Truancy: Why Do Students Stay Home?

When people hear the term “skipping school,” they often picture a scene straight out of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. They probably imagine students taking a luxurious vacation from school for no reason other than that they did not feel like going. However, this is often far from the truth. There are multiple reasons for students to skip school, and some of them can be perfectly legitimate. Of course, the term “skipping school”, also known as truancy, usually excludes sicknesses and appointments.

Some possible reasons why students desire to skip school include but are not limited to stress, bullying and mental health issues (source). However, other students simply do not want to go to school and would rather stay at home to relax. Some skip class to avoid having to take tests they are not prepared for. As the school year is coming to an end, many students notice that seniors tend to skip classes. Of course, this may make sense logically, as most seniors are done learning the curriculum and might wish to prepare for their IB exams in their own rooms, where they are most comfortable. Additionally, many seniors have sent in their college applications and been accepted, so there is little motivation to come to school.

According to the AISG handbook, skipping class in order to avoid an assessment is considered academic dishonesty and is a violation of the behavioral expectations. According to Mr. Tragert, vice principal at AISG, the school divides student absences as excused and unexcused. Excused absences simply mean that a parent has called in to excuse their child from school, whereas in an unexcused absence, the student takes matters into their own hands. Mr. Tragert also said that, while he does not condone skipping school in any way, he tries to deal with students skipping school from a more empathetic viewpoint. However, if students choose to skip in order to avoid deadlines and tests, they will be disciplined. In situations for seniors, it is hard to discipline them for skipping school because there aren’t many opportunities for it since most skip towards the end of the year, where there are no classes anyway, says Mr. Tragert.

I sent out a survey to the senior class to better understand the motivation behind skipping class. 66% of the seniors who responded said that they had skipped school at one time. One anonymous student said that sometimes it is hard to attend a class “if you are not feeling mentally prepared for it,” while another just said that they “were tired and didn’t want to come.” Other students named having nothing to do in class and stress as reasons for skipping. Many, however, simply choose to skip classes because they did not feel like attending.

Mr. Tragert says that he doesn’t want to focus on punishing those who skip school, but rather, eliminating the reasons they do. While missing school due to mental health reasons can be valid, it is only a temporary fix. Instead, we must focus on helping students with their mental health; both teachers and students must be able to work together in order to reduce the causes of stress among students. The goal of the school is not to punish students for doing something wrong, but to nurture the students to become future-ready individuals, among other things.

Unfortunately, there is no perfect way to relieve stress. Some students may turn to exercise in order to feel better, others may try breathing exercises, and still others may try and make time for leisure activities. In an ideal world, students would be able to strike the balance between schoolwork and personal time, but the sad reality is that, especially for IB students, it can be nearly impossible to find the right balance of everything. In fact, many IB students at AISG have to balance grades, social lives, sports, clubs, activities, homework, presentations, the SAT, IAs, TOK, EEs, IOCs, CAS, CAS projects, and college applications, and on top of that, they need to ensure that they have a healthy relationship with their friends and family and get the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep a night. There simply isn’t enough time in a day to do everything. What’s worse is that an excess of stress can lead to legitimate health problems like high blood pressure and a weakened immune system (source).

All is not lost, though, as there are ways to manage this. The truth is that there is no clear way to prevent stress, for in order to completely eradicate all stress, one must simply stop caring, and no student at AISG is ready to do that. However, there are ways to manage stress and perhaps alleviate it a bit. Being able to keep everything organized is a crucial part of managing stress. While it is understandable that students may want to skip school in order to avoid stress, it is only a temporary fix, and they may even end up more stressed due to missing crucial lessons.

There is no doubt that stress is harmful, but skipping school due to stress is not the final solution. Though there are many reasons to skip school, it often brings more harm than good. What’s more important is that we focus on why students skip school and help them manage their problems. If the skipping is due to stress, we cannot simply eliminate it, but we can help manage it. Stress and mental health problems are very real issues that cannot be fixed with a wave of a magic wand), but instead must be targeted over time to ensure that students do not continue skipping school and that they get the best education possible.