Need to vent! School Days Missed

[Queen2PrincessG]

My kids say that the subsitute teachers that they have never teach anything. They basically sit there & hand out work sheets. A lot of teachers start their vacations early so I say we should be able to as well. I don't take my kids out of school much, but I don't see anything wrong with it. When they are younger, it isn't that difficult to make up the work. My kids are good students A's & B's.

Those worksheets could be supplement to what they are working on in class. I know many teachers who if they know they are going to be out in advance, will make the sub folder based on current work. Did you ask to see the worksheet?

 

[pacrosby]

I think it's funny to criticize someone else's education while making spelling errors

Are you kidding? How old are you people?

Perhaps we should all step back and learn something from this. The desire to just further the nonsense is baffling to me. I wish I could just walk away and let you run around the playground by yourselves but some of these comments just defy logic.

I'm still waiting to see how long it takes someone to notifty the moderator about the madness that's going on here. I'm betting this thread will be shut down by the end of the day. So get those jabs in while you can girls. Time's runnin' out!

 

[Kathy C]

I have to agree with ccgirl. The school year is only 180 days long and to miss 10 for vacation seems like a lot. This is the last year we go with my sister and her kids because they are too old to miss more than a couple days of school. So our trips will either be during breaks or separate.

I also agree that's is disrespectful for you to tell the Principal to just call you. Obviously it important enough for her to make time to meet with you, you should do the same.

I have to agree. And, not sure when you're going specifically, but it's still pretty early in the school year and you don't know what the rest of the school year might be like health wise for your kids (hopefully they're healthy as a horse). I understand pulling them out for five days but nine is an awful lot. Just my opinion though. . .

 

[sam_gordon]

Can someone please explain...

A number of people have said they pull their kids out of school because they know they (the kids) can handle it (makeup work). And if they (parents) had a doubt about the kids handling it, they wouldn't go.

Here's my only problem with that (and please someone explain the thinking)... don't MOST (yes, not ALL) trips to WDW get planned at least a couple months in advance? Which means an October trip is getting planned in August or before. That's before school starts. So how would you know whether your child can "handle" being gone? Success in one grade doesn't always equal success in the next grade.

So what happens when that straight A student last year goes to school for a month and finds out they're having problems? Are trips getting cancelled at the last minute? Are you willing to cancel at the last minute if that happened to you.

Just curious.

 

[thebeesknees]

Can someone please explain...

A number of people have said they pull their kids out of school because they know they (the kids) can handle it (makeup work). And if they (parents) had a doubt about the kids handling it, they wouldn't go.

Here's my only problem with that (and please someone explain the thinking)... don't MOST (yes, not ALL) trips to WDW get planned at least a couple months in advance? Which means an October trip is getting planned in August or before. That's before school starts. So how would you know whether your child can "handle" being gone? Success in one grade doesn't always equal success in the next grade.

So what happens when that straight A student last year goes to school for a month and finds out they're having problems? Are trips getting cancelled at the last minute? Are you willing to cancel at the last minute if that happened to you.

Just curious.

We are having exactly this situation now. We waited to pay the balance on our trip until the school year started so we could gauge how the kids were handling the work, what kinds of grades they were getting, and whether or not they could "safely" miss 5 1/2 days of school. They seemed to be doing very well, and the homework load was nearly non-existent. We finally asked for permission from the principal about 3 weeks ago, and he freely gave us permission to go, so we paid the balance on our trip and bought our plane tickets for December. The NEXT WEEK, the school started grouping the students by ability, and now my 3rd grader is bringing home 2 hours of homework every night! I am really starting to get concerned over whether or not he will be able to make up his missed work in time. We have parent-teacher conferences scheduled for next week. I will be speaking to his teacher at that point to determine whether or not we should continue the trip as scheduled, or change our dates and forfeit the $. If I had known a month ago what his homework would look like these days, I never would have planned to pull him out of school for that week.

