By: KINSEY SEACORD
High school students are too quick to judge when and when not to attend school if they are feeling under the weather. Too many times students have neglected their academic schedules because of a minor illness. Students need to realize that missing school causes irreparable damage beyond merely racking up absences. Missing school can have adverse consequences that can harm a student. Attendance is imperative.
According to The National Association of School Nurses, a teenager should stay home if he is vomiting, has a fever of 100.4 degrees Fahrenheit or higher, exhibits any body aches or produces violent coughs. Some students stay home due to minor headaches, cramps or a runny nose. However, this pattern of absences is ill-advised due to its negative effects on a student’s learning career.
Some will argue that sick children spread germs to others when they attend school. However, the spread of sickness to healthy students can be easily avoided. With a pack of pocket tissues and a mini bottle of hand sanitizer, one can effortlessly evade spreading bacteria for a mere eight hours.
“[Sick students can also] let the teachers know how they are feeling and that they came to school in spite of their sickness. This will impress teachers, build good relationships and work ethic,” Advanced Placement Language teacher Merrideth Buchanan said.
One can also practice the habit of keeping away from other healthy students. Distancing one’s self will eliminate any sickness-inducing contact.
When students are absent they are given a time frame during which their missing work must be completed. Falling behind in class is a repercussion of missing school, especially if one is enrolled in honors classes. In AP United States History, one chapter is taught each week. If students stay home for a week due to a “minor cold,” they are now a chapter behind their peers. Taking on the current homework assigned and finishing late work can stretch students to their limits and harm their grade if not completed in a timely manner. This unnecessary aggravation can be easily prevented by attending school.
Whatever the teaching method used, in-class interactions can not be made up. While a student can receive the information that was taught in his absence, the delivery is not the same and can often hurt the absent teenager.
“[Students] can get [their] make up work, but there is no duplicating the information that a teacher has delivered and planned,” Buchanan said.
Whether it is a PowerPoint or class discussion, the make-up work is less engaging and fails to encourage a healthy student-teacher connection. If one has a question on the information presented, he is able to ask the teacher and talk things out. When absent, one is left to process the new material individually. This can negatively affect the student’s grasp on the subject.
School, at this time in one’s high school career, should be a number one priority. One’s academic classes are much like a job. If one trains himself to stay home and miss school every time he feels under the weather, he quickly develops a poor work ethic. Choosing to not attend class is the first step to developing a careless mind set. Students must understand dependability so that it does not negatively affect them in their future careers. Today one misses school, tomorrow he misses work.
Missing school damages one’s grasp on a subject and having a minor illness is in no way justification for an absence. Make up work does not have the same impact as the work done in class and developing a successful work ethic is paramount. School attendance is essential.