She Knew She Was Right

I’m used to students missing school, but today was particularly egregious. In my first two classes, only a third showed up. In a later class, only two students showed up, and one of those two was called out early for a doctor’s appointment.

Did I forget to put on deodorant?

It’s not me. It’s not even Hamlet. It’s the latest Tik Tok Challenge.

One of my sons was scared to go to school today. His anxiety was palpable. He’d heard that twelve (!) “gangsters” were going to pull the fire alarms and shoot up his school (with tommy guns?). We sent him and his brother. They came home. They survived the latest Tik Tok Challenge.

I would hope, when I am at the end of my teaching career, that the screen has not entirely supplanted the classroom. Over half of my classes were on YouTube at home, according to GoGuardian. More challenges. More opportunities to one-up their peers to see who can scare off the most kids from attending school on a Friday the 13th.

It’s been an unlucky day indeed.

I asked those students who did attend school today to respond in writing to this quote by Helen Keller:

Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.

School is not typically seen as a “daring adventure,” but perhaps it is just that. Today especially, some students dared to attend. They dared to defy the Challenge. For the rest, adventure only waits.