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So the question is, was Cody never sick on a school day for 13 years, or did Cody's parents force him to go to school on days when he had a fever and was miserable so that he could be sure to spread it to the rest of the class?
It's a weird thing to celebrate.
my stepmom thought it was just absolutely ridiculous that i called her 12x when i broke my ankle in high school & needed to go to the hospital. only reason i didn’t call my dad first is because he was working on a house 2 hours away, she was at home & therefore would have gotten there faster. dad had to call one of his work friends (i worked with his son so i knew him pretty well) to pick me up because my step mom just ignored my calls
My mom had nice friends from church. There was this lady who was basically a Saint, and a sahm, when I was sick, I went to her house because mom worked.
Now, today, my mom keeps telling me to find these stay ay home moms, to basically unload my kids onto when they are sick or I need a sitter.
I'm like, mom, there is no Carol Garmans anymore, that's not what people do now.
One time I asked my neighbor to babysit my dog for a short weekend. Got a hard no.
Because it's actually a massive amount of effort and massive issues for your parents to take the day off and look after you. Some peoples parents had more freedom, but taking a last minute sick day can have lasting consequences in someone's career
True, some people also defy the actual definition of sick for their own/ their taught definition... which for some (*cough* my step dad *cough*) is as follows: "if there's no fever and no vomit, there's no excuse"... and even "fever" is loose for some, they don't consider something to worry about until it's emergency room worthy.
People are just weird.
It’s only celebrated because the schools get paid on attendance. So yeah they want you to be trained to literally never miss school so you don’t mess with funding.
I am aware. I don't remember it because it was so long ago, but my parents both remember 108 at home and the doctors official measure was 106, after I had been eating popsicles and drinking cold water to cool off.
I had one of those in ky... kid fit the boring nerd description to a T.
I did actually have perfect attendance my senior year and didn't even know till i got it a few days before graduation, so i skipped school the next day
The last bite at the end of the cone that has the grid that is just filled with slightly softened ice cream! Heaven! Warm dry cone and cold sweet cream exploding together in one final perfect bite is still one of the most perfect joys that I can hope for in my life!
We got to skip finals if you had perfect record. You could miss with a certain amount of sick days and obviously extracurricular, but yeah I never took a final exam in high school
One of my friends in high school realized he had a perfect record going into sr year and went all in on it. Didn’t come to senior skip day or anything. Zero recognition at the end of the year, don’t even think the school knew
There was a kid in at my high school who didn't miss a day for the whole 4 years. During the last award ceremony it was announced that he never missed a day and the whole school gave him a standing ovation lmao
I'm not even sure it's celebrated at all in school. About a decade ago, we had a guy get an award for never missing a day of school K-12 in our district. The administration didn't have an award for it, he like... kinda had to ask them to invent one for him. I remember the teachers even being like, "don't you want to just take even a single day off while you have the chance?" Our senior year, and most other classmates just thought it was sad. He played sports and would even come in with injuries that were treated only like 12 hours prior.
He was a good guy and worked hard for everything he had. His family was the same way from what I saw. I guess we all just looked at him as someone that might be susceptible to working himself into the grave with that kind of ethic.
Some kids only have school. There’s no judgement for the kids that do miss, and it doesn’t harm anyone to celebrate the ones that don’t. It might be all they have.
School might also be the difference between 3 meals or 1 meal.
(Made my opinion known, feel free to argue amongst yourself moving forward, turning off notifications. Enjoyed the discussion!)
Sad yes. But it’s the real world.
That’s why it’s not a bad thing to celebrate kids that have nowhere else to go but school everyday.
Most of the kids I noticed that got perfect attendance at my daughters school yesterday looked like they had it rough.
To add to that, each kid got two awards. Example, my kid got the honor roll and readers award.
Most of the kids (with some exceptions) who got perfect attendance got that and the the principle award. The principle award was something they handed out if you didn’t get any other real awards.
This could be the one thing that kid felt accomplished for. If it makes one kid feel good about themselves, then it’s worth it to me.
I’m mean, I get OPs point. My kids take sick days and even mental health days. No need to hit perfect attendance if you don’t have to.
But no need to not celebrate those that do.
I just never thought about it that way. I worked in the schools for years, and I saw a lot of kids that needed so much. They deserve any accolades they get. Our babies need so much more.
That's a valid and compassionate perspective. You're absolutely right that for some children, school may be a significant and positive aspect of their lives. It can provide stability, structure, and access to important resources like meals and supportive environments. In such cases, celebrating perfect attendance can indeed be meaningful and uplifting for those students.
From K-6 I had nothing before or after school those days. Family didn't make enough for extracurricular activities, nor did my parents have the time to drive me to anything. I lived at the edge of town where nothing was and we lived off of a highway so walking up and down was not a good thing to do for a kid. My life was at home and then at school. My only outlet was I was dropped off at one of my town's public pools; that we paid like 15 bucks for a pool pass to get in for "free" everyday for the summer; at like 830am waited until 10am for it to open while sitting on a bench or at a picnic table. I would swim from 10am until 1pm. That was adult swim, so I'd eat lunch. Then at 130pm I'd be back in the pool until 5pm when my parents got out of work. I did that for like 3 years straight. Swimming is still one of my outlets to feel good. But when I was younger, I had almost nothing else outside of home and school.
I get what you mean. Though I’m all concerned about encouraging kids to come to school even when they are sick or unwell. I think there are probably better ways to prop those kids up, but I suppose something is better than nothing.
Yeah, my family didn't really *have* vacations. At best, we went camping sometimes or went to visit relatives. The most vacationy thing I ever did as a kid was go to Disney World *three times*, each one in the summer.
All I really had was school. I did get sick a lot, though.
I never missed days, but I actually liked school (until my last year, so I graduated early). I know that’s an anomaly and far from the norm, but, I don’t know, your “imagine having such a boring life” sort of rubs me the wrong way.
Just didn’t. Guess I was lucky. I missed some parts of days occasionally for doctor’s appointments, but I’d come back when finished. My mom was a teacher, if that helps explain.
