Teacher Admits Over Half Of Her Senior Class Is Failing & Won’t Graduate — They Won’t ‘Come Early’ Or ‘Stay Late’
This generation of students need more support.
Sean Kong / Unsplash Teachers in the U.S. are under extreme pressure at school. They’re held responsible not only for their students’ education and socialization but also for their physical safety and emotional well-being.
One educator wrote into the r/teaching subreddit to vent about a very serious issue: a major lack of motivation in students that directly affects their future success.
The teacher said that over half of her senior class is failing and won’t graduate high school.
She shared that 35 out of the 62 seniors she teaches won’t be able to graduate because they won’t “come early” or “stay late.” She explained further, revealing that “coming early” means attending first period, and “staying late” means staying through last period.
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Traditionally, the last period of the day functions as “a senior job release period,” but she revealed that she redid the scheduling “to put required senior classes in our last two periods since they won’t come before 9 a.m.”
“They won’t do the online credit recovery for the courses they failed in the first semester,” she said. Her students also refuse to complete the online training that’s been set up “because they need an industry certification to graduate and have missed every cool in-school opportunity.”
In past years, her school had a graduation rate of over 90 percent, yet now, most of her students are failing.
While not all of those past students were able to read at grade level, the teacher said, “They did everything required of them and left school with a clear plan and skills to achieve it.”
“This year, we’re not going to break 50%,” she exclaimed before declaring that she didn’t understand what was going on. She edited her post to thank people for “validating [her] scream into the void.”
She also shared an important piece of information about how her school operates, explaining that, unlike many other schools, the administration isn’t pushing teachers to pass students who haven’t earned it.
“We're all just overwhelmed and frustrated watching these kids,” she said, expressing valid concern for their futures.
She did note that most students are passing the classes that they actually show up to, but “They just won't arrive on time or stay the whole day.”
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“Report cards go out in three weeks,” she said. “Maybe, just maybe, it will be the reality shot some kids and parents need.”
In the comments section, the teacher provided additional context for her struggle to get her students to come to class, explaining, “They consider school to start too early.”
She declared, “They’re not wrong… But our start time is set by the city.” She clarified that lower grades aren’t great at showing up early either, “But family contact is more effective there.”
12th graders at her school usually have enough credits to take the last period of the day off, but she switched around classes with low attendance from first to last period “in an attempt to keep kids on track to graduate.”
Despite her best efforts to meet her students where they’re at, they still skip their last class, telling her that they have other things to do “and walk out early past the dean and principal yelling at them.”
Photo: Annie Spratt / Unsplash
The National Education Association reported that the average U.S. public high school starts at 8 a.m. 42 percent of schools start even earlier, with 10 percent starting before 7:30 a.m.
Yet medical health professionals and sleep experts both confirm that high school starts way too early.
The American Academy of Pediatrics has advised middle schools and high schools to start at 8:30 a.m. at the earliest, giving students a chance to get the sleep they need in order to learn.
When teenagers get less than the recommended eight to 10 hours of sleep a night, they’re more likely to experience mental health struggles and perform poorly in school.
Yet what this teacher is reporting seems to go beyond being tired. It appears that her students are fatigued on all levels, physically, emotionally, and mentally.
Truthfully, who can really blame them? Gen Z’ers are well aware that the world they’re inheriting is not set up in their favor.
College costs have skyrocketed and college admissions are more competitive than ever. The job market is in a constant state of flux, and wages haven’t kept up with the high cost of living.
Young people are wondering if there’s any reason to follow established pathways into adulthood. If their future feels so uncertain, can we really expect them to care about graduating high school?
There might not be quick solutions to what’s become a major issue in our education system, yet one thing is painfully clear: Young people deserve way more support than what they’re being given. Without it, they’re not set up to survive, let alone thrive.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.