My kids’ school " ditch day" is coming up. This tradition is apparently 50 years old. I guess I thought this was a pretty standard thing at schools. But my daughter told me that today a classmate ( who is a transfer student) indicated that she was planning to be at school. Her parents told her she was not allowed to ditch. They’d " never heard of such a thing" The teachers reaction “Um well I guess you CAN come to school but I’m planning on grading papers all day. You should bring a book or your laptop or something. …I’m not sure what you’ll do exactly. Hmmm do you want me to talk to your parents?”
Lol. Do your kids participate in a “Senior Ditch Day”?
I even participated in a similar thing (called “senior cut”) back when I was in HS ages ago. As long as it is just one day, I don’t think it is a big deal.
It is a very celebrated thing at our school. The only seniors that actually attend school are the kids going for perfect attendance. Even those kids leave after lunch and there are no assignment or actual teaching happening.
In my day, the administration tried to catch us, so it was a roving party, moving kegs to various places and kids being pulled out of the river while tubing. It made it fun to know that we could get caught. DS class basically all went to an amusement park after doing their senior prank.
@MizzBee. Our school definitely does not celebrate perfect attendance. Apparently a superintendent a number of years ago nixed recognition of perfect attendance. She had a degree in public health and considered such recognition as not conducive to best health practices.
I wish our district didn’t either, but it is a blue collar area. Showing up every day is evidence of commitment. They even get their awards at the academic banquets. Surprisingly, those that always show up almost never get distinction in other academic areas.
This was one of the few traditions my high school had. I don’t know of anyone who didn’t skip and we broke off and did our own thing. My ex and a few friends went mini golfing lol.
Kids who want to participate in “ditch day” should first be sure they do not have so many absences in any of the classes they will miss that they could fail to meet criteria to pass the course and graduate.
Senior cut day exists but is definitely not condoned nor accommodated by the school. The serious students still show up, because their honors and AP teachers proceed normally with classes. And unlike some schools my friends’ kids attend, AP teachers here are still assigning work. D had a short research paper due today.
We had a senior skip day at my school, but I went to school anyway because A) I was a huge dork, B) I was a goody-two-shoes and C) I had a presentation in my British Lit class, which I presented to my teacher and the two juniors in our class.
S and a bunch of friends went to the beach on Senior Skip Day last year. We got an email from the principal (sent to all parents of seniors) that basically said he knew most kids would skip, they were still responsible for work missed, blah, blah blah.
I felt bad for the handful of kids whose parents made them go to school that day.
There is at least one teacher at my kids’ school that is known for giving pop quizzes on that day. Oddly he didn’t this year. My junior had him and was there in s half-empty class on skip day. But no quiz. My son had him as a senior but that class didn’t meet on skip day so he was good.
Mostly the teachers go along with it. I’m sure not all seniirs skip but most do.
In our entire school district, the Monday after Senior Prom is Senior Skip Day. But as seniors can only exempt finals if they have 3 or fewer absences, many seniors do attend school. My son is skipping the Monday after his GF’s prom so he can go to the beach with her friends, and is going to school the Monday after his Prom because it will be an “easy day” with so many kids missing from each class.
I think it takes the fun out of Senior Skip Day when it seems so “official”. At my HS, it was a closely held secret and absolutely zero seniors showed up for school. The fun part was that it was also part boarding school, so we had to find ways to smuggle the senior boarders off campus. (I suspect the dorm proctors knew what was going on. We weren’t THAT sneaky.)
I think my kid has effectively ditched the entire second semester But the “official” senior cut day was the Monday after prom which was strategically located a week before AP and IB testing began. I agree with someone up the thread that having a quasi sanctioned skip day takes all the fun out of it. When I was in school, we all thought we were being sneaky when we set a senior ditch day, although I am positive the powers that be knew all about it anyway.
When I was in HS (not in the US), once in a while my entire class asked the teachers to cancel classes. First we asked the first period teacher. After the first period teacher agreed, it was easy to ask the teachers for the rest of the day (we had only 4 periods per day and usually double period classes, and no class in the afternoon). The usual reasons to “petition” for class cancellation were “We need to go root for our soccer team”, “We have a big project due tomorrow for teacher A”, “We need to work on our class newspaper”, “There is some good show in town today we cannot miss”,… Our teachers understood and we loved them.
But the “official” senior cut day was the Monday after prom which was strategically located a week before AP and IB testing began. I agree with someone up the thread that having a quasi sanctioned skip day takes all the fun out of it. When I was in school, we all thought we were being sneaky when we set a senior ditch day, although I am positive the powers that be knew all about it anyway.