There is a term scholars use in business, ‘absenteeism’, which means the habitual evasion of work or willful absence as in a strike action. Typically companies with high absenteeism are struggling to motivate their workers, pointing to a flawed management strategy. But the concept applies to more than just corporations.
In a way, students are a lot like employees, and high schools face the challenge of high absenteeism rates every day, otherwise known as ‘senioritis’. But, unlike a company, high schools fail to recognize increasing absences among the student body as a result of their own misdoing. While it is fair to say that one employee not coming to work is not the fault of the company, mass nonattendance is not traceable to the laziness or irresponsibility of any one individual.
The administration continues to view large student absences as a result of individual students making poor choices, yet they refuse to ask the bigger question – why are students across the board attending less? This issue does not exist solely for seniors either. Senioritis has turned into junioritis and sophomoritis and even freshmanitis. As a student who is out of school almost more than I am in school, I have learned a few things about where and for what reasons the administration should take on some of the blame for low school attendance.
First, as a junior and IB diploma candidate, my week is so crammed full of work that there are not enough hours to complete it all, even if I worked from the time I got home until early the following morning. In one night I might need to complete multiple essays, study for three or four exams taking place the following day and complete regular assigned homework as well. This taught me to search for hours in the day that I could take advantage of, in order to fit it all in. That process started with using learn, then lunch was on the chopping block, then on my drive home and finally it became necessary for me to stay home from school for parts of the day to complete it all. The sheer quantity of work begs students to skip their classes and stay home, where, instead of filling out a packet or wasting time between classes, kids can actually get their work done effectively and in peace and quiet.
But the school’s responsibility does not end with the hard workers trying their best to manage too many assignments. It is important to also recognize the students who have lost interest and motivation in their classes, as that is just another excuse for soaring rates of absenteeism.
In business, there are three motivators that can lower absenteeism and promote high morale: job enlargement, where workers receive work with more variety to peak their interest, job enrichment, where workers receive more complex tasks to present new challenges and job empowerment, where workers receive more say over company decisions to boost morale and make them feel powerful. Marshall needs to approach this issue with these motivators in mind. Providing varied, complex schoolwork and giving students more autonomy over their education can be equally effective in convincing students to attend their classes as it is for employees to attend work.
People have no problem understanding the concept that when pay is too low, tasks are unfair or treatment is poor, workers go on strike or develop patterns of staying home. What students and faculty need to realize is that this can be true of schools too. A school has done its job when, and only when, despite challenging courses and some boring classes, kids wake up everyday wanting to attend school and actually doing so. Until then, I should see everyone capable of making that happen working towards that goal of student engagement, and never stopping until they get there.