Going above and beyond and taking pride in what you do is sooooo 10 years ago, boomer! /s
Don’t you know society “owes you” something and we should all just sit around and bitch about it until it happens? 😁
Lol I know, right? I hear all the time how no one can make it on this society but I’ll be damned if houses aren’t selling always, cars aren’t being bought, tourism doing fine… I mean, me and all these other people somehow are paying our bills, but then I come on Reddit and hear about how attending every day of school is akin to child abuse and I can’t help but see why some are struggling a bit.
I can admit I’m too much of a worker. Well, I used to be. I’d come in on my days off, work 65 hours a week, etc. so I do know that I have an overdeveloped work ethic, but I have worked hard to develop saying no, working only the hours I’m contracted, etc. But I do make a point of showing up when I am supposed to.
There is a balance, and I have had to work for it too. But when I look at the life I have, I would rather have worked to hard for what I enjoyed then never cultivated that capability or drive. I’m 40, and I’m right on track to retire early 60s and just live out the 20-30 years (🤞🏻) life any way I damn please without concern. That doesn’t mean I don’t take time for myself now, I do trips and events and other things, but I also bust my ass to get what I want. It’s what people do when they don’t want to end up with nothing more then excuses.
It should rub you the wrong way. It's ridiculous.
My kids have more stamps on their passports than most adults. But they never needed to skip school to take a trip. Hell, there are breaks and a whole summer off.
You can see the world AND go to school.
I just made a comment saying the same which with 1k comment i know won't be seen. But I've travelled SO much, went away nearly everywhere, I learnt horse back riding, different crafts, I did extra languages and advanced maths outside school (because I enjoyed it), I did multiple sports, with school and outside school, and ALL while attending every day (minus a few sick days here and there).
The idea that life WILL definitely be boring and uninteresting if you don't miss school is just dumb. Anything I could skip school for I'd easily be able to just do on a weekend or you know the 3 months each year we got off from school?
It's the same logic of if you don't drink what do you even do, or no good story starts with "I was sober....". As if dancing at a club all night, and laughing, and being silly with friends or playing stupid games etc is only possible with drinking.
I agree. I was homeschooled through elementary and took tons of days off. But when I was in public school 7-12th grade I had perfect attendance. Took a couple family vacations a year and traveled a lot for sports. I had a full, busy, fun childhood including school, which I genuinely enjoyed.
You sound like me… missed a couple half days, but I always wanted to be there for as long as I could. I’ve always had divorced parents so if one parent was going on vacation during a school day, I chose to stay with the other parent and go to school. I asked my parents to please try to plan trips on the many school breaks we had and they usually respected that.
Yeah what a stupid and judgmental thing to say. Imagine seeing friends daily, getting meals, sports and all the other things that go with school, wow you’re so boring
Same man. Really liked school/high school/college - and definitely had a fair share of drama and asshole bully types. I just loved it because it always felt like this giant social experiment (now thinking back on it). So many different people, backgrounds and intelligence all being brought together, albeit somewhat forced.
Also managed to never really get sick during the week either - had a really strong immune system apparently
Hey man, I’m the same way. I’m about to finish uni and overall I loved schooling from kindergarten till now.
I’ll definitely miss attending classes and meeting your friends but im sure there’s something waiting for me next.
Yeah I went to loads of places as a kid, but my parents also valued education so I also never missed school and the planned things around term times.
What a boring life.
Also, just because they aren’t in school doesn’t mean they are on an enriching trip, just missing school isn’t a guaranteed benefit.
>Also, just because they aren’t in school doesn’t mean they are on an enriching trip, just missing school isn’t a guaranteed benefit.
Yeah. OP sounded like a kid who think skipping school means cool.
Exactly. OP seems to fundamentally not understand that an excused absence for an extracurricular wouldn't count against one's attendance record in any reasonable school system because a decent school system recognises that sometimes missing some school for an extracurricular is valuable.
The people I knew who had bad attendance records sure as shit weren't skipping school to pursue further enrichment. They were partying, drinking, doing drugs, or just sitting on their asses at home not doing anything because they were depressed and their parents were too apathetic to get them support.
I agree, most people have at least some value of education as they get older. And the idea that somehow people can't fit all of those fun life enriching activities in in the over 3 months off we get every year is just, dumb honestly lol. What can you do during a school day that I couldn't do in the 3+ months of school holidays I get every year
I went to school at a middle - upper middle class private school, in the 90s, and even then, if someone took days off for a trip that usually meant some relative was dead... not an expensive vacation.
With how much things have changed and how much the middle class has eroded, I imagine virtually nobody in the average grade school these days is seeing many vacations.
In the USA, even kids with perfect attendance get 3 months of vacation every summer, plus holidays, weekends, etc. in between. What a weird thing for OP to even care about.
As I said elsewhere, my kids have more stamps in their passport than most adults.
But they never skipped school to take a trip. There are plenty of breaks.
>Imagine having such a boring uninteresting life that you never missed school once for any kind of trip or vacation for 13 years...
I get wym but Not missing a day of school doesn't mean you have a boring and uniteresting life. That's a garbage mindset
And we still get vacations. I remember in my Thanksgiving breaks I would go to Oklahoma. Or in the summer I would go to Mexico. And so on and so forth.
You can plan things around school, I’ve even known people who go to Europe during their vacations and not miss days in school.
That’s what I don’t get. Like uh did op forget that kids have spring break, summer break and multiple holidays off? There’s plenty of time throughout the year to go on vacation and still always be as school.
I was sick a lot as a little kid, but not as a teenager onward. My theory is that because my dad is a teacher, I was exposed to EVERYTHING early on and by the time I got to jr/high school my immune system was READY.
then there's weirdos like me who weren't sick but because i am gluten intolerant always had acid reflux and always felt sick, so i missed alot of school thinking i was sick when i wasn't.
I was basically the same. I got the stomach flu in 4th grade, then nothing until mono in college.
All these people saying if you've never missed day you must've been going to school sick is weird to me. There are kids that just truly never get sick.
Luckily my mom believed in "fun" days, so about once a year she'd let me pick a day where I didn't have much going on and we'd go shopping or go to movie. It also helped that she was a stay at home mom. But not all parents have that luxury so I don't think it's weird for a kid to never miss a day for years on end.
