Senior Ditch Day … One of My Favorite Days of the Year!
There is a sacred annual tradition in high schools across America – Senior Ditch Day.
Like all great traditions, it is treated with the secrecy of a covert military operation. Whispered conversations in hallways. Sudden silence when a teacher walks by. Students acting like they are planning the moon landing instead of skipping fourth-period Government.
I knew it was coming because one or two kids let it slip, but most of them were acting like they were protecting state secrets.
Relax, guys. We know.
You are not the first senior class to discover the revolutionary concept of not coming to school in April.
What always makes me laugh is the assumption that teachers are somehow devastated by this betrayal.
Oh no. Please. Don’t ditch.
Don’t make me sit in a peaceful, silent classroom for six out of eight periods. Don’t force me to enjoy the sound of absolutely nothing instead of listening to someone explain, for the third time this week, why they couldn’t possibly complete an assignment because their Chromebook was dead, their phone was at 2%, and Mercury is in retrograde. Please don’t deprive me of redirecting the same student 56 times in 50 minutes, only for them to still turn in nothing. Please don’t rob me of hearing inane conversations shouted across the room about who hooked up with who, who might fight after school, or why someone’s cousin’s boyfriend is “literally insane.”
I beg you – stay.
The truth is, I don’t know many teachers who are going to deeply miss this particular group of seniors. That sounds harsh, but honesty is important in education. By late April, we are all just trying to land the plane without setting the runway on fire.
At this point, if half the senior class wants to vanish for a day, I support their journey. Honestly, I wish they would ditch every day between now and graduation.
Except my AP students.
They are absolutely forbidden from ditching. They may begin their own Senior Ditch Season promptly at 12:01 a.m. on May 7, after the AP exam. Until then, they belong to me. After that? Godspeed. Go to brunch. Go to Target. Go sit in a parking lot drinking iced coffee and talking about college orientation.
You’ve earned it.
The rest of you? You’ve also made a choice.
And apparently, that choice was to make Senior Ditch Day your most academically productive day of the year.