Picture this: It’s two AM in the morning, and you are studying for your AP Chemistry test. The black background of Organic Chemistry Tutor reflects your exhausted face, dark circles under your eyes. You realize a pass is hopeless, and decide to go to bed skipping tomorrow’s exam.
Unfortunately, this situation is more familiar than many care to admit. You magically get sick the day before – and day of, in extreme cases – for tests and quizzes. Teachers raise an eyebrow at your “illness” that manifested exactly during fourth period, yet you successfully postpone the exam one more day. Although falsifying the cause of your absence is unethical, the criticism towards it should be diverted to the “grind culture” and stress of the school system, rather than solely placed on the students overwhelmed by it.
Schools encourage students to take a manageable courseload, often punishing students for disregarding the advice with indifference at best, and criticism at worst. People contradict this due to expectations unique to the Bay Area, as well as the belief that students must overload on APs, take competitive extracurriculars, do “what is necessary” to get into a good school – rather than do things they are passionate about, and take classes that they are genuinely interested in. It’s a hypocritical approach deep in the Bay Area school culture. With the competitive nature of college admissions today, students are encouraged and even pressured to take the “most rigorous course load” available to them. Even as an elementary schooler, it was not uncommon for me to overhear conversations of parents moving to less competitive school districts, where they would be able to take fewer AP classes and still satisfy the “most rigorous courseload” expectation.
As for taking only classes that are genuinely passionate about, the environment hardly favors such intrinsic motivation. It is quite remarkable that colleges expect passion from such students when their criteria for competitive high schools across the nation somewhat deprives them of it. In any case, genuine passion cannot be uncovered until the stress levels go down. According to the American Psychology Association, teen stress levels surpassed not only the healthy amount, but also surpassed adult stress levels. Since stress is so high, intrinsic motivation dwindles and the focus is directed toward quantitative factors such as academic validation, ultimately driving students to skip school to study more to attain good grades.
There is also a difference between skipping the day before a test to study, and skipping the test itself. Skipping an exam on purpose can result in stress redirected toward teachers who are now responsible for a make-up. It is true that absenteeism is a major issue and encouraging skipping school can perpetuate a cycle that is hard to stop. However, this can be regulated with controlled leniency within the school system, creating trust between student, admin, and teachers. Having two excused “study absences” a year can encourage students to be honest about the cause of their absence, maintaining a healthy balance of academics and health.
