A few years ago, “quiet quitting” was the buzz phrase used to describe an apparent crisis in the workplace. It described employee responses to unengaging workplaces. Instead of simply leaving a job, workers slowed down and just did the bare minimum in order to keep from getting fired.
I wonder if we’re seeing something similar with the current crisis of chronic absenteeism: the quiet quitting of our youth from the one institution that’s supposed to set them on a path for success in life.
Chronically absent students — those who miss school more than 10% of the time — are telling us that school just isn’t important enough in their lives to get to every day. While there may be external factors that compromise their abilities to get to school, most of those have always existed, and educators have always taken them into account. Something feels different about today’s new pandemic of chronic absenteeism, which means we need different strategies.
Young people need to be in school. Getting students back into classrooms is absolutely necessary for their achievement and success. But keeping them there is the real challenge.
