"As grades suffer and students fail class, their academic progress slows and then students begin to feel discouraged and drop out. Short-term stress decrease is gained cutting those selective classes while a greater deal of stress is obtained from academic difficulties." (Fallis, et al, 2003, p. 104). Furthermore, Fallis et al (2003) stated that "cutting falls not only just in the responsibility of the students but also within the responsibility of teachers, counselors, deans, administrators, attendance staff and various others. Schools do not identify cutting as a priority. Staff almost exclusively described cutting as an individual's problem and were unable to qualify cutting prevalence at their school or compare their schools with others. Not only is cutting overlooked in schools, but responses to cutting tend to overlook students' understanding of class cutting" (p. 106).
Another factor in students failing is boredom. Ryan and Deci (2000) state that "the definition of boring is described as tedious, wearying, and dull. Students use boring to describe school and so many other aspects."" (p. 69) Many students felt they just would not do the work if they knew they were going to fail anyway. Ryan and Deci go on to say that "other students feel that classes are boring if the class is not going to benefit them at that moment or in their future. Students also thought that boredom in class is often the result of teachers dulling and/or slowing down the lesson in order to focus on a struggling student; instead of dealing with those students after class time so the other students can learn. (p. 72) .
Boredom also streams from the curriculum not being challenging for some students or interesting to them. Students who aren't challenged begin to fall behind. (Ryan & Deci. 2000.) "Cutting class can be an opportunity to elicit student input to better understand students' experiences, perspectives, and hopes; to engage students as active members of the school community; and to utilize students' class attending choices to guide institutional change.
