Some days, students feel overwhelmed, sad or hopeless, and they just don’t want to go to school. While attendance and grades are important, the student is far more so, and some just feel like they have no choice but to go to school everyday and get the best grades. This can cause students to feel like those things matter more than they do, and can push their feelings aside and keep going along until it’s too much.

Students are human beings. And human beings have emotions. Those emotions can be hard to understand or deal with, and if a student doesn’t know how to address these feelings, they can wind up not addressing them at all, especially if they stay at school all day everyday.

A student may begin to feel like they have no control over their life and feel helpless.

Of course, there are breaks from school, we have vacations for each season and some holidays, but if a student is upset and needs a less stressful environment for a day, those breaks seem far away. The student may feel stuck in limbo, and can experience unpleasant feelings about school and their classes, even ones they would have otherwise enjoyed.

Students may not be doing as well as they could be if they were given a moment to breathe and let the day go by without worrying about going to class, doing work, talking to people, or anything else that happens in their typical day, and just reflect and relax. A moment to think about how they feel, and possibly come to a realization about themselves, is invaluable.

I don’t mean to encourage people to skip classes just because, but I do believe that a person’s mental health is more important than their grades and attendance, and it’s important for them to realize that.

It is important to know why, or try to understand why, you want to stay home from school. Missing school so that you can avoid a person, a test, or some project or presentation is not advisable considering those things are inevitable and will happen regardless of whether you stay home.

You will have to face that person, you will have to make up that test or assignment (if the teacher says to) eventually. Avoiding these things may help to relieve your stress temporarily, but will make coming back much harder.

However, that being said, it’s okay to be sad, and it’s okay to take a break. Just be sure that you’re responsible about the way you do it.