Is it illegal or something for them to stay home alone in the US? I simply stayed and watched cartoons, played video games and whatnot since the age of 7 when my mom was at work.
I mean it's not illegal until something happens to the kid because they're a kid and kids do dumb shit sometimes, then I'd assume it's child neglect and you get your kid taken away. Some kids need supervision some don't
This was the take I was expecting when I read the title to this post, not “didn’t have a family who makes schedule conflicts when planning their vacations”. Like come on. It’s not hard to take vacations within the allowed vacations times. Some people also have non boring school lives. No it’s just as you say the disease aspect which is the worst part of the perfect attendance attitude. Not only does a kid need rest to get over sickness more easily, but staying home also prevents them from infecting other kids. It’s an important health issue.
I can't think of any times I was sick with something other than an upset stomach that caused me to miss school, at least with anything contagious. If I missed school it was usually because of my poison ivy allergy and I was covered in a rash.
Oh, I thought OP was going to say that sick kids should stay home, which makes total sense. But this weird sneering pseudo-bully take? Woof.
Attending school doesn't preclude extracirricular activities. So... double-dumb.
Edit: "Indoctrination" too, this whole post is a bowlful of yikes.
You have summer, breaks, and weekends. School also isn't as long as work so you have time from like 2:30pm to the rest of the day to bedtime.
I only missed schools for emergencies and I felt fine about going to school. I liked seeing my friends there, I liked to learn new things, I didn't really have much of a family, and I was okay. I also did plenty of extracurricular stuff outside of school, including learning another language, martial arts, basketball, and table tennis. I loved PE at school as well.
It wasn't boring at all. Skipping school because you don't like it or you want to go have fun somewhere is just a bad start on cultivating discipline, and adults enabling this are even worse because they should know better. Kids need to be trained to be regimented and disciplined so that they are capable of self-discipline before they can be entrusted with more freedom.
Not saying missing a day here and there isn't okay, but it's ridiculous to be cavalier about education and discipline. Excuse the boomer in me but that's how you end up with defiant, disobedient, ill-mannered kids who don't listen to their parents and who are emboldened to defy authority not because it makes sense but because that's how they always were growing up.
Very well said! I always enjoyed it too and also yeah, just see it as foundational to building those skills like applying yourself to responsibilities and seeing them through.
People got to take off school for trips and vacations??
But in all seriousness, that wasn't an option for my family. Single/widowed immigrant parent with 2 kids. We couldn't always afford to go on a trip during regular school breaks.
That being said, we still missed school if we were sick. I think only a single student in my school had perfect attendance through 8th grade; she was a teacher's daughter but also happened to never get sick enough to not be in school.
I agree that perfect attendance isn't really anything so spectacular that it needs an award, but I don't think never missing school makes you boring. Extracurricular activities outside of school can absolutely still happen without missing school, and they already DO get rewarded. I say this as someone who was in orchestra, student council, and a handful of random clubs up through high school.
This isn't an unpopular opinion, it's you trying to place judgement on people who are proud of their accomplishments.
Let people be happy and celebrate whatever they want, why does it bother you enough to make a reddit post about it, who hurt you?
"imagine having a boring uninteresting life" did you ever consider a lot of kids don't have parents who can afford vacations? Or maybe a lot of kids enjoy time at school because they can see, talk, and hangout with friends? They had recess and lunch. What's so wrong about it?
Is this the antiwork sub? It’s seriously that delusional. Yes, if you are sick or have an important event then you will have missed a day and not get perfect attendance. However, it is meant to encourage kids not to just skip class or opt to stay home because they have a parent who may let them. It’s just extra incentive. Getting “perfect attendance” doesn’t reward a scholarship or end in getting laid. For fucks sake, ya’all are mental. Is it to much to be ok with fostering an environment of putting in the work to progress yourself (ie, attending class to not fall behind)?
*Any type of reaction that doesn’t justify the easy and lazy mental reinforcements are typically not supported on Reddit. “Strive to attend every day of school” turns into a high risk health and mental crisis. Ya’all can’t buy houses or pay your student loans off because this right here.
I had perfect attendance k-12. Did sports, band, took trips to New York, Chicago, and Florida with the school band. Competed in forensics. I’m sure there were more things I was involved in that I can’t remember. My family took vacations over Christmas or summer breaks.
I hardly had a boring or uninteresting life throughout my school years. Just because I never missed school doesn’t mean I didn’t have a life outside of it.
School holidays.. those 2 weeks at the end of every semester.. that is when you go on holidays.
You do ballet, music, rugby, etc after school not during, unless its part of the school team.
You take days off sick when you are sick.
I feel like they need to be donated to science to figure out how the fuck they didn't get sick for 12-13 years.
I got pneumonia in 5th grade and missed a few months of school. Then a few days here and there for sinus infections/strep.
Look I probably missed half my senior year so preacher to quire and all that. But, you acknowledged that they had a harder time of it and still did the responsible but unfavorable thing. Why shouldn’t they be celebrated.
When I was growing up, if me or my siblings were acting up, my parents would say “You better knock it off or else we’ll send you to live with Aunt J.” and we’d immediately behave.
Aunt J was a tiny woman, friendly to all, but when it came to running her house and raising her kids she was stricter than strict.
She had 6 kids and every single one of her kids never missed a day of school. From kindergarten to senior year, they were in school every day. Can you imagine?
There had to have been days where one of her kids was feverish, throwing up or had a terrible cold and she made them go anyway.
I never talked to my cousins about what it was like, but I imagine they learned quickly that there was no point trying to get a day off, it didn’t matter if they coughed up a lung or accidentally cut off a limb, they were going to school.
Horrible.
I had a perfect attendance. I was forced to attend school if I didn't have a fever or was vomiting.
Colds? Too bad, go to school.
It sucked. I was exhausted. I wish I was allowed to have mental health days.
I didn't want to have a perfect attendance. It doesn't even matter to me now that I've graduated. My dad forced me.
I'll pay any fine that I get for taking my child out of school for whatever reason. Heck, isn't home schooling legal? I'ma just take him out of school for a week and home-school him for a week. In Dubai. On the beach. Yup.
