Truancy means “someone who stays away from business or duty, especially school.”

Truant in the education world is the legal term used to describe a student skipping school.  It’s mostly a relic of the 19th century, when mandatory schooling was first introduced.  My favorite part of the word is its origin: a vagrant or beggar.

It’s amazing to me that something so sought-after and readily acknowledged as a means of being successful in the future is shirked by so many students.

Most people blame the schools.  Some blame the parents.  Others the students.

I blame the socio-economic system and the mindset that created the term truant in the first place.