Vacation During the School Year?

[Anonymous]

I think this sort of thing very much depends upon the variables of any given situation and if you are not the parents then there is no way you could possibly factor them all in.

Good reason to butt out, methinks.

[Anonymous]

For Disney World the variable is more than likely wanting to avoid the prices of peak season!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For Disney World the variable is more than likely wanting to avoid the prices of peak season!

There is always more than one variable. You can only be sure about the one(s) that matters most to you.

[Anonymous]

8:17 you are also making a big rationalization. Nobody is saying it has to be one or the other. We are talking about a couple of weeks a year out of the classroom. Hopefully it won't be the "the" weeks where they teach how to make a living

[Anonymous]

18:17 The one that matters to me is what happens in the classroom and with the teacher's time. We have not heard from any teachers here. Even with advanced students, taking off a week means extra time for one student, which is time away from the rest of the class. This can be in first or second grade since academics are ramped up so early. Believe me this is no no-impact decision.

[Anonymous]

Would those of you who take vacation during the school year be OK with the teacher taking vacation during the school year?

[Anonymous]

I'm the PP in FCPS whose kids take off a few days a year. And I am OK with teachers taking vacation and in fact they DO take vacation during the year, including WDW! LOL!! We've had teachers take time off for weddings, vacations, events for their kids, etc. Life goes on, even during the school year and not everyone in our lives is so considerate as to plan events around the school year. My DD's teacher this year is a district subject matter curriculum coordinator and has missed a lot of days for meetings for this. While it is school related, his frequent absences throughout the year have been a lot more disruptive IMO than a one time block at one time during the school year.

[Anonymous]

I am a teacher who would take my child out for a 'quality' event -- ie a family event (wedding),or a once in a lifetime opp for overseas travel... Have had children pulled for ski trips and theme parks, including right after they came back from the holiday break followed by the blizzard 'break'. Sometimes the children whose parents take the rhythm of the school year so lightly often are the ones who can least afford the disruption (mostly because their parents seem to take any structure or routine lightly while they are in school).

I will be honest though--some children could miss months and hardly skip a beat. But there are some children who never seem to catch up or find their step again, even after a short absence or sickness. Thus, I would be very thoughtful about when/why to pull my child, and who my child is (possible impact).

However, once I made my decision I would advocate for it (albeit while making all the preparations to make up work, or complete alternative assignments). I have taken my own child out for what I thought were 'good reasons'. School bureaucracies, even with the stringency of NCLB, should not be the be-all, end-all in these decisions and in the end you are the parent and have a lifetime relationship with your child Unless you are taking massive amounts of time away, you probably will not run into truancy issues, though of course any absence apart from illness and other excused reasons are 'frowned' upon. **Unexcused absences and tardies are allowed each family--but in limited amounts--and they are what rack up to impact a public school's NCLB rating and will get you called to the carpet if you overdo it. In my experience, parents always sought permission from the principal and made attempts to justify in advance for vacation type leave--I am not sure if, once the principal granted permission, these were 'excused' or not. In either case, having paperwork in advance from the families (ie a documentation of the request) was preferable and I think the principal often waved a wand so the absences were 'excused'.

ps. I truly think a habit of tardies (excused or unexcused) correlates with more problems than the occasional absence as the children start the day off in the wrong gear. Especially if there is a morning meeting or any other type of gathering first thing, a child running in late can miss the whole plan and cohesive start to the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:8:17 you are also making a big rationalization. Nobody is saying it has to be one or the other. We are talking about a couple of weeks a year out of the classroom. Hopefully it won't be the "the" weeks where they teach how to make a living

18:17 here. I am not rationalizing anything. I personally haven't taken my children out of school for a Disney Word trip and I can't imagine that I would. I'm just one of those people who is opposed to judgemental busybodies trying to micro-manage other people's lives. Dating myself here, but people like that are the Mrs. Olsen's of the world (from Little House on the Prairie). They're just plain awful human beings.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:8:17 you are also making a big rationalization. Nobody is saying it has to be one or the other. We are talking about a couple of weeks a year out of the classroom. Hopefully it won't be the "the" weeks where they teach how to make a living

18:17 here. I am not rationalizing anything. I personally haven't taken my children out of school for a Disney Word trip and I can't imagine that I would. I'm just one of those people who is opposed to judgemental busybodies trying to micro-manage other people's lives. Dating myself here, but people like that are the Mrs. Olsen's of the world (from Little House on the Prairie). They're just plain awful human beings.

Who here is trying to micro-manage anyone else's life?

[Anonymous]

18:17 you completely lost me....

[Anonymous]

We took our child out of school for a week to go to Disney. FWIW, it was a once in a lifetime event for us since it was work related and the luxury Disney hotel was paid for by my office for 7 nights, plus my airfare was covered along with a very generous per diem (which essentially covered meals for the entire family). We could never afford such a trip on our own. And you know what? We had a blast! It was such a great family bonding event. Everyone relaxed and had some plain old fun. Our kid's teacher was fine with it. She just suggested keeping a journal during the trip -- and that was fun and educational. Epcot was educational. So were parts of Animal Kingdom.

When we returned from our trip, the teacher sent home the work our child missed and we completed it at home. It really wasn't a big deal.

Also FWIW, my parents used to yank us out of school for the last week of school every year to attend the Maryland State Bar Association conference in OC --- and I don't think I suffered any from it.

Also FWIW, I don't see the difference between taking your kid out for a trip to Disney as opposed to a trip to Europe. I think snobby, elitist parents justify Europe as being educational and thus worthy of missing school. What about taking your kid out of school to go to NYC or Los Angeles (or any US city or town for that matter)? Most trips involve some educational component, right?

[Anonymous]

I have a different view on this... My parents took me out of school a lot when I was younger for trips. (Generally, only once a year)

I was glad that they did, as once I got older (about the 8th grade), we no longer could afford it AND I had a mentally-disabled sister. So that meant... not even summer/spring break trips.

Of course... When I was six, we went to Israel. I missed like 7 days of school, I think. When I was seven, I went to Israel, Egypt, and Jordan and missed about 7 days, also. I kept up with my schoolwork and worked on it on the plane with my dad. He even took me downstairs to the lobby to find a pencil! (Which I still have. Very cool souvenir).

It did me a lot of good, because in 3rd grade, I scored in the high school level for Social Studies.

Later... my parents took me out for trips for cruises and what-not.

You might not think that traveling is beneficial... but it really can be. Especially Disney World! Have you ever been to Epcot? It is one of the most educational places that you can take your children. It has everything from science to world cultures.

The one problem is if the children don't keep up with their schoolwork or if they already are struggling in school. But if you have a child with a strong academic record, (which being on DCUM, I would surmise that this is true) then I think this is perfectly fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Would those of you who take vacation during the school year be OK with the teacher taking vacation during the school year?

In school, I often had teachers take vacations. Our teachers were given two personal days per year and a number of sick days. I had a teacher go to Disney World. I had a teacher who went to the beach. I had a teacher in high school who would routinely cancel class anytime her son was sick.

The only time that I think it was challenging was when I had a teacher who was out for two weeks because his father died. The only reason that was challenging was because he didn't leave any work for us to do and they just had to find random substitutes to keep the class going.

When teachers leave, most of the time they leave assignments that the students can work on. If they have planned absences, then they often hire subs who are knowledgeable in the area of teaching.

So no... I don't mind.