As I am sure most of you are aware who were in class on Thursday that we had another one of those pesky pop quizzes again in which we had to answer some questions and also put on the paper are name for attendance reasons. If you WERENT there, then stinks to be you I guess. But for the people that were there right after you may have noticed a large influx of students heading for the door.
This got a somewhat surprised/shock/amused reaction out of the class (and Andrew himself) as to why they are leaving and/or why they are in the class to begin with. For good reason too, attendance to any class is a important part of the educational system and learning things as a whole. Of course back in the days of our elementary or high school days they basically made threats of detention and consequences for not attending classes which I guess they needed to do that for us to go in some way, that is not really the point of attending classes. This article talks about the attendance rate which is generated by the department of education and tells us why it is attendance and having a good attendance rate is a good thing: “The attendance rate is important because students are more likely to succeed in academics when they attend school consistently. It’s difficult for the teacher and the class to build their skills and progress if a large number of students are frequently absent. In addition to falling behind in academics, students who are not in school on a regular basis are more likely to get into trouble with the law and cause problems in their communities.” (Greatschools).
So in short, without attendance to class, students tend to not learn as much and end up dropping out or struggling in the class they are not attending on a regular basis. Another reason why attendance is important and a reason not a lot of people know about is that attendance rate directly affects the amount of funding a school could get. So in turn, you going to the classes on a regular basis helps the school stay good and funded with money.
So attendance is more important then what some people think it is. And one more thing: if you are paying 35 to 40 thousand to go to a university in this country, why would you NOT want to attend the classes you are paying for? If you didn’t want to go to class then you would have never forked over the money to go to a 4 year college in the first place. It’s just common sense people, go to your classes because they will lead to greater opportunities in the future.
Source: http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/behavior-discipline/644-school-attendance-issues.gs?page=all
Hey Tyler,
I definitely agree with you that attendance is an important part of education. In grade school, it was very rare for me to miss school and I definitely saw the results. I hated missing class because you get behind and it’s hard to catch up. In college, I try to go to all my classes because I pay a lot of money for it and what else do I really have to do that’s more important? Sleep?
I definitely agree with the idea that students paying for college need to go to class. Personally, I try to attend class on a regular basis unless I’m really sick. I find that it pays off because when midterms and finals come, I’m not freaking out and I feel like I actually learned something.
However, I feel like if there was more supporting information in your blog, it would have been a more compelling argument. Were you targeting a specific grade or time of schooling or talking about school attendance in general? I think if you made this more specific and added in more background information, it would be more understandable.
I found an article online that talks about a study that was done on school attendance. It tracked students from kindergarten to college, and the students who attended school regularly had less behavioral issues.
http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/behavior-discipline/644-school-attendance-issues.gs
This is a pretty interesting blog and you bring up some good points, however I think that this is geared more towards 12-K schooling where you’re forced to go to school. In college where people get the freedom that they never had people have different methods of studying that they may find more suitable. I know that there certainly are people that can never go to school and still get phenomenal grades. It is a little bit stereotypical to say that everyone who doesnt go to class gets bad grades. As for myself, I am one of those people who does not miss a class unless I absolutely have to because I need to learn from teachers. I do agree with you though that a lot of people should go to class regularly.