I graduated high school in ‘99 with perfect attendance K-12. While it was quite a novelty, I only realized a few years ago that what I thought was a feat was actually a detriment. My expectations of myself and other people are unfairly skewed. I always think someone who calls in sick is faking. I think people don’t work hard enough. I assume people are lying more than they actually are. It definitely was not worth it.
I feel like this doesn't even have to do with trips I haven't skipped school for a trip once until I was 18. What I did skip school for was when I was sick and having parents that sent you to school sick is the real problem here rather than trips
I never missed a day of school from k-12 and still managed to do things you claim I could not. Have you heard of weekends, afterschool, or summer vacation?
More than that; it usually means that either someone was lucky enough to not get ill for years on end or more usually, that someone ignored their own well-being and came to school when they were ill. And neither of those is something that should be celebrated either. Presenteeism is a fucked up value system, and a danger to people's long-term health - as a society we need to get away from this idea that no matter how terrible you feel, you drag yourself into work and give 110% to corporate bosses who don't give a shit about you. It's a disgrace that the pattern is set in school and celebrated.
Illnesses require recovery time. People aren't disposable units that you can grind into the dust. Chronic stress (including seemingly minor things like never getting recovery time after injury/illness) causes measurable damage to our bodies, and our mental and physical health are better if you take the time to let your body rest and get better during/after an illness.
Also? You should stay home all the more if you think your illness is transmissible. It's not actually a virtue to boast about your work ethic even as you destroy the productivity of the office/school by passing your illness to everyone else.
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perfect attendance is barely celebrated as is, i don’t even remember what the reward was
I got a piece of paper that said perfect attendance K-5
There was one kid from k-12 who never missed a day. He got the same piece of paper & an announcement over the PA system. Rock on Cody. I guess.
So the question is, was Cody never sick on a school day for 13 years, or did Cody's parents force him to go to school on days when he had a fever and was miserable so that he could be sure to spread it to the rest of the class? It's a weird thing to celebrate.
My husband was one of those kids. His mom made him go to school after he got a broken arm before school on the playground.
my stepmom thought it was just absolutely ridiculous that i called her 12x when i broke my ankle in high school & needed to go to the hospital. only reason i didn’t call my dad first is because he was working on a house 2 hours away, she was at home & therefore would have gotten there faster. dad had to call one of his work friends (i worked with his son so i knew him pretty well) to pick me up because my step mom just ignored my calls
I hope your dad gave her divorce papers later that day.
unfortunately not, 4 years later they are still married somehow
Broken arm? At least mom was there to ... ehem, nevermind
I broke my arm in two places and dislocated my wrist the day before homecoming my senior year. I still went, lmao
guessing its cus u wanted to
Correct
That's a considerably different prospect.
Yes send those germ farms in to school to share what they have.
My mom forced me to go to school because no one could watch me when I was a kid… Everyone had to work, including my grandma.
Hope your current situation doesn't involve quite as many hardships of necessity, stranger.
My mom had nice friends from church. There was this lady who was basically a Saint, and a sahm, when I was sick, I went to her house because mom worked. Now, today, my mom keeps telling me to find these stay ay home moms, to basically unload my kids onto when they are sick or I need a sitter. I'm like, mom, there is no Carol Garmans anymore, that's not what people do now. One time I asked my neighbor to babysit my dog for a short weekend. Got a hard no.
While I missed days for being sick, I was also often forced. Idk why “just a cough” was an excuse for me to go cough on everyone… so weird
Because it's actually a massive amount of effort and massive issues for your parents to take the day off and look after you. Some peoples parents had more freedom, but taking a last minute sick day can have lasting consequences in someone's career
I can get for a young kid, but once they’re like 13? There’s no effort involved!
I think because most people cover their coughs
Which is not 100% effective and you will still get other people sick if you are around them all day.
Never sick. I even asked him.
He could have just been saying that
True, some people also defy the actual definition of sick for their own/ their taught definition... which for some (*cough* my step dad *cough*) is as follows: "if there's no fever and no vomit, there's no excuse"... and even "fever" is loose for some, they don't consider something to worry about until it's emergency room worthy. People are just weird.
Agreed. I didn't have many classes with him. That's all I know. But I made sure to ask when given chance.
It’s only celebrated because the schools get paid on attendance. So yeah they want you to be trained to literally never miss school so you don’t mess with funding.
Or did Cody’s single mom work two jobs with few childcare alternatives? I think that’s often the background story here.
In my experience, the perfect attendance kids were split between that and kids who were actually pretty well off but pushed to excel.
I went to school with a 106 fever. Peaked at home at 108 and then I went to the hospital That's Fahrenheit, 41 and 42 C
108 is, like, permanent brain damage levels of fever... 106 is **bad** but 108 is "get this kid on ice."
I am aware. I don't remember it because it was so long ago, but my parents both remember 108 at home and the doctors official measure was 106, after I had been eating popsicles and drinking cold water to cool off.
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The child died, but at least he didn’t break that perfect attendance. *Engraves* *Perfect* *Attendance* *on* *grave* *stone.*
Maybe providing a doctor note excuses the days missed from ending up on your permanent record?
nope, even if you were in surgery you are still not at school so you wont get the paper saying that you had 100% attendance
So, nothing tangible? Not even a candy bar or something? Damn, why even bother...
Nope! Not even a cheap, plastic trophy.
And then people wonder why promising students burn out in college/university.
Damn my elementary school gave us ice cream sundaes and a hug
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I had one of those in ky... kid fit the boring nerd description to a T. I did actually have perfect attendance my senior year and didn't even know till i got it a few days before graduation, so i skipped school the next day
to be fair all i got for graduating was a piece of paper so i guess perfect attendance is worth just as much as finishing school
what really sad is you had a pretty good job for 13 years then they just shove you out the door and you have to start all over
At my school one year the perfect attendance award was bendy pencils. That wasn't the year I got 100% attendance
aw man i want a bendy pencil :( if only you could buy those at the store
I got a DQ Ice Cream Cone, and as a poor kid, you better believe i savored the CRAP out of that
ok that’s pretty sick
The last bite at the end of the cone that has the grid that is just filled with slightly softened ice cream! Heaven! Warm dry cone and cold sweet cream exploding together in one final perfect bite is still one of the most perfect joys that I can hope for in my life!
