized the essence of the new reality facing American educators: “Our relationship with school became optional.” It turns out parents have decided school isn’t the pressing priority it once was and that bargain family vacations, running errands, or just taking random days off are paramount to the demands of the traditional school schedule.
As with almost every new development in education, those of us on the front lines of American education are already acutely aware of the staggering number of empty desks on any given day. Many students are, at best, dependable three days a week, overwhelming numbers miss at least one day a week, and precious few aim for perfect weekly attendance, even in the honors courses.
Where are the Ed Rooneys today? Can anyone imagine a school administrator flipping out about “nine absences” in 2024? He’d be chasing down 90 percent of the student body in perpetuity. Ferris Bueller would get a gold star.
The dirty little secret in the AP and Honors world where I teach is that our most involved students miss instruction time with utter alacrity and usually without a scintilla of shame. They have this game, that field trip, or any number of extracurriculars tyrannically
