IB learners: Societal Issues

Some people are so used to be absent to school without a validated justification that it is almost a way of living. This situation does not only involve underdeveloped countries, but it also involves first world countries as the UK, US, France, and Russia, even though the last one does not consider truancy a relevant problem. As (BBC, 2005) mentioned: “Truancy rates in the UK have not decreased since 1997, according to the National Audit Office, despite government spending of £885m on the problem.” Which expose that sometimes no matter how much a government spent in a problem, if the people involve is not willing to make a change, a certain situation will not get better. The USA realized parents have a very important role in this problem, because they are the ones raising the kids and they must be the one responsible for their acts, that is why the USA prefer to punish parents instead of jailing the teens. In France, an analysis revealed the relation between truancy and delinq...

In Texas, according to (Langford, 2015): “ When the state's new truancy law takes effect Sept. 1, students will no longer potentially face criminal sanctions for skipping school.” But is this really going to work? When truancy as a problem has reached a level in which prevention is not enough it is necessary to settle punishments to those who are involved in this situation. Sometimes punishments are not enough, but that may be because they are not focused on making teens realized the how bad being a truant is. This is why, we recommend social services to the truant students, hours in which they are going to help the society they are living in and learn more about its needs. Besides, the government should arrange meetings with adults in jail who were truants, so that they explain to the current truant kid how missing school increases the possibility of going to jail. In case all of the preventions and punishment ways do no work as predicted we recommend jail for paren...

After analyzing all the aspects about what truancy involves, we have to take into consideration ways to prevent it, before the problem appear or increase in a way that the government would not be able to manage in order to solve it. Hiring teachers who really care about their students, teachers who are passionate about their subject, and professionals who love what they do and do not work as a teacher just to earn money. With the evolution of technology, the schools should promote the use of cellphone applications in which you would be able to know in real time what your children are doing in school or if they missed classes or never arrived the classroom. Having meetings with parents and students to stress the importance of school and the impact, of teens being absent, in their present and future. Bibliography: Salud America (2018). Solution to truancy and absenteeism with EC Cares. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjrkpqRGLPQ CSC. (2018). Truancy Preventio...

According to (San Lorenzo Valley Unified School District, 2018): “Student absences that fall into any of the following categories shall be classified as a truant and reported to the attendance supervisor or designee: Students absent without a valid excuse (unexcused absence) for three full school days in one school year. Students tardy or absent in excess of any 30-minute period during a school day on any three or occasions in one school year without a valid excuse. Students with excessive excused absences.  Any combination of reasons listed above. Truancy as we learned in this unit is the act of not going to school but with no validated justification. Being absent repetitively does not mean you are a truant student, because you can have a very good reason to being absent. The student who commits truancy is called "truant". As an example, we can mention when trouble kids miss school to hang out with their friends, and their parents believe they are studying ...

Right now we are facing a real problem which is present in societies all around the world. Year by year, thousands of children end up in the streets, whether because they are looking for a new hope of fixing their problems or because they were not tolerated in their homes anymore, and in any of those cases, these children have to suffer a reality perhaps worse than what they were escaping from. This is a major concern, that hasn't been properly addressed by authorities; in fact, small groups of humanitarian people have been the ones that took actions on this, in an intent of helping those who have less; authorities have to remember that these children are the ones who will be forging our path towards a successful society, and because of that they should be now our major priority.

Now that we know what are they and why they do exist, it's important to analyze the consequences of being a runaway or throwaway, especially for young people: The odds of high-risking behaviors increase, which puts in danger the life of the person. Among many other conducts, we can find sexual intercourse without protection, promiscuity at a very early age and the use of diverse kinds of illegal drugs. Anxiety, PTSD, and depression are also common denominators for homeless people, which turns into a worse problem if we consider how difficult is for them to find help in their positions. Sex-related activities in exchange for clothing, food, drugs and/or money is also a common problematic, as teenagers usually find themselves in desperation to get resources and survive. For these people is also way more difficult to attend school because of their lack of required enrollment records. This only helps to feed a vicious cycle in which teenagers are homeless because the...