Valentine's Day Classes

I know that there are certain times of the year, points in the semester, when attendance will be low. For instance, where I teach, there are classes the day before Thanksgiving. I know that if I am teaching a class that meets on Wednesdays, a certain portion of the students will not be there as they are travelling home. Similarly, I know that the last class session, if all work has been completed, a number of students will not be there. This is especially true if the last day of class is on a Monday and I am teaching a MWF class. Students show up on Friday, the last class session of a full week but then they take off.

I did not realize that Valentine’s Day also qualified as a Holiday when students miss class. I had six out of 16 students missing from class Thursday evening. Now, this is not an excused absence but being that class goes from 6-9pm, I guess, when I think about it, I am not truly surprised that a number of students missed class. If they wanted to go out to dinner with their significant other than it would be difficult to make it to class. Mind you, this is not a legitimate excuse, just the way some students think.

It is my earlier class that surprised me. That class meets from 11-12:20, it is right in the middle of the day. You could make it to class and still go out for a nice dinner, or do something nice or romantic with your significant other. In my morning class, six of 23 students were not there. Proportionally that is better than the evening class but it still seemed like a high number.

I am not sure if students just look for any excuse to skip out on class or if they did miss class because they truly wanted to do something nice for someone else. Either way, those students that missed class now have a lot of work to make up!