As for the remainder of your comment, I do believe a big part of the policy is a result of federal funding. That plays a larger role than many care to admit. As for the missed work and the need for someone to “keep riding” the child to do the work, I do believe this is the responsibility of the parent. There is no doubt that some parents will expect the teacher to do all of this but not all of them will.

As the husband of a teacher and a father, I can think of numerous reasons to take my kids out of school for a vacation. Apparently we disagree on that point but I appreciate you stopping by to share your thoughts.

Case in point: My son took seven consecutive school days off last year to attend a travel hockey tournament in Quebec, Canada. I spoke to his ‘team leader’ teacher at school, highlighting the history of the tournament, the fact that teams come from around the world to play in it, and the cultural significance of the event and the city. AND, since Zack was pulling the grades and we’d be holding study hall daily (which we did, btw, so it wasn’t just a lie to get the teachers to accept it), they should agree and offer no resistance. I was prepared to take it to the school board (which the year before had instituted a policy dictating that five days missed any marking period [or nine weeks] would result in a parent / administrator conference – or expulsion).

Not only did they agree, they encouraged the travel as a cultural experience and asked to hear about it from Zack when he got back.

The net-net here: teachers often are more on the kids’ side than the administration. While I understand the school board’s need to nip habitual tardiness or truancy in the bud, there have to be exceptions for those families who support the school system’s mission to educate – even if it includes travel during the school year.

But if they offer resistance, we as parents have to be prepared to fight back. In hockey, I think they’d call it a clean hit.

My kids learned so much more in that one week than they would have learned in school. We got work in advance and made sure that they were caught up shortly after they got back. It was the 3rd week of school for crying out loud – they were still reviewing everything most of them forgot over the summer.

Travel is a great way for kids to learn and not every trip can be scheduled over the summer.

Two weeks out of school is not going to have any effect whatsoever on the rest of your life other than you may have some great memories to look back on when you are older.

Luckily for us, us Aussies tend to be a little more laid back about such things. Let’s face it we are having a public holiday next week for a horse race, so a couple of weeks off school is nothing.

@Wendy :: I wish I were, we were not happy parents to receive that letter after our son spent two weeks in the hospital.

@Erika :: Here is to no nasty notes when you take your child out of school over Thanksgiving!

@Doug :: Thanks for sharing your story. It is that kind of learning experience that makes me feel an absence from school is well worth it. I wish that I could say I was shocked by the letters you received but I am not.

@Damien :: As I’ve told you before, your students are lucky to have such an outstanding teacher. There is no doubt that the teachers work hard for our children but as you noted the system is flawed. As parents, we work hard for our children as well and receiving a “nasty gram” from the school when we take our kids on a vacation and being told we are irresponsible parents is not good for anyone.

@Erika :: You make a valid point, however it is not always possible as a parent to align your time off with the holiday schedule of your children. For instance, some jobs require coverage by one or more employees during holiday periods and vacation time from work may not be approved. In an ideal world, our work schedules would align perfectly with school schedules but that just doesn’t happen.

@Mother Earth :: That couldn’t have been easy as a child to get pulled out of class for failure to pay. Thanks for the feedback!

excuse me??

Family. Remember family, education is important but not more important than family.

My mom would get mad at me – heck it’s their problem they chose to send me to that silly school in the first place

Mother Earth
aka Karen Hanrahan

http://www.bestwellnessconsultant.com

BUT, you should know that I myself have taken my kid out to go to Disneyland, etc. and taken the same flack for it. Guess what, I’m going to keep on taking family vacations with my kid out of school anytime I feel it’s in the best interest of my family

Curse the system, not the people because people work hard in public schools for your kids with good motives.

Riley out

My wife and I adopted a daughter from China in 2002. She is now 5-3/4 and started kindergarten in September.

2 years ago, we started the process of adopting a 2nd daughter. We planned all along to take our 1st daughter when we returned to China and introduce her to the land of her birth.

We hoped to travel before school started. As it turned out, we weren’t scheduled to leave until September 14th which was a little over 1 week after the first day of class.

As soon as we knew our travel date (around 1 month prior), I told the teacher that our daughter would be gone for 2 weeks. She thought it was awesome. I also told the principal.

Upon our return, we received 2 letters from the principal informing us of the importance of school attendance and penalties for excessive truancy which could include jail time for parents.

Yep…jail time.

We had a little word of prayer with the principal.

I loathe formal schooling, and I would be tempted to tell them to go [inappropriate] themselves — except for that clause about having to re-enroll after 10 days. That’s a real sticky one!

And my oldest just started Kindergarten this year and I plan to take him out of school all Thanksgiving week. Cross your fingers I don’t get a nasty note!

There weren’t any calls or letters to see how he was doing or if there was something wrong. Instead we received a letter indicating he had missed too many days of school and we had a responsibility to ensure our children did not miss school.

Don’t get me started!