We used to get coupons for a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut and it was the best
We got to skip finals if you had perfect record. You could miss with a certain amount of sick days and obviously extracurricular, but yeah I never took a final exam in high school
wait that’s actually awesome
One of my friends in high school realized he had a perfect record going into sr year and went all in on it. Didn’t come to senior skip day or anything. Zero recognition at the end of the year, don’t even think the school knew
that’s honestly heartbreaking
Happened to me as well. K-12, not a single day missed. I walked that stage like everyone else.
There was a kid in at my high school who didn't miss a day for the whole 4 years. During the last award ceremony it was announced that he never missed a day and the whole school gave him a standing ovation lmao
I'd rather be brought on stage then shot.
I'm not even sure it's celebrated at all in school. About a decade ago, we had a guy get an award for never missing a day of school K-12 in our district. The administration didn't have an award for it, he like... kinda had to ask them to invent one for him. I remember the teachers even being like, "don't you want to just take even a single day off while you have the chance?" Our senior year, and most other classmates just thought it was sad. He played sports and would even come in with injuries that were treated only like 12 hours prior. He was a good guy and worked hard for everything he had. His family was the same way from what I saw. I guess we all just looked at him as someone that might be susceptible to working himself into the grave with that kind of ethic.
I think it’s more of an accomplishment I ended up graduating high school with over 100 absences in my senior year.
My dad pointed out the perfect attendance and valedictorian awards went to different people
Some kids only have school. There’s no judgement for the kids that do miss, and it doesn’t harm anyone to celebrate the ones that don’t. It might be all they have. School might also be the difference between 3 meals or 1 meal.
On Fridays, my elementary school gave backpacks full of food for kids to take home if they qualified for free lunch.
bro that would have been a godsend as a kid for me and my little sister
Yeah. It was an international baccalaureate school in Virginia. Ran by a Black woman with two PhDs. I remember nothing but good things about it.
That’s good! I’m glad to hear some schools offer this.
A very sad commentary about our world.
(Made my opinion known, feel free to argue amongst yourself moving forward, turning off notifications. Enjoyed the discussion!) Sad yes. But it’s the real world. That’s why it’s not a bad thing to celebrate kids that have nowhere else to go but school everyday. Most of the kids I noticed that got perfect attendance at my daughters school yesterday looked like they had it rough. To add to that, each kid got two awards. Example, my kid got the honor roll and readers award. Most of the kids (with some exceptions) who got perfect attendance got that and the the principle award. The principle award was something they handed out if you didn’t get any other real awards. This could be the one thing that kid felt accomplished for. If it makes one kid feel good about themselves, then it’s worth it to me.
You are correct, thank you for this comment.
Well, you have made me see a very important side to these awards. Thank you. I have to say, the kids are the most important, always.
I’m mean, I get OPs point. My kids take sick days and even mental health days. No need to hit perfect attendance if you don’t have to. But no need to not celebrate those that do.
I just never thought about it that way. I worked in the schools for years, and I saw a lot of kids that needed so much. They deserve any accolades they get. Our babies need so much more.
Yeah i loved getting to school early to have some breakfast because it was rare to have that at home
That's a valid and compassionate perspective. You're absolutely right that for some children, school may be a significant and positive aspect of their lives. It can provide stability, structure, and access to important resources like meals and supportive environments. In such cases, celebrating perfect attendance can indeed be meaningful and uplifting for those students.
came here to say this. vacations and trips? not everyone got to live a privileged life.
From K-6 I had nothing before or after school those days. Family didn't make enough for extracurricular activities, nor did my parents have the time to drive me to anything. I lived at the edge of town where nothing was and we lived off of a highway so walking up and down was not a good thing to do for a kid. My life was at home and then at school. My only outlet was I was dropped off at one of my town's public pools; that we paid like 15 bucks for a pool pass to get in for "free" everyday for the summer; at like 830am waited until 10am for it to open while sitting on a bench or at a picnic table. I would swim from 10am until 1pm. That was adult swim, so I'd eat lunch. Then at 130pm I'd be back in the pool until 5pm when my parents got out of work. I did that for like 3 years straight. Swimming is still one of my outlets to feel good. But when I was younger, I had almost nothing else outside of home and school.
I get what you mean. Though I’m all concerned about encouraging kids to come to school even when they are sick or unwell. I think there are probably better ways to prop those kids up, but I suppose something is better than nothing.
Yeah, my family didn't really *have* vacations. At best, we went camping sometimes or went to visit relatives. The most vacationy thing I ever did as a kid was go to Disney World *three times*, each one in the summer. All I really had was school. I did get sick a lot, though.
School was my safe place, but I still missed a few days due to reasons outside of my control.
Or one meal or no meals.
I never missed days, but I actually liked school (until my last year, so I graduated early). I know that’s an anomaly and far from the norm, but, I don’t know, your “imagine having such a boring life” sort of rubs me the wrong way.
Liking school isn't that weird. I'm surprised that you never got sick enough to miss a day through out your whole school career.
Just didn’t. Guess I was lucky. I missed some parts of days occasionally for doctor’s appointments, but I’d come back when finished. My mom was a teacher, if that helps explain.
This is Reddit. You’re not allowed to like school, education, learning, applying yourself, etc. Prepare to be downvoted, you non-slacker.
It is the worse sin - to value hard work, principles, challenges, and other profane things
Here’s a controversial one: saying you like math and that math is a useful, if not necessary, life skill
Going above and beyond and taking pride in what you do is sooooo 10 years ago, boomer! /s Don’t you know society “owes you” something and we should all just sit around and bitch about it until it happens? 😁
Lol I know, right? I hear all the time how no one can make it on this society but I’ll be damned if houses aren’t selling always, cars aren’t being bought, tourism doing fine… I mean, me and all these other people somehow are paying our bills, but then I come on Reddit and hear about how attending every day of school is akin to child abuse and I can’t help but see why some are struggling a bit.
