Skipping school to go on vacation has always been a controversial topic for students, parents and especially teachers. It’s important to take into consideration when tests are and what projects are coming up when planning to leave school for an extended period. However, maybe it’s not even worth skipping school due to the amount of catching up to do when a student gets back. Teachers might claim that students should never skip school, but parents would argue that it’s their last time to hangout with their kids before they leave for college.
Senior Reese Campbell recently took a trip to Charleston, South Carolina. Although Campbell is a senior, experiencing senoritis—a rapid decline of motivation and effort experienced by high school seniors—she still has quite a few classes that are important to her. Luckily, she was able to keep up with her schoolwork when she got back.
“I tried my best to do all the work that I could while I was gone, but when I got back I definitely had a lot of catching up to do, which included staying in for lunch multiple times that week,” Campbell said.
For Campbell, the week she was gone was not the best because it was filled with tests. She was able to learn all the content she needed to, but leaving during a test week left her busy when she came back. From a student’s perspective, leaving during a test week seems to be worse than leaving during a content week.
However, Summit math teacher Heather Bussman claims it’s better to miss a review week or a test rather than missing a content week because it’s easier to make up tests than teaching yourself the information.
In order to stay on top of it, it’s also important to communicate with your teachers ahead of time so they know what kind of work to do while you’re away.
Bussman thinks it’s important to let your teacher know when you’ll be gone, especially in-person and further in advance than the day before you leave. But in general, Bussman believes the amount of work when you’re gone and its importance depends on each teacher and their curriculum. So, there’s not exactly a perfect time to leave for vacation since every student and how they learn is different.
It’s also important to consider that, for parents, it’s their last chance to spend time with their kids before graduating high school. Students headed for college sometimes leave as early as August, so for parents, any time with their student is valued.
“Sometimes you have the trip of a lifetime come up and for parents it’s their last chance to spend that time with their teenagers,” Bussman said. “So I understand when parents want to take their kids to cool places.”
Assistant vice principal Mary Thomas doesn’t experience all of this first hand, but she does see it from an administrative perspective. Everyone wants to experience vacation, but sometimes it comes at an inconvenient time.
“Depending on the parents’ work schedule, sometimes they have a season that’s off that isn’t during a break,” Thomas said. “And as long as it’s something that’s adding value to your life then I think [taking vacations] is okay as long as it’s not all the time.”
In the end, parents will continue to take students out for trips and kids will continue to miss school no matter the consequences. However, it’s important to recognize the right way to do it and understand the perspective of school workers as well. This allows the students to become more mindful when they know they’re about to leave for a trip, pushing them to approach vacation in the right way, and especially forcing them to be grateful for the opportunity.
