On Monday morning, I woke up with a sore throat, cough, and fever. My first thought was “I can’t miss school!”
I know. A girl with a fever contemplating going to school. But for high schoolers today, there are ridiculous consequences for missing all six classes.
Yes, of course, I spent the day in bed watching Vanderpump Rules and drinking chai tea, but all the while, I had the dark cloud of missed classwork and homework looming — definitely not part of the doctor’s prescription.
It’s just not healthy.
The whole point of missing school is to rest, and it’s not as if I could have functioned if I had gone to school anyway. So why is there so much guilt?
It’s no secret that more and more high school students are being physically affected by the stress of schoolwork.
According to The Atlantic, a study shows that “49 percent of students feel ‘a great deal of stress’ on a daily basis.”
Not to mention the guilt that is laid on thick by some teachers.
“Where were you yesterday,” or, “How sick were you actually?”
Most teachers expect students who were not at school to complete the homework from that day because of online resources like Canvas, where teachers can post assignments. According to Carlmont’s policies, however, students with excused absences are allowed one extra day to complete any missed work.
Even so, teachers are the ones with the grade books, and sick students end up with twice the amount of work when they stay home, trying to get better.
To avoid this extra work, people often resort to sucking up and going to school anyway. It’s not uncommon to see students walking around campus sporting pajamas and a box of tissues because the stress of missing school is just not worth it.
Now, this depends on how sick you are. If you have the flu, please, do everyone a favor and stay home.
If students don’t stay home when they’re truly sick, they can’t get better, and the addition of more stress from classwork and homework to their stricken bodies doesn’t help. Perhaps if more teachers were understanding and accommodating, students would be more inclined to take care of themselves.
