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

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.

  • @ClentEnglish
    0•8 months ago

    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.

    • @[email protected]English
      0•8 months ago

      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.

      • @ClentEnglish
        0•8 months ago

        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.

          • @ClentEnglish
            0•8 months ago

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

            • @[email protected]English
              0•8 months 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.