Advice from a Teacher re: taking kids out of school for Disney

[disneygal33]

That is crazy!!

It was horrible. I had never heard of such a thing until this happened to us. The school said the state passed the law a few years ago to help cut down on absences but they didn't put a provision for seriously ill students. There have been many kids who kept up with their work and failed just because they were ill. After the fact I was told I could have let them fail her and then appealed the decision the next school year. I am not against taking your kids to WDW during the school year. I plan on taking mine in 3 weeks. I just would hate to see anyone end up in the position we did.

 

[ont/ohana]

Thank you so much for your letter to our Teacher. I am going to write this today.
Thanks agian!!

 

[Gillian]

DS's private school asks that you not take the kids out during the year, and especially not the days right before holidays because they miss out on community events that are important to the culture of the school. It's our first year so I'm not sure if people listen or not.

There aren't a lot of worksheets for them in 1st grade, and little to no homework. I'm not sure what they'd be able to send for vacation work.

They do make it easier for parents by giving 2 weeks at Christmas and 2 weeks in March. They don't have to close for things like election day or the NJ teachers convention, so I guess it all works out in the end.

My public school district has weeks when you can take a vacation and not miss much. A lot of people travel at those times (Jersey week anyone?) so if your kid goes to school I don't know what would get done anyway.

 

[declansdad]

BTW, the traditional US school calendar is based on the needs of family farms. July and August, into early Sept, are the times when extra farmhands are most needed, for harvest. If you don't have any farm families in your district, there really isn't a whole lot of reason to stick to that tradition, although in a lot of areas it saves utility money to have the school buildings shut down during the hottest months of the year.

This was not the only reason for summers off. It also had to do with wealthy families wanting to spend time at the summer home. With the wife and kids at the waterfront for the summer, it made it difficult for people to attend school.

 

[crisi]

I've been pointing this out for years. When districts get draconian about brief absences with advance notice given, the real issue is almost always the money. If my child's school loses $28 a day for each absence, then fine, I'll write a check. Heck, I'll even double it, so money should no longer be an issue.

BTW, the traditional US school calendar is based on the needs of family farms. July and August, into early Sept, are the times when extra farmhands are most needed, for harvest. If you don't have any farm families in your district, there really isn't a whole lot of reason to stick to that tradition, although in a lot of areas it saves utility money to have the school buildings shut down during the hottest months of the year.

A lot of larger communities have options for year round schools. My neighbor goes to a Middle School like that, and a girlfriend has her two kids in a year round elementary school - they have three weeks off around Christmas, three weeks off in March, three off if June, three in October - something like that. Makes it a little easier to plan vacations when crowds aren't a huge problem. They are often charter schools or magnet schools - though there is a regular district elementary school not far from me that also runs a year round schedule.

As demand goes up, there should be more options - at least in communities large enough to support several options.

 

[AMaloy314]

Since there seem to be so many posts lately about taking the kids out of school for a Disney vacation I figured I would pipe in with some advice from a teacher.

It is very annoying/insulting to hear, "it is only 1st/2nd/3rd grade so he won't miss anything." We work our butts off to plan and execute lessons and it is disheartening to hear parents show disrespect for that.

Do not simply request that all the work be sent home and it will be made up. In most classrooms children are learning through centers and hands-on instruction. This can not be sent home in the form of a worksheet. Peer interaction and teacher support are required (not to mention gameboards, manipulatives, etc.)

Please do not ask for all of the work "ahead of time." It is SO TIME CONSUMING for a teacher to put together the work ahead of time. I always keep a "while you were out folder" and add any assignments that can be done at home to it as they are passed out to the class. It is much easier on the teacher if you make the work up after the fact.

Don't bother writing in the note or stating in conversation, "this will be an educational trip." You aren't exactly touring Washington, D.C. Be realistic. There is a lot to see, do and experience in Disney. There is ample opportunity to introduce your child to history and culture. Truly it can be a very educational trip, but it's really about family fun, flying on Dumbo and eating Mickey Head ice cream bars. Don't try to sugar coat it. It is what it is and that's not a bad thing, but playing making it sound as if the motivation was to culture the child is silly.

Realize that while your child's overall academic career will not suffer from missing a week of school, it will pay a toll on the immediate marking period. Concepts build off of one another (this is esp. true in math, science and social studies) and it can take a while for a child to get caught up. Will it mean your child won't go to Harvard? No. Will it mean your child might drop from a B to a C in math on that quarters report card? Maybe.

Also, your vacation may mean a lot of extra work for the teacher. Gathering assignments and needing to devote extra attention to that student to get him caught up is time consuming. Be sensitive and appreciative of that.

Now, with all that being said do I think parents should take their kids out of school for a trip to WDW? It depends on the kid. Family time is important. Family vacations are memorable and enjoyable. There are plenty of learning opportunities available that you won't get in a classroom and it would be extremely enriching. Travel during school vacation weeks can be 2 to 3 times as expensive and parent's work schedules don't always allow for it. Some kids are great students and won't be hