How the Hell Do You Teach Film or Broadcast to Students Who Don’t Show Up?

A recent article in The Conversation reports that nearly one in four American schoolchildren is chronically absent. The researchers found that students are more likely to attend when they feel safe, supported, connected, and part of their school community. That makes sense. Nobody is arguing that students should be treated like prisoners serving an educational sentence.

But the article left me with another question.

What happens when those students enter a university program where attendance is no longer mandatory, even when the subject being taught requires them to be physically present?

I teach film production. Film and broadcast are not subjects you can learn entirely by reading a chapter, watching a recorded lecture, or clicking through an online module. At some point, you have to put your hands on the equipment. You have to light a person, operate a camera, record usable sound, work with a crew, solve problems, and occasionally screw something up while an instructor is there to keep you from screwing it up again.

So how the hell are we supposed to teach practical production skills when students don’t show up for the hands-on labs?

There doesn’t seem to be an answer.

We can create a welcoming environment. We can make students feel connected and supported. We can recognize that some of them are dealing with legitimate problems involving health, transportation, work, money, or family. We should do all of those things.

But none of them changes the physical reality of the work.

You cannot teach someone to operate a camera they never touch. You cannot teach someone to light a set they never enter. You cannot teach someone to function as part of a production crew when the rest of the crew never knows whether they’ll show up.

At some point, flexibility stops being support and starts becoming permission not to learn.

Reference

Jerome A. Graham, Su Yon Choi, and Yi-Chih Chiang, “Nearly 1 in 4 students are chronically absent from school: Kids who feel happy and safe are less likely to miss class,” The Conversation, August 19, 2026.