History Main / ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow

* Schoolteacher Clara Oswald from ''Series/DoctorWho'' is frequently seen actually doing her job teaching English at Coal Hill School before running off to adventure in time and space with her best friend, the Doctor. Adventures longer than a day are easily accounted for by the fact that she's flying off in a time machine and can come back moments after she left. (Indeed, she sometimes uses the TARDIS for the MundaneUtility of getting her to work on time when she oversleeps, or for more time to grade papers. The rare occasions she has to run off for an adventure before the bell rings feature her coworkers bemused at the fact that an international intelligence taskforce are asking after her.

* ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' addresses this in the first episode, with Morty's parents angry about how Rick constantly drags Morty out of school for adventures. Rick considers school a waste of time, believing (and convincing Morty's parents) that hanging out with Rick is significantly more educational than the actual school system. The second episode dips into it, with Rick "[[Film/{{Inception}} incepting]]" Morty's math teacher to have him give Morty good grades regardless of Morty's attendance.

* ''Manga/ChainsawMan'': Denji has gone without any formal education up to the age of sixteen, presumably because the {{yakuza}} keeping him as a debt-slave scare off any truant officers. Once [[FusionDance merging with a Devil]] [[InhumanableAlienRights caused him to lose all his rights]], Public Safety force him to work for them, providing him with housing and food, but not any education. [[spoiler:The last page of Part 1 shows that, after Denji left Public Safety and stepped out of Makima's shadow, he's still fighting Devils in his spare time [[WakeUpGoToSchoolSaveTheWorld while attending high school]].]]

** In ''Manga/StardustCrusaders'', Jotaro and Kakyoin are both 17-years-old students and are explicitly shown going to school in the beginning, however it seems to not stop them for going on a [[RoadTripPlot really long travel]] from Japan to Egypt to defeat a vampire and his horde. Somewhat justified with Jotaro since his mom's life is at stake and he's [[JapaneseDelinquents sort of a delinquent]], but more jarring with Kakyoin who, judging by [[spoiler: his dying thoughts]], didn't even warn his parents about going to Egypt!
** In ''Manga/GoldenWind'', Giorno is shown to be living at a boarding school early in the part. The second he and Bruno's gang depart to look for Polpo's treasure, it's never brought up again. Granted, [[ExtremelyShortTimeSpan the whole part only takes place over the course of one week]], but that would still be one heck of a truancy.

** ZigZagged in ''Anime/DigimonGhostGame''. The setting takes place at an AcademyOfAdventure and two of the protagonists are shown to attend class; TeenGenius Kiyoshiro on the other hand already has a Master's degree and is exempt from actually attending class as a result. He only "attends" school because he's an {{otaku}} who wanted the authentic Japanese school experience like in his manga, and as a result he's saddled with things the other two can't do during weekdays like investigating the MonsterOfTheWeek or babysitting Gammamon.

* In ''WesternAnimation/{{Teen Titans|2003}}'', this applies to pretty much every teen hero, and it's only made more noticeable when you realize that the H.I.V.E. Five were actively enrolled in school, albeit [[AcademyOfEvil one for super-powered villains]]. A pass could be made for [[Characters/TeenTitansNewTeenTitans Raven]] and most of the others, as they have odd powers and would likely not be welcome in a public school environment, with [[Characters/TeenTitansNewTeenTitans Cyborg]] mentioning at one point that he couldn't finish high school because of the event that made him into a cyborg. But what about Robin or Speedy?

* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse's [[Characters/MCUSpiderMan Peter Parker]], natch. In ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar Civil War]]'', he tells [[Characters/MCUTonyStark Tony Stark]] that he can't go to Germany to fight [[Characters/MCUSteveRogers Captain America]] because he has homework. By ''[[Film/SpiderManHomecoming Homecoming]]'', he does all his Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man stuff outside of class time, using the guise of the "Stark Internship" to keep Aunt May off his back (although he does initially leave his academic decathlon in order to keep doing Spider-Man things, later rejoining when the two coincide). And when he ditches his field trip in ''[[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Infinity War]]'' to help [[Characters/MCUTonyStark Iron Man]] and [[Characters/MCUStephenStrange Doctor Strange]], he has bigger things to worry about than his teacher marking him absent. Trailers for ''[[Film/SpiderManFarFromHome Far From Home]]'' imply that he attempts to invert this trope, giving up being Spider-Man while on a summer trip in Europe, until [[Characters/MCUNickFury Nick Fury]] and [[Characters/MCUMysterio Mysterio]] start to shake things up.