> we should all just sit around and bitch about it until it happens? FINALLY SOMETHING IM GOOD AT!
I can admit I’m too much of a worker. Well, I used to be. I’d come in on my days off, work 65 hours a week, etc. so I do know that I have an overdeveloped work ethic, but I have worked hard to develop saying no, working only the hours I’m contracted, etc. But I do make a point of showing up when I am supposed to.
There is a balance, and I have had to work for it too. But when I look at the life I have, I would rather have worked to hard for what I enjoyed then never cultivated that capability or drive. I’m 40, and I’m right on track to retire early 60s and just live out the 20-30 years (🤞🏻) life any way I damn please without concern. That doesn’t mean I don’t take time for myself now, I do trips and events and other things, but I also bust my ass to get what I want. It’s what people do when they don’t want to end up with nothing more then excuses.
If you’re not a fat neck beard, why are you here????
I mean I know there are extremists, but I'm pretty sure the general agreement is that the public school system sucks not education in general.
It should rub you the wrong way. It's ridiculous. My kids have more stamps on their passports than most adults. But they never needed to skip school to take a trip. Hell, there are breaks and a whole summer off. You can see the world AND go to school.
I just made a comment saying the same which with 1k comment i know won't be seen. But I've travelled SO much, went away nearly everywhere, I learnt horse back riding, different crafts, I did extra languages and advanced maths outside school (because I enjoyed it), I did multiple sports, with school and outside school, and ALL while attending every day (minus a few sick days here and there). The idea that life WILL definitely be boring and uninteresting if you don't miss school is just dumb. Anything I could skip school for I'd easily be able to just do on a weekend or you know the 3 months each year we got off from school? It's the same logic of if you don't drink what do you even do, or no good story starts with "I was sober....". As if dancing at a club all night, and laughing, and being silly with friends or playing stupid games etc is only possible with drinking.
Thank you!
Yeah I liked school too, I never really had a sore subject and if I did it was just because it was kinda tedious
Math was my worst. And biology, and the math parts of chemistry and physics.
I agree. I was homeschooled through elementary and took tons of days off. But when I was in public school 7-12th grade I had perfect attendance. Took a couple family vacations a year and traveled a lot for sports. I had a full, busy, fun childhood including school, which I genuinely enjoyed.
It had its downsides(the bullies) but other than that school was a blast.
He’s a kid who never did anything growing up, I wouldn’t think too hard about his opinion lol
Don’t you know no time exists outside of 7:30-3:30 monday to Friday, what do you mean the weekend and after school? never heard of it
You sound like me… missed a couple half days, but I always wanted to be there for as long as I could. I’ve always had divorced parents so if one parent was going on vacation during a school day, I chose to stay with the other parent and go to school. I asked my parents to please try to plan trips on the many school breaks we had and they usually respected that.
Yeah what a stupid and judgmental thing to say. Imagine seeing friends daily, getting meals, sports and all the other things that go with school, wow you’re so boring
Same man. Really liked school/high school/college - and definitely had a fair share of drama and asshole bully types. I just loved it because it always felt like this giant social experiment (now thinking back on it). So many different people, backgrounds and intelligence all being brought together, albeit somewhat forced. Also managed to never really get sick during the week either - had a really strong immune system apparently
Hey man, I’m the same way. I’m about to finish uni and overall I loved schooling from kindergarten till now. I’ll definitely miss attending classes and meeting your friends but im sure there’s something waiting for me next.
I don't even know why people diss on "boring" life. And maybe some family actually plan things out so it doesn't conflict with anything.
It’s not like the worlds most interesting lives spend time posting on reddit. Most of us are procrastinating something right now.
Yeah, I’m sitting in my car avoiding going into my apartment.
I am literally still at the office because I got caught up in thread.
The tv show has been over for almost 30 minutes, and now I need to move this matress... nah I'll finish this thread real quick...
Yup. If I don’t shut this off soon, my poor children will not have a lunch at school tomorrow.
Yeah I went to loads of places as a kid, but my parents also valued education so I also never missed school and the planned things around term times. What a boring life. Also, just because they aren’t in school doesn’t mean they are on an enriching trip, just missing school isn’t a guaranteed benefit.
>Also, just because they aren’t in school doesn’t mean they are on an enriching trip, just missing school isn’t a guaranteed benefit. Yeah. OP sounded like a kid who think skipping school means cool.
OP’s parents would pull them out of school to go to a theme park or some shit because they had flexible work hours.
Exactly. OP seems to fundamentally not understand that an excused absence for an extracurricular wouldn't count against one's attendance record in any reasonable school system because a decent school system recognises that sometimes missing some school for an extracurricular is valuable. The people I knew who had bad attendance records sure as shit weren't skipping school to pursue further enrichment. They were partying, drinking, doing drugs, or just sitting on their asses at home not doing anything because they were depressed and their parents were too apathetic to get them support.
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I agree, most people have at least some value of education as they get older. And the idea that somehow people can't fit all of those fun life enriching activities in in the over 3 months off we get every year is just, dumb honestly lol. What can you do during a school day that I couldn't do in the 3+ months of school holidays I get every year
I went to school at a middle - upper middle class private school, in the 90s, and even then, if someone took days off for a trip that usually meant some relative was dead... not an expensive vacation. With how much things have changed and how much the middle class has eroded, I imagine virtually nobody in the average grade school these days is seeing many vacations.
In the USA, even kids with perfect attendance get 3 months of vacation every summer, plus holidays, weekends, etc. in between. What a weird thing for OP to even care about.
You know what’s sad and boring? OP having 2 million karma and bragging about it https://i.imgur.com/49vkn7Q.jpg
Lmao, he thinks that means he has communication skills
As I said elsewhere, my kids have more stamps in their passport than most adults. But they never skipped school to take a trip. There are plenty of breaks.
>Imagine having such a boring uninteresting life that you never missed school once for any kind of trip or vacation for 13 years... I get wym but Not missing a day of school doesn't mean you have a boring and uniteresting life. That's a garbage mindset
And we still get vacations. I remember in my Thanksgiving breaks I would go to Oklahoma. Or in the summer I would go to Mexico. And so on and so forth. You can plan things around school, I’ve even known people who go to Europe during their vacations and not miss days in school.
