Kids missing school for vacations

Do you think it's irresponsible to pull the kids out of school to take a vacation? When I was in the 5th grade, my parents took me and my brothers on a trip in the middle of April and I remember my teachers having somewhat of an attitude about my having been gone when I came back and was a week behind the rest of the class. If you're a parent, have you ever taken your kid out of school to go on a trip?

I'm not a parent, and I was homeschooled, but no I don't think it's irresponsible...especially today when kids are practically LIVING at the school, they go early in the morning, a lot to have breakfast before class starts, class lasts until 3, then if they're into extra curricular activities that could be another hour or so, and then homework, family and life has to come before that at some point and it's all going to slip away from the kids and they'll be grown before anybody knows it.

Cat, I don't know what the circumstances of your vacation was but normally, I would say that yes, it's irresponsible. Typically, kids are required by state law to get 180 days of school. If their parents can't work around that for a family vacation during the other 180 days it at least shouldn't be their teacher's responsibility to do anything extra to get them caught up.

I wouldn't call it irresponsible; they'll very likely learn more from this vacation than they will at school. But it's kinda rude.

Forgiveness Man wrote:I wouldn't call it irresponsible; they'll very likely learn more from this vacation than they will at school. But it's kinda rude.

Exactly, they say the best teacher is experience, you learn by doing, not just sitting in a classroom bent over a desk reading chopped text books.

Supernova wrote:

Forgiveness Man wrote:I wouldn't call it irresponsible; they'll very likely learn more from this vacation than they will at school. But it's kinda rude.

Exactly, they say the best teacher is experience, you learn by doing, not just sitting in a classroom bent over a desk reading chopped text books.

Hence why I am for homeschooling. You can take vacations and still get a lot of actual schoolwork done!

Exactly, not that we ever did...but we did take three and four day weekends sometimes when we'd worked ahead those weeks.

We don't like overnight trips but we took a few day trips sometimes. We even took some educational trips. lol Homeschooling rocked cause we didn't have to have my education held hostage to a school.

Okay, I'm a going to be a giant hypocrite. I used to think it was weird when people did that, and I've never done it before...

But every time my husband has had vacation time, we've had to use it to have babies for the past 10 years almost. Now he has vacation time that he has to use or lose, by May. Even though we'll have to put it on a credit card, we realized that our kids will only be the age they are once, and we want to take a vacation with them that they can remember as they get older. So we're driving down the Oregon Coast with them and taking them to see the Redwood's in Northern CA, then back up to Salem for Enchanted Forest, then Portland for OMSI. This will be in May so they'll be missing probably a whole week of school.

I'm going to talk to their teachers and ask for all their work for that week in advance and try to have them stay caught up, but they will be missing class time.

So now I'm thinking as long as it's only once a year or so, maybe it's not that bad as long as the parents are willing to teach the kids what they need to teach them while they are gone. I hope.

Gosh, now I am feeling bad...I really do value their education but I also think they will learn way more that week with us. I hope their teachers aren't upset about it!

alan smithee wrote:....I would say that yes, it's irresponsible. Typically, kids are required by state law to get 180 days of school. If their parents can't work around that for a family vacation during the other 180 days it at least shouldn't be their teacher's responsibility to do anything extra to get them caught up.

Notice state laws don't say anything about compulsory education? They're all about compulsory attendance. Learning something is optional.

I think that for the average schooled child, time with family is more important than school. So no, I don't think that a vacation during the school year is irresponsible. In high school, kids should be able to catch up easily by getting notes from friends and whatnot. If they are younger children....oh, well. If their grades are lower because of the trip, it wouldn't be something I'd care about. Getting a C rather than a B in fourth grade is hardly the end of the world.

My daughter's mother and I try to arrange things, like trips, around her school schedule, but sometimes it just isn't convenient to wait until their summer vacation (or holiday breaks) to go somewhere. It's my understanding that teachers generally have lesson plans set up for at least a few weeks in advance. I see no reason why they can't assign the vacationing kid some reading, or take home assignments, that will roughly keep them on track with the rest of the class.

2xy wrote:
Notice state laws don't say anything about compulsory education? They're all about compulsory attendance. Learning something is optional.

I think that for the average schooled child, time with family is more important than school. So no, I don't think that a vacation during the school year is irresponsible. In high school, kids should be able to catch up easily by getting notes from friends and whatnot. If they are younger children....oh, well. If their grades are lower because of the trip, it wouldn't be something I'd care about. Getting a C rather than a B in fourth grade is hardly the end of the world.

