I couldn’t comment on the linked Medium article, so I’d like to say that, for many students, particularly middle and high school students, it is simply not true that they are in class voluntarily. I was routinely threatened with dire consequences if I didn’t go to school, and attempts to remain at home and refuse to go were met with physical force—I was literally pulled out of my bed and taken to the car or bus. School is about as voluntary as the military draft.
Edit: my original response was unnecessarily brusque and rude, and I apologize. I can elaborate further, but in the meantime, you might squint at the doc again, because it was a particular message about agency aimed at people in exactly your kind of situation.
The end result of my experiment in school refusal was being put on psychiatric medication. (Which actually did help, if you consider changing my preferences to something more socially acceptable to be helping.)
In hindsight, my best strategy might have been seeking a diagnosis of delayed sleep phase syndrome and requesting accomodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. (The trigger for all this was that the school changed its starting time from 8:10 AM to 7:40 AM and I was not willing to deal with getting up any earlier.)
I was in a special education school from third to seventh grade, and I was absolutely forced to be physically present at that school as much as any prison inmate was forced to be physically present in prison. They couldn’t force me to do schoolwork, and there were times I accepted a loss of privileges as the consequence for not participating, but any attempt to leave would be met by physical force. (The school even had a “time-out room” in which a student that became violent—a not uncommon occurrence—could be locked inside until he or she had calmed down.)
Participation was indeed a choice. Being physically present was not.
Going to class was not voluntary for me either. The consequences of not going to class included: parents screaming at me, parents kicking my ass (tiger parent style; we didn’t do “grounding” in my household), truancies going onto my “permanent record”, a full day of detention on a Saturday, etc. Things that people call “voluntary” don’t usually result in physical and emotional damage if you don’t do them.
Nonetheless, I skipped class a few times in middle school, and I suffered the consequences as a result. Were the consequences worth the glorious days of freedom that I spent skateboarding near the beach, sitting in a local comic book store marathoning manga, etc.? Maybe; maybe not.
But whether I go to class is a choice that I alone have the freedom to make. My parents and the school can set the consequences, and they can apply a lot of pressure to make particular options more or less appealing, but they can never take away my ability to choose.
I couldn’t comment on the linked Medium article, so I’d like to say that, for many students, particularly middle and high school students, it is simply not true that they are in class voluntarily. I was routinely threatened with dire consequences if I didn’t go to school, and attempts to remain at home and refuse to go were met with physical force—I was literally pulled out of my bed and taken to the car or bus. School is about as voluntary as the military draft.
You missed the entire point.
Edit: my original response was unnecessarily brusque and rude, and I apologize. I can elaborate further, but in the meantime, you might squint at the doc again, because it was a particular message about agency aimed at people in exactly your kind of situation.
The end result of my experiment in school refusal was being put on psychiatric medication. (Which actually did help, if you consider changing my preferences to something more socially acceptable to be helping.)
In hindsight, my best strategy might have been seeking a diagnosis of delayed sleep phase syndrome and requesting accomodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act. (The trigger for all this was that the school changed its starting time from 8:10 AM to 7:40 AM and I was not willing to deal with getting up any earlier.)
I was in a special education school from third to seventh grade, and I was absolutely forced to be physically present at that school as much as any prison inmate was forced to be physically present in prison. They couldn’t force me to do schoolwork, and there were times I accepted a loss of privileges as the consequence for not participating, but any attempt to leave would be met by physical force. (The school even had a “time-out room” in which a student that became violent—a not uncommon occurrence—could be locked inside until he or she had calmed down.)
Participation was indeed a choice. Being physically present was not.
Going to class was not voluntary for me either. The consequences of not going to class included: parents screaming at me, parents kicking my ass (tiger parent style; we didn’t do “grounding” in my household), truancies going onto my “permanent record”, a full day of detention on a Saturday, etc. Things that people call “voluntary” don’t usually result in physical and emotional damage if you don’t do them.
Nonetheless, I skipped class a few times in middle school, and I suffered the consequences as a result. Were the consequences worth the glorious days of freedom that I spent skateboarding near the beach, sitting in a local comic book store marathoning manga, etc.? Maybe; maybe not.
But whether I go to class is a choice that I alone have the freedom to make. My parents and the school can set the consequences, and they can apply a lot of pressure to make particular options more or less appealing, but they can never take away my ability to choose.
So far! Security mindset.