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Why School Absences Have ‘Exploded’ Almost Everywhere | The pandemic changed families’ lives and the culture of education: “Our relationship with school became optional.” (www.nytimes.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/nyt_gift_articles@sopuli.xyz

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Nationally, an estimated 26 percent of public school students were considered chronically absent last school year, up from 15 percent before the pandemic, according to the most recent data, from 40 states and Washington, D.C., compiled by the conservative-leaning American Enterprise Institute. Chronic absence is typically defined as missing at least 10 percent of the school year, or about 18 days, for any reason.

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[–] AnarchoSnowPlow@midwest.social 13 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It feels like we're sick all the time now. We hold our kids out more frequently than we used to as well, to avoid getting other people sick.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

We also keep them home if we think they might be sick. When I was a child, you had to have a fever, sore throat, or vomiting to stay home. There are more conditions that warrant staying home now.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 5 points 1 year ago

Yeah, my understanding is that people are spending about twice as much time sick as pre-pandemic. Probably responsible for a third to half of the increase in chronic absenteeism.

[–] njm1314@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago

Local Schools where I am just change their attendance policies and I think that's the cause of a lot of it around here. I was talking to the attendance office the other day and they said that an absence for any period in school counts as an absence for the whole day. So when I had to pick up the boy from the nurse's office at 3:00 they counted him absent for the whole day. That's not how it wasn't my day, when I went to school they took attendance at 10:00 and didn't give a shit past that

[+] nehal3m@sh.itjust.works -10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

School is not all that important. At least not so important that missing a few extra days will make an appreciable difference. What’s important is love and a good relationship with your loved ones. Looking back at my childhood spending quality time together would have done way more good for my development than sitting in class learning I don’t even remember what.

[–] silence7@slrpnk.net 14 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

They're not talking about a few days; they're talking about missing 18 or more school days per year. That's almost a month worth of class.

[–] themeatbridge@lemmy.world 12 points 1 year ago

Or one day every two weeks. Which doesn't seem that bad, when you consider normal cadence of dentist visits, checkups, vacations, and the occasional 3 day flu.

[–] nehal3m@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Yes, I read the article. I stand by my point.

School as it is right now is a remnant of the effort to educate children into competent factory workers or management. We've grown to accept that the 40 hour week starting when you're 4 or 5 years old is a prerequisite to a successful career (and by extension, life) and that the point of the whole system is to give kids a fighting chance in the economy as it will exist 20 years after they start that journey. We implicitly assume that is the best way to go about life and we've structured society around it.

I question whether it's still worth it for today's kids. Kids who are destined to excel academically probably will. Forcing the rest to go through the motions at the cost of their childhood is not the best way to treat humans in my opinion.

[–] Rolder@reddthat.com 6 points 1 year ago

Personal opinion is that some level of education is required to fully function in modern society. The basics like math, language, history, etc. Plus school offers a good way for kids to socialize with others their age which is important.

Now on the other hand, the current format of waking kids up at 8AM, loading them with homework, forcing them to take standardized tests… that all is a bit much.

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Childhood is a recent invention. If it wasn't for societies expectations for school and child labor laws, it would not exist.

Get rid of school requirements and the child labor laws will quickly follow. Then childhood goes poof.

[–] nehal3m@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's a non sequitur. How would child labor laws disappearing follow from adjusting school such that it serves the humans it purports to?

Keep in mind I never said ban school. A sibling comment to yours rightly made the point that there are some educational basics required to function in society and I agree. Having children and young adults spend some amount of time with that is a good thing. It's just too much of a daycare, a fulltime job simulator and a standardised test score generator as it stands.

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Child labor laws are already being rolled back by republicans. You failed to acknowledge the recent creation of childhood. Claiming these are non sequiturs indicates a lack of knowledge of history and current political movements; a sophomoric perspective that you're projected on to me.

Based on your response, I expect you to continue to dismiss what I say rather than taking the time to look at your internal logic and attempt to compensate for your blind spots.

[–] nehal3m@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Talk about sophomoric.

edit: oh and US centric.

[–] Clent@lemmy.world 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yes. My bad for a US centric take on an US newspaper's reporting on US students.

[–] nehal3m@sh.itjust.works 0 points 1 year ago

You’re responding to my comment though which was always about school in general.

You accuse me of failing to engage but the way I see it I distilled your point and framed the counter argument as a question. Instead of answering it you accuse me of being sophomoric and ironically accuse me of failing to engage.