Missing school: it’s not all it’s cracked up to be

Opinion Editor, Sydney Dybing

Band festivals. Choir trips. College interviews. Sporting events. Robotics competitions. The list of excused activities to miss school for goes on and on. All day you might be out of class for one reason or another, and despite the absences not counting against you in the administrator’s eyes, it makes it very difficult to stay caught up in school. Sure, band and choir festivals are rewarding, but missing multiple days of school (especially in the same semester) tends to make life really difficult. Whether it’s not having the option to make up a missed quiz in BC Calculus or having to come in on your own time to make up a physics lab, it’s hard to fully appreciate school-interrupting extracurricular activities without being constantly aware of the mountain of work waiting for you when you get home.

Everyone always proclaims that academics come first, but it’s hard to believe that when a graded event for an elective class or a track meet end up cutting into the school day. Afternoons and weekends are there for other reasons besides work and relaxation time, so non-school activities need to be scheduled to fit into these windows, not during our classes. These activities, no matter how important, should not be prioritized over school.