United States | News & Politics

7218 readers

166 users here now

founded 4 years ago

MODERATORS

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

submitted 7 months ago by silence7@slrpnk.net to c/usa@lemmy.ml

8 comments fedilink hide all child comments

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.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] riskable@programming.dev 11 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Students can’t learn if they aren’t in school.

Do they mean physically or...? There's plenty of kids that learn just fine outside of schools.

I'm not a fan of unregulated home schooling but statements like this really undermine the message of the article 🤷

[–] mibo80@lemm.ee 9 points 7 months ago (2 children)

I don't think that's true. Sure, we get a few geniuses here and there, but with literally millions of kids out and about with no real guidance this isn't going to be good for a future workforce. This isn't a capitalist vs. socialist problem, but a societal one. Kids without the structure of an environment where collaboration and co-work are made available to them will struggle to integrate into other groups. Workers of the past were heavily exploited because they had little to no education to fall back on and no understanding of where they fit in the scale of things. Until Marx detailed it, all workers were exploited without realizing the whole system rested on them. Likewise, school teaches much more than propaganda and facts, but offer the opportunity to learn how to regulate one's emotions and temper their attitudes. I also see this as an issue from parents who took school for granted when they were young and who didn't learn anything about the world around them. It feeds this narcissism that people are just entitled to a certain view, until real life puts them in check.

[–] Dark_Arc@social.packetloss.gg 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Likewise, school teaches much more than propaganda and facts, but offer the opportunity to learn how to regulate one's emotions and temper their attitudes.

That's crap. I went through roughly 20 years of schooling and not once did "school" teach me anything about interpersonal relationships. Maybe a teacher here or there would give a tip but it was people and life experience in general that taught me all of that.

Until Marx detailed it, all workers were exploited without realizing the whole system rested on them.

There's a history of publicly available schooling going back to the 1700s in the United States. Marx literally couldn't have been more insignificant in how education has evolved. I know Lemmy is very pro-Marx, but there is a VERY weak relationship here at best and realistically there's none.

Given the Marxist movement was strongest in the Soviet Union and in many ways actively opposed in the United States from local to federal levels, I'd say Marx has had a very minimal impact on US culture until recent decades where some of his ideas have been reconsidered more broadly and more favorably.

Sure, we get a few geniuses here and there, but with literally millions of kids out and about with no real guidance this isn't going to be good for a future workforce. Kids without the structure of an environment where collaboration and co-work are made available to them will struggle to integrate into other groups.

Literally throw kids into a video game with a few friends. They'll learn and collaborate all on their own, these aren't skills that really need taught, though teaching can help act as a shortcut.

It's not exactly what you're saying, but I'm so tired of "learning how to learn" rhetoric.

The school system in this world of standardized testing is unduly stressful for students and teachers. It's also loaded up with straight up busy work (I don't care what you say those hours of my life wasted on mandatory word searches were NOT bettering me in any way) and things most adults have long since forgotten. I'm not for absences from school, but it's past time we actually took a hard look at what we're doing and whether or not it's working (IMO it's not and, as one of those "top 10%-ers" that got the various little academic achievement trophies and all that jazz, I feel much of my childhood was wasted on pointless exercises).

[–] delirious_owl@discuss.online 0 points 7 months ago

Teach someone to read and give them books. You dont have to be a genius. Most people know how to read and most children want to learn new things.