Attendance policies are meant to encourage students to be present in class so they will learn, but they may not achieve this. Some students who attend regularly do not participate or learn, while quiet, studious students who miss some classes still learn. Attendance grades reward being present over actual learning. They are unfair to students missing for valid reasons and to students who learn despite absences. Many experienced teachers oppose attendance grades as useless and prefer teaching engaged students.

1. The Problem with Attendance
Attendance policies and what they are
meant for.

2. What is « attendance »?
Attendance is when your presence is taken by
your teacher and recorded on paper or
electronically.
Sometimes, this attendance influences your
grade – if you are present all the time, you get a
higher grade. If not, you get a lower grade.
Attendance-taking is used because some
people believe that if you are there all the
time, you will eventually end up learning
something.

3. The Problem…
 People who are present all the time may not
know anything and be very noisy but they will still
get an increase in the grade as opposed to
quiet, studious people who are absent from time
to time.
 Attendance grades are not the same thing as
participation grades. People may attend but not
participate at all.
 When schools and universities have attendance
grades, they do not care about discipline – all
they care about is easy grades.
 Therefore, attendance is not meant to teach you
anything.

4. Fairness
 Attendance is unfair:
 To people absent for a legitimate reason
 To people who do not know anything but still get full
marks for being there and doing nothing
Teachers like to work for people who care. They do
not like to be stuck teaching to a class who is
merely there in order to be present. But when that
is the case for the majority of students, teachers
end up underperforming!
No teacher or professor with experience will
condone attendance-taking! They all abhor the
procedure and find it useless and a waste of time.