* [[Characters/UltimateSpiderManMilesMorales Miles Morales]] runs into this as well in ''WesternAnimation/SpiderManIntoTheSpiderVerse''. Given the film's short time frame (roughly 48 hours or so), we don't see the effects of Miles's hero work on his school absences, but [[CaughtComingHomeLate he does run into an angry security guard who knows he snuck out past curfew]].

* The Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse's [[Characters/MCUSpiderMan Peter Parker]], natch. In ''[[Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar Civil War]]'', he tells Tony that he can't go to Germany to fight Captain America because he has homework. By ''[[Film/SpiderManHomecoming Homecoming]]'', he does all his Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man stuff outside of class time, using the guise of the "Stark Internship" to keep Aunt May off his back (although he does initially leave his academic decathlon in order to keep doing Spider-Man things, later rejoining when the two coincide). And when he ditches his field trip in ''[[Film/AvengersInfinityWar Infinity War]]'' to help Iron Man and Doctor Strange, he has bigger things to worry about than his teacher marking him absent. Trailers for ''[[Film/SpiderManFarFromHome Far From Home]]'' imply that he attempts to invert this trope, giving up being Spider-Man while on a summer trip in Europe, until [[Characters/SHIELDDirectors Nick Fury]] and [[Characters/SpiderManCentralRoguesGallery Mysterio]] start to shake things up.

* In ''Film/BackToTheFuture'', Marty [=McFly=] is only seen at school towards the beginning. First being chastised by [[DeanBitterman Principal Strickland]] for arriving late and being an alleged slacker, and afterwards, being rejected from his school's Battle of the Bands competition. It's somewhat justified by him spending most of all three movies in different time periods. He does go to school at least once to try to get his parents together, and when he finds George after convincing him to ask Loraine to the dance, Marty asks why he wasn't at school that day. And he likely just stayed hiding at Doc Brown's home during most of the other school hours, since Doc, upon being convinced Marty was from the future, told him not to go out and talk to others to avoid making drastic changes in time.

* Given that it takes place at a school, it's no surprise that ''Literature/HarryPotter'' mostly averts this -- the Golden Trio attends class throughout the first six books, with the school often serving as ChekhovsClassroom or a setting for character development. It greatly contrasts with [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix the fifth book]], when the plot nearly grinds to a halt while the characters take their [=OWL exams=], the magical equivalent of O-levels / [=GCSEs=] / AP exams. It gets played straight in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePrisonerOfAzkaban Harry's third year]], when he realizes he is wholly unprepared to take his final exams because he missed his first two years' worth (he was incapacitated in the hospital wing after facing down Quirrel in his first year, and Dumbledore cancelled exams after the basilisk was defeated in his second).

* Oddly, sometimes appears in ''Literature/HarryPotter'', despite the series taking place ''at'' a school. Mentions of what Harry's actual classes entailed got fewer and fewer as the series went on. [[spoiler: Then the PowerTrio simply drop out of school to go on the quest to render Voldemort vulnerable.]] Although, Hermione stays responsible by [[spoiler: eventually going back to school to finish her 7th year, per WordOfGod. Even though it was probably the two boys that could've used it the most]]. In fairness, in [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows the last book]], Ron was the only one who should have been at school. Harry was public enemy number one to the Voldemort controlled government and would not have been able to attend while Hermione was a Muggle-born and was forbidden from attending (or really simply existing as per the government).

* In ''Literature/{{Hoot}}'', middle-school-aged Mullet Fingers (neé Napoleon Bridger Leep) was sent to military school by his [[MyBelovedSmother overbearing mother]] for being somewhat of a WildChild. He runs away from military school, travels back to his Florida hometown and lives in the woods with only occasional contact with his sister.