I have to agree on the attendanec thing and it's really weird here because in my town, the schools take ALL these days off almost every week because the teachers want to get out so they have 'conference' which just means nobody does anything anyway and the kids don't have to come in. We had some snow days but even when we didn't have snow the kids here would be out of school for a week or more at a time because of all these teacher 'conferences'. But it's gotta backfire somewhere, and all these days they're taking off in the winter come out of the kids' summer vacations, which I think is a dirty deal because they're already getting lesser time every year to be off for summer.

That's one area where we loved homeschooling because as soon as Memorial Day weekend was here, we were out until halfway through August, and I could never figure out why in the Nancy comics she always went halfway through June. But what I find odd is our parents and grandparents got out in June and went back in SEPTEMBER, but kids today go back in August, for what reason?

I think most parents probably try to avoid pulling their kids out of school to go on trips, but I don't see a few day off as hurting anything. What's the difference between that and being out sick for a week?

stonestatic wrote:I think most parents probably try to avoid pulling their kids out of school to go on trips, but I don't see a few day off as hurting anything. What's the difference between that and being out sick for a week?

The difference is a vacation is enjoyable, I'd rather be out on vacation than sick chucking chips into a garbage can every 5 minutes. But you still have a good point.

Supernova wrote:

2xy wrote:
Notice state laws don't say anything about compulsory education? They're all about compulsory attendance. Learning something is optional.

I think that for the average schooled child, time with family is more important than school. So no, I don't think that a vacation during the school year is irresponsible. In high school, kids should be able to catch up easily by getting notes from friends and whatnot. If they are younger children....oh, well. If their grades are lower because of the trip, it wouldn't be something I'd care about. Getting a C rather than a B in fourth grade is hardly the end of the world.

I have to agree on the attendanec thing and it's really weird here because in my town, the schools take ALL these days off almost every week because the teachers want to get out so they have 'conference' which just means nobody does anything anyway and the kids don't have to come in. We had some snow days but even when we didn't have snow the kids here would be out of school for a week or more at a time because of all these teacher 'conferences'. But it's gotta backfire somewhere, and all these days they're taking off in the winter come out of the kids' summer vacations, which I think is a dirty deal because they're already getting lesser time every year to be off for summer.

That's one area where we loved homeschooling because as soon as Memorial Day weekend was here, we were out until halfway through August, and I could never figure out why in the Nancy comics she always went halfway through June. But what I find odd is our parents and grandparents got out in June and went back in SEPTEMBER, but kids today go back in August, for what reason?

My MIL would flip her lid if she heard someone say that. She's there on conference days AND on Saturdays, AND until 6:30 or later every night...Don't ask me what she's doing, I think she's a workaholic personally, but I know she's grading papers, writing report cards, doing stuff that you would think the janitor would do, lesson planning...All while not "on the clock" (at least on Saturdays and after school). I can't wait until she retires because she barely knows her grandkids she works so much!

Well good for her, but around here everybody knows that when the teachers take a 'conference' day off, it just means a free day for everybody. They don't put much emphasis on doing any work around here, let alone getting it right.

Supernova wrote:Well good for her, but around here everybody knows that when the teachers take a 'conference' day off, it just means a free day for everybody. They don't put much emphasis on doing any work around here, let alone getting it right.

That really sucks All the teachers that any of my kids have ever had have put in extra hours, except for the teacher my daughter has now...She's a little flakey and not a great match, IMO, for my kids. I won't be requesting her for my son next year.

thepossiblepolice wrote:

Supernova wrote:Well good for her, but around here everybody knows that when the teachers take a 'conference' day off, it just means a free day for everybody. They don't put much emphasis on doing any work around here, let alone getting it right.

That really sucks All the teachers that any of my kids have ever had have put in extra hours, except for the teacher my daughter has now...She's a little flakey and not a great match, IMO, for my kids. I won't be requesting her for my son next year.

Yeah, it's really mucho mucho sucky, they KNOW that the kids aren't getting the material, they don't care, they're not going to be bothered to work with them anymore than they have to, they're going to pass the kids right along, they take all these days off during winter and spring and then take it out of the kids' summer vacations in return so they go back the first week in August. Makes me glad I never went.

No. If you're not doing it frequently then it doesn't matter.