Mark Twain brought the concept of skipping school into the literary lexicon with this sentence from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer: "He moped to school gloomy and sad, and took his flogging, along with Joe Harper, for playing hookey the day before."

 

To play hooky--as it's now spelled-- is to literally be absent from school without an excuse.  Fair enough, but the definition should really be expanded to include “for the sole purpose of having fun.”

 

The Little Rascals played hooky to go fishing.  Kids routinely played hooky to watch the circus arrive in their town, to go to an amusement park, to catch a wave, to go to a rock concert, or do just about anything except sit still in school.

 

Perhaps the most famous modern day example of playing hooky is Ferris Bueller.  On his celebrated day off, Ferris packed more fun in one day than most kids have in an entire semester.  Particularly intoxicating was the inventiveness with which Ferris employed to have his day.  Elaborate, intricately detailed, and undeniably fun – much more so because he was not supposed to be having fun at all.

 

Adults play hooky too.  In The Producers, Leo Bloom doesn’t go back to work at Max’s insistence, and worries that someone from the office might see him, to which Max astutely points out: “Then you’d see them.  And why aren’t they at the office?”

 

Truancy is no laughing matter.  Staying home from school to watch TV is no way to play hooky. In fact, skip school on a regular basis, and, according to John Kerry, you could get stuck in Iraq.  Did President Bush play hooky?  We know for a fact that he skipped out on the National Guard, and he still got to run the country.

 

Hooky is-- at its core-- the undeniable pursuit of happiness, the inalienable right of every child, so long as the reward is worth the risk.