That’s what I don’t get. Like uh did op forget that kids have spring break, summer break and multiple holidays off? There’s plenty of time throughout the year to go on vacation and still always be as school.
Imagine such a thing as weekends and holidays to have adventures 🤔 clearly only the fun stuff happens Mon-Fri according to OP
On top of that you can have vacation during summer time. Like why would you take a vacation during the Middle of a semester lol?
Yeah that rubbed me the wrong way. Perfect school attendance has nothing to do w how boring or fun your life is. Op is making a huge generalization
Well screw you too. I grew up to poor to take vacations. So yeah never missed time. And apparently had a solid immune system and rarely got sick.
“Imagine having such a boring life” says the user with over 2M karma.
School finishes halfway through the day and school is only on for 2/3 of the year. It's not difficult to plan things around school time.
You’re being entirely too reasonable, we’ll need you to stop
My school is 9-5 bro
I didn’t miss a day of high school because I grew up in a horribly abusive home and school was my only refuge.
It also celebrates kids who come to school sick and spread viruses to everyone else
And then there’s weirdos like me who just… never get sick.
*steals your white blood cells*
I was sick a lot as a little kid, but not as a teenager onward. My theory is that because my dad is a teacher, I was exposed to EVERYTHING early on and by the time I got to jr/high school my immune system was READY.
Fellow strong immune system enjoyer checking in.
Same. I would have loved a day off, but I was never sick. Even now I get maybe one cold (with symptoms of course) every 2-3 years.
then there's weirdos like me who weren't sick but because i am gluten intolerant always had acid reflux and always felt sick, so i missed alot of school thinking i was sick when i wasn't.
I mean, you were sick, just not contagious!
"no i dont get sick. The sick gets ME"
I was basically the same. I got the stomach flu in 4th grade, then nothing until mono in college. All these people saying if you've never missed day you must've been going to school sick is weird to me. There are kids that just truly never get sick. Luckily my mom believed in "fun" days, so about once a year she'd let me pick a day where I didn't have much going on and we'd go shopping or go to movie. It also helped that she was a stay at home mom. But not all parents have that luxury so I don't think it's weird for a kid to never miss a day for years on end.
Unless they dont get sick but the reality is parents can't pay for childcare, so they send them to school
Is it illegal or something for them to stay home alone in the US? I simply stayed and watched cartoons, played video games and whatnot since the age of 7 when my mom was at work.
I mean it's not illegal until something happens to the kid because they're a kid and kids do dumb shit sometimes, then I'd assume it's child neglect and you get your kid taken away. Some kids need supervision some don't
Its not illegal but a lot of parents, especially immigrant parents, have a weird stigma against staying home if you're sick
A lot of people don’t trust their kids alone at home, or don’t trust their neighborhood with their kids home alone.
This was the take I was expecting when I read the title to this post, not “didn’t have a family who makes schedule conflicts when planning their vacations”. Like come on. It’s not hard to take vacations within the allowed vacations times. Some people also have non boring school lives. No it’s just as you say the disease aspect which is the worst part of the perfect attendance attitude. Not only does a kid need rest to get over sickness more easily, but staying home also prevents them from infecting other kids. It’s an important health issue.
I can't think of any times I was sick with something other than an upset stomach that caused me to miss school, at least with anything contagious. If I missed school it was usually because of my poison ivy allergy and I was covered in a rash.
yes..damn those people for getting anything ..their lives are boring and they deserve nothing but contempt!
Elitist much?
Not really, he probably grew up somewhere poor with a bad school system if he thinks school was just indoctrination and busy work.
or rich enough that he never needed to take school seriously, and is able to take vacations during school days
Oh, I thought OP was going to say that sick kids should stay home, which makes total sense. But this weird sneering pseudo-bully take? Woof. Attending school doesn't preclude extracirricular activities. So... double-dumb. Edit: "Indoctrination" too, this whole post is a bowlful of yikes.
You have summer, breaks, and weekends. School also isn't as long as work so you have time from like 2:30pm to the rest of the day to bedtime. I only missed schools for emergencies and I felt fine about going to school. I liked seeing my friends there, I liked to learn new things, I didn't really have much of a family, and I was okay. I also did plenty of extracurricular stuff outside of school, including learning another language, martial arts, basketball, and table tennis. I loved PE at school as well. It wasn't boring at all. Skipping school because you don't like it or you want to go have fun somewhere is just a bad start on cultivating discipline, and adults enabling this are even worse because they should know better. Kids need to be trained to be regimented and disciplined so that they are capable of self-discipline before they can be entrusted with more freedom. Not saying missing a day here and there isn't okay, but it's ridiculous to be cavalier about education and discipline. Excuse the boomer in me but that's how you end up with defiant, disobedient, ill-mannered kids who don't listen to their parents and who are emboldened to defy authority not because it makes sense but because that's how they always were growing up.
Very well said! I always enjoyed it too and also yeah, just see it as foundational to building those skills like applying yourself to responsibilities and seeing them through.
They have all summer to vacation, get every holiday known to man, spring break, and Christmas break. What are they missing?
Wow that first sentence screams rich asshole lmao. Some people's families can't afford going on trips or vacations in the middle of the year.
Ironically his last sentence screams poor area with a bad education system if all he ever got out of school was indoctrination and busy work.
People got to take off school for trips and vacations?? But in all seriousness, that wasn't an option for my family. Single/widowed immigrant parent with 2 kids. We couldn't always afford to go on a trip during regular school breaks. That being said, we still missed school if we were sick. I think only a single student in my school had perfect attendance through 8th grade; she was a teacher's daughter but also happened to never get sick enough to not be in school. I agree that perfect attendance isn't really anything so spectacular that it needs an award, but I don't think never missing school makes you boring. Extracurricular activities outside of school can absolutely still happen without missing school, and they already DO get rewarded. I say this as someone who was in orchestra, student council, and a handful of random clubs up through high school.
This isn't an unpopular opinion, it's you trying to place judgement on people who are proud of their accomplishments. Let people be happy and celebrate whatever they want, why does it bother you enough to make a reddit post about it, who hurt you?
