More Days For High GPA

“The only source of knowledge is experience.” It’s an Albert Einstein quote that I have seen on posters in various classrooms throughout my academic career. This is a quote that is easy to hang in the corner of the classroom and easy to say, but so rarely actually put to use in education today.  Today, classrooms are set up to pass tests and focus mainly on how to perfectly bubble in a sScantron. You can learn at a desk, obviously, but you also cancan also learn a lot from stepping outside the 45 minute classes and experiencing the life we are preparing for.

I find myself learning outside the classroom from travelling to different places, meeting new people, and just breaking away from the routine of Google classroom and lectures. It’s a misconception that someone not being in class equals not learning anything new, especially when looking at reasonable students. Today, I find students in advanced classes not going home when they have a fever, denying career and college opportunities, and overworking themselves all because of the eight absence rule. The stress that is added to having to go to the doctor’s and pay a fine for every time you have a stomach bug, only having a few days for college visits, and when various issues arrive at home, and still having to go to school isn’t something that responsible students should have to deal with.

The eight day absence limit should be extended for students with a 3.5 GPA or higher. Having a high GPA shows work ethic that proves that a student has worked hard enough and values school enough to be able to miss school for their own personal reasons. These reasons could be attending a sports camp they are interested in for career and scholarship opportunities, not having the stress of getting a doctor’s note for every small illness, or just having a day to themselves as a reward for working hard everyday they are at school.

The students prove they can handle this opportunity by taking care of their grades. By having a 3.5 or higher GPA, students already show responsibility and care for their grades and should be rewarded for those efforts. This extension by no means would get these students out of a detrimental amount of school, but just an increase by a few days would give students ways to experience life outside the classroom.  It would also increase the desire for a high GPA, as the reward of having a greater number of absences would push lower achieving students to work harder to raise their GPA. These new absences would still make students have to make up what they miss in class, and they would have to use these days wisely as any other asstudent does. oOnce a student’s GPA falls beneath a 3.5, they no longer qualify for these added absences.

Experience teaches what the whiteboard cannot. Rewarding students who already pay attention to what is on the whiteboard by letting them have a few more days to learn outside the classroom will not only promote students to achieve their best in the classroom, but also for their life outside of it.