In our house, we were talking about the absurdity of that article this week. OF COURSE absenteeism is higher, there is more illness!
Even IF you don't accept that COVID is damaging immune systems, in the best case we have all the childhood diseases that we had before and now COVID on top it. It would be surprising if absenteeism WEREN'T h…
In our house, we were talking about the absurdity of that article this week. OF COURSE absenteeism is higher, there is more illness!
Even IF you don't accept that COVID is damaging immune systems, in the best case we have all the childhood diseases that we had before and now COVID on top it. It would be surprising if absenteeism WEREN'T higher.
But, reading through the comments by NYT readers, it is stunning how many of them basically agree with the premise of the article and blame it on overindulgent or irresponsible parents.
The top "NYT Picks" comment includes, I kid you not:
"Try to gamify attendance, show up get rewarded (not with a meaningless printed piece of paper, something visible to every student, teacher) in a positive way to encourage attendance."
The top-rated "Reader Picks" comment complains:
"Parents take their kids on week long vacations when they should be in class."
The second-highest rated one harrumphs:
"Many trends are converging in American schools that will result in a less educated population. The relaxing of grading standards, doing away with the SAT for college admissions and the acceptance of absenteeism (as this article points out) all lead to one thing: an undereducated society who lack critical thinking skills."
None of them mentions "more illness" as a possible contributing factor. (In fairness, there are some "NYT Picks" that do make the case that their kids have been sick more, and that sick kids shouldn't be in school.)
Another strange thing is the number of readers who complained with words to the effect of "this is a long-term trend of worsening absenteeism that predates the pandemic". This is another minimizing trope that implies that it is a general loosening of discipline that is the cause and not more illness.
And the thing about that idea is that the chart displayed at the top of the article (which you reproduced here) clearly refutes it. Absences were roughly flat in the 2016-2019 span.
In our house, we were talking about the absurdity of that article this week. OF COURSE absenteeism is higher, there is more illness!
Even IF you don't accept that COVID is damaging immune systems, in the best case we have all the childhood diseases that we had before and now COVID on top it. It would be surprising if absenteeism WEREN'T higher.
But, reading through the comments by NYT readers, it is stunning how many of them basically agree with the premise of the article and blame it on overindulgent or irresponsible parents.
The top "NYT Picks" comment includes, I kid you not:
"Try to gamify attendance, show up get rewarded (not with a meaningless printed piece of paper, something visible to every student, teacher) in a positive way to encourage attendance."
The top-rated "Reader Picks" comment complains:
"Parents take their kids on week long vacations when they should be in class."
The second-highest rated one harrumphs:
"Many trends are converging in American schools that will result in a less educated population. The relaxing of grading standards, doing away with the SAT for college admissions and the acceptance of absenteeism (as this article points out) all lead to one thing: an undereducated society who lack critical thinking skills."
None of them mentions "more illness" as a possible contributing factor. (In fairness, there are some "NYT Picks" that do make the case that their kids have been sick more, and that sick kids shouldn't be in school.)
Another strange thing is the number of readers who complained with words to the effect of "this is a long-term trend of worsening absenteeism that predates the pandemic". This is another minimizing trope that implies that it is a general loosening of discipline that is the cause and not more illness.
And the thing about that idea is that the chart displayed at the top of the article (which you reproduced here) clearly refutes it. Absences were roughly flat in the 2016-2019 span.