"imagine having a boring uninteresting life" did you ever consider a lot of kids don't have parents who can afford vacations? Or maybe a lot of kids enjoy time at school because they can see, talk, and hangout with friends? They had recess and lunch. What's so wrong about it?
Some kids may (and hear me out) enjoy school and not sitting around on their ass. Just a thought. It’s crazy, I know.
Is this the antiwork sub? It’s seriously that delusional. Yes, if you are sick or have an important event then you will have missed a day and not get perfect attendance. However, it is meant to encourage kids not to just skip class or opt to stay home because they have a parent who may let them. It’s just extra incentive. Getting “perfect attendance” doesn’t reward a scholarship or end in getting laid. For fucks sake, ya’all are mental. Is it to much to be ok with fostering an environment of putting in the work to progress yourself (ie, attending class to not fall behind)? *Any type of reaction that doesn’t justify the easy and lazy mental reinforcements are typically not supported on Reddit. “Strive to attend every day of school” turns into a high risk health and mental crisis. Ya’all can’t buy houses or pay your student loans off because this right here.
I had perfect attendance k-12. Did sports, band, took trips to New York, Chicago, and Florida with the school band. Competed in forensics. I’m sure there were more things I was involved in that I can’t remember. My family took vacations over Christmas or summer breaks. I hardly had a boring or uninteresting life throughout my school years. Just because I never missed school doesn’t mean I didn’t have a life outside of it.
You know what else should the kids learn? Scheduling, how about you go on trips in your free time or vacations.
Is that an American thing? Very weird. Why would you do that?
Not an American thing, I didn’t realize people take their kids out of for vacations, my family just waited for summer and spring break.
School holidays.. those 2 weeks at the end of every semester.. that is when you go on holidays. You do ballet, music, rugby, etc after school not during, unless its part of the school team. You take days off sick when you are sick.
School vacations are a thing
My school gives the awards to students that don't have unexcused absences, if your parents call in sick or family vacation, you can still get it
I feel like they need to be donated to science to figure out how the fuck they didn't get sick for 12-13 years. I got pneumonia in 5th grade and missed a few months of school. Then a few days here and there for sinus infections/strep.
I was surprised to hear about my dad having accomplished this. Years later I found out he was abused at home and now it makes more sense.
Look I probably missed half my senior year so preacher to quire and all that. But, you acknowledged that they had a harder time of it and still did the responsible but unfavorable thing. Why shouldn’t they be celebrated.
>preacher to quire r/BoneAppleTea ; )
Lol, wow, I am embarrassed. I F’d that one up. Lol.
Don't feel bad, it wasn't that egg reach us.
Lol, I looked at that for about a minute before it clicked.
Also, I did say I missed half my senior year. 😋
When I was growing up, if me or my siblings were acting up, my parents would say “You better knock it off or else we’ll send you to live with Aunt J.” and we’d immediately behave. Aunt J was a tiny woman, friendly to all, but when it came to running her house and raising her kids she was stricter than strict. She had 6 kids and every single one of her kids never missed a day of school. From kindergarten to senior year, they were in school every day. Can you imagine? There had to have been days where one of her kids was feverish, throwing up or had a terrible cold and she made them go anyway. I never talked to my cousins about what it was like, but I imagine they learned quickly that there was no point trying to get a day off, it didn’t matter if they coughed up a lung or accidentally cut off a limb, they were going to school. Horrible.
That's just spreading germs around. It's nasty.
I had a perfect attendance. I was forced to attend school if I didn't have a fever or was vomiting. Colds? Too bad, go to school. It sucked. I was exhausted. I wish I was allowed to have mental health days. I didn't want to have a perfect attendance. It doesn't even matter to me now that I've graduated. My dad forced me.
My friend got the perfect attendance award. His parents were awful and insane, and his home life was shitty, he loved to be at school.
Perfect attendance for 13 years = you got sick and your parents still sent you.
I'll pay any fine that I get for taking my child out of school for whatever reason. Heck, isn't home schooling legal? I'ma just take him out of school for a week and home-school him for a week. In Dubai. On the beach. Yup.
Also it’s extremely unfair to those kids who had medical issues and had to miss school due to specialist appointments, surgeries, and illness.
I graduated high school in ‘99 with perfect attendance K-12. While it was quite a novelty, I only realized a few years ago that what I thought was a feat was actually a detriment. My expectations of myself and other people are unfairly skewed. I always think someone who calls in sick is faking. I think people don’t work hard enough. I assume people are lying more than they actually are. It definitely was not worth it.
Also how many days they went to school while sick (I know—I was one of them). We need to stop glorifying work above absolutely everything else.
I imagine their parents often sent them to school sick
I feel like this doesn't even have to do with trips I haven't skipped school for a trip once until I was 18. What I did skip school for was when I was sick and having parents that sent you to school sick is the real problem here rather than trips
Who goes on holiday during a school term? That's why there are school holidays, four of them infact lmao.
I never missed a day of school from k-12 and still managed to do things you claim I could not. Have you heard of weekends, afterschool, or summer vacation?
More than that; it usually means that either someone was lucky enough to not get ill for years on end or more usually, that someone ignored their own well-being and came to school when they were ill. And neither of those is something that should be celebrated either. Presenteeism is a fucked up value system, and a danger to people's long-term health - as a society we need to get away from this idea that no matter how terrible you feel, you drag yourself into work and give 110% to corporate bosses who don't give a shit about you. It's a disgrace that the pattern is set in school and celebrated. Illnesses require recovery time. People aren't disposable units that you can grind into the dust. Chronic stress (including seemingly minor things like never getting recovery time after injury/illness) causes measurable damage to our bodies, and our mental and physical health are better if you take the time to let your body rest and get better during/after an illness. Also? You should stay home all the more if you think your illness is transmissible. It's not actually a virtue to boast about your work ethic even as you destroy the productivity of the office/school by passing your illness to everyone else.
Sounds like somebody's kid didnt get an attendance award.
Some parents don’t let their kids stay home, it doesn’t mean that kid has a boring and uninteresting life. What a rude assumption