Truancy and the Fault Associated With the

Truancy and the Fault Associated With the Practice Truancy is an issue that is as old as schools themselves. There used to be very severe punishments for cutting class, but those have been reduced or, in some cases, passed on to another party supposedly responsible besides the actual truant. The primary issue lately has been whether the truant is at fault, or if the reason can be traced to improper parenting techniques.

No matter what position an individual takes, truancy is a real issue that costs billions of dollars a year around the world and results in students who have deeper educational problems as a result. It seems though that the majority of the blame has to be placed with the truant as a person is ultimately responsible for their own actions.

This paper presents the case for the student as a cause of their own truancy by looking at research data discussing parental issues, the responsibility of the student, and whether there is a difference if the truant is the member of a single family home. It is a fact that truancy is affected by the home life of the offender. As with most behavior, the act is more complicated than a single cause.

Research shows that "truancy is associated with family problems including abuse and neglect, physical and mental health disorders, financial difficulties" (Enea & Dafinoiu, 2009). Children are a party to the problems that exist within their families and they are affected by them. However, just because a student is having problems in the home does not guarantee that they are going to miss school because of it. The parents are not to blame in these cases for the truancy because that is a decision that the students made.

More often, truancy is associated with individual issues that may be exacerbated by external factors. According to the same researchers as above "truancy is associated to emotional problems, substance abuse and a high rate of adolescent pregnancy (Enea & Dafinoiu, 2009). Research has added to this that "Individual aspects included: lack of self-esteem, social skills and confidence; poor peer-group relationships; lack of academic ability; special needs; lack of concentration and self-management skills" (Reid, 2010).

The issue of truancy can be seen to be an individual one with this research even if it is also, in large part, from problems that the individual may have that they need help dealing with. The issue of blame though rests with individual though regardless of external circumstances. One of the problems not mentioned in the above research, but used as a variable in other places was the single parent factor. There is a link between a student living with only one parent and being a serial truant (Gump, 2004).

According to Gump, the issue is more of a societal problem than an individual or a familial one, but that belief is countered by the research conducted by Reid. He said that it cannot be a societal issue because truancy is a relative constant around the world. There are some countries that have lower levels of truancy, but they are largely countries that have more oppressive governments that require a stricter standards of compliance from their.