School Absences

                It is so much fun having a school absence.  Even if you are a studious person, a field trip or another event is always better than going to school.  I personally enjoy learning, but sometimes getting away from the same 2000 students in my school is a good thing.

                A school absence is different from any other absence.  Why? Well, it is the school that is actually calling you out and excusing you from classes.  Your parents wouldn't call you out and make up the often excuse of having a doctor’s appointment.  You have a real reason to miss school and it involves school!  Fun, right?  Some teachers can get pretty upset about their students missing school often because of a sport or other extracurricular activity, but they can deal with it.  It's not the student’s fault that so many activities are pushed on to them.  It is always good to get involved in what you like.

                Like any other absence it would still be expected that you make up your missed work.  I know several people that use the excuse of a school absence for not having to do anything and just being able to skip those missed assignments.  A student should be committed to school as well as their extracurricular activity.  It is always a good idea to find out what you will miss before you miss that way you can make plans to do the extra work to catch up. 

                A school absence has the word school in it, so it should be focused on school right?  Well that’s not always the case.  Sports aren’t always focused on school, they are focused on the sport at hand and winning, but it is the school that provides that sport.  Athletes often have a lot of school absences and I would know from personal experience.  Being involved in band, golf, and several other activities; I am missing out on a lot of school.  A policy in my school is that you can’t fall behind in classes due to sports and if you receive a D or lower in a class, you are not able to participate in that sport and will sit out on the next few competitions.  I value that rule, but I wish that they would change it to be a C or lower because C is average and an athlete should be able to maintain an average grade if they really want to commit to another thing.

                Field trips are another type of school absence.  Most likely you wouldn’t go on a field trip by yourself, so your whole class or group would also miss out on school.  In that case, hopefully the teacher wouldn’t have any make up work because they would also be attending the field trip.  As you increase in grade level field trips tend to occur less often unfortunately.  I feel that field trips are important to a student’s education because they are able to go outside of school and apply what they learned or even learn more stuff that they wouldn’t be able to learn in school.  This school absence is definitely worth missing school for.  In this article it discusses all of the advantages of taking a school field trip.  With all of the advantages I hope schools see that it is a necessary thing to do even at the higher levels of education.  I guess it wouldn’t necessarily be missing school because it would be like the school would come with you.  You would just be out of the building for the day. 

                School absences are necessary and should be enjoyed.  It is sometimes a rare occasion to have a school absence so take advantage of it.  Everyone needs a break once in a while and it should be a school break that still slightly involves school.