 

[ccgirl]

We are having exactly this situation now. We waited to pay the balance on our trip until the school year started so we could gauge how the kids were handling the work, what kinds of grades they were getting, and whether or not they could "safely" miss 5 1/2 days of school. They seemed to be doing very well, and the homework load was nearly non-existent. We finally asked for permission from the principal about 3 weeks ago, and he freely gave us permission to go, so we paid the balance on our trip and bought our plane tickets for December. The NEXT WEEK, the school started grouping the students by ability, and now my 3rd grader is bringing home 2 hours of homework every night! I am really starting to get concerned over whether or not he will be able to make up his missed work in time. We have parent-teacher conferences scheduled for next week. I will be speaking to his teacher at that point to determine whether or not we should continue the trip as scheduled, or change our dates and forfeit the $. If I had known a month ago what his homework would look like these days, I never would have planned to pull him out of school for that week.

Good luck with that! WDW is really great. I bet they would let you switch the dates to later in the year. You may have to pay a small penalty $$ wise but it should still be an option. Not sure of the airline but Southwest, JetBlue, and AirTran will give you credit for your flights to use at a later date. That seems like so much homework for a 3rd grader! My 2nd grader only takes about 15 minutes to do her homework. I'm not sure she could focus for an hour never mind 2. Good luck with everything. Very tough situation to be in.

 

[maxiesmom]

I dont agree with this at all. It seems a few rotten apples definately spoil the bunch in this case.Because of people who abuse the policy , people like your friend have to fight to get their children to move on to the next grade when they have a legitimate reason out of their control.

I honestly dont have an answer.

Do you think it would help if all schools were held to the same expectations? I guess I don't understand why what is ok in one school district is not in another. Shouldn't there be set base standards as far as attendance goes?

The system now simply doesn't make any sense.

 

[ccgirl]

Do you think it would help if all schools were held to the same expectations? I guess I don't understand why what is ok in one school district is not in another. Shouldn't there be set base standards as far as attendance goes?

The system now simply doesn't make any sense.

I agree with you there. At the very least I think it should be state wide and not just district to district. I think it makes things very confusing that way.

 

[fairydust72]

Do you think it would help if all schools were held to the same expectations? I guess I don't understand why what is ok in one school district is not in another. Shouldn't there be set base standards as far as attendance goes?

The system now simply doesn't make any sense.

I didnt say it was ok in one district and not another. I was talking about very specific circumstances that I am close to.Medical issues vs not wanting to get up in the morning.

My circumstance is a chronically ill child that was not diagnosed yet. Thankfully my school took the time to look at the WHOLE picture, not just look at a chart and say "Fairydust72's dd has been out 27 times this year. We need to notify the court and possibly hold her back."They worked with us-we finally found out what was going on and so far she is doing ok. I have a 504 plan in place for my DD so none of this nonsense can happen to us.I dont want my DD to miss so much school. In MY perfect world she would only get the sniffles now and then, be healthy and this wouldnt be an issue.

The other circumstance IS someone taking advantage of a lax school district(it is not my district or state even). I have known these people and child for many years.This has been going on since grade school. She is now in high school and is in line for a scholarship. I have told them I disagree with what they do. I dont agree with a district that never even questions why a person can be chronically late 3-4 times a week and absent at least once a week with no medical explanation at all.



These are 2 very different scenarios I was speaking about. I dont think legitimate health issues should be in the same argument.

 

[WebmasterDoc]

Are you kidding? How old are you people?

Perhaps we should all step back and learn something from this. The desire to just further the nonsense is baffling to me. I wish I could just walk away and let you run around the playground by yourselves but some of these comments just defy logic.

I'm still waiting to see how long it takes someone to notifty the moderator about the madness that's going on here. I'm betting this thread will be shut down by the end of the day. So get those jabs in while you can girls. Time's runnin' out!

Thanks for reporting this thread and thanks to all for participating.