When you are in 8th grade getting ready to graduate you think about how you’re nervous and excited to start a new chapter of your life called high school. You think back to all of the good movies they made about high school, maybe some of the scary ones too(mean girls) but in your head you’re ready to start that part in your life.
Fast forward to now, and you’re thinking back how high school isn’t like what the movies make it out to be. You barely have classes with your friends, the lunch food is mediocre, and the fun activities are less and less as the school year moves on. On top of that your assignments start to pile up as you are not really motivated to do them anymore. Then you start missing school altogether because it’s just going to be the same things over and over. This is when help is needed.
Being on track to graduate and passing your classes is half of what you need to complete your four years of high school, but the other half is also attendance because you can’t pass your classes and get the material you need if you’re not in school. Now you would think that most teens would come to school because it’s common sense and seems like an easy thing to do. But in some cases teens don’t come because they can’t connect with their teachers or peers, the workload is too much and overall school is just boring.
There are more factors that contribute to why teens don’t come as stated in a article published by the Newport Academy that explains some of the reasons that teens don’t like going to school, they state that some factors are–teen anxiety, bullying, social anxiety disorder, acute stress disorder or PTSD, sexual harassment, or academic issues. These are just a few factors that play a role in not coming to school. There are plenty more factors, and maybe even more that we don’t know of yet.
My own personal opinion is that some high schools are too boring nowadays. Growing up we would watch movies on how fun high school is and all of the great activities they have to offer. But when you get here seeing the activities that we would fantasize about isn’t all what we imagined it to be. It mostly consists of work, missing work, projects, throwing in a fun activity, homework and so on.
A quote from an article Cross River Therapy says between the ages of 13-15 the attention span is 30-40 minutes while the average attention span for 16+ is 32-50 minutes. I say this is only credible if the topic is somewhat interesting or if the student is focused enough that day. Nowadays you’re lucky if you can get them to say here in class while you’re taking attendance.
Some tips I suggest to make high school more fun and a better place to come are some monthly assemblies that do something other than give us information on things and topics that are told to us daily. Getting together as a school just to do something fun makes the teenage mind excited because not everything is about learning.
Now I’m not saying that we should get rid of the informational meetings and being tough on teens because we still need that, otherwise they will basically run over the school. I’m saying having a few fun days out of the month should just be something that is considered to keep them interested in coming and staying in school.
For the people that struggle with their attendance should have a one-on-one with their counselors, dean, principals, or teachers to see what can be done to help those teens be in school more often and on time. I was thinking that they should have a reward system or some type of contest that would encourage teens a little more. I know what you’re thinking, “we have something like that already” or “why should we do that, it’s their responsibility.”
No one wants pencils and water bottles as a prize, not saying that to be ungrateful but it’s 2023, they at least want something worth their time. Some ideas could be free movie tickets, free lunch in the lunchroom, a period where they could take a nap(we love our naps). With a reward system like that I think students at all grade levels whether they’re failing or passing, great attendance or bad, would benefit.
Now some may argue that we are practically adults, so we should be able to come to school, on time, do our work, socialize, pass every class, do our homework, all while some of us have to work and take care of our families at home.
Some forget that we are still kids at the end of their day who need help and guidance just like small children, even some adults need help and guidance still. This isn’t something that needs to be put in place because we need it, but just an idea that may help students a little better.
School is supposed to be a learning place, but let’s also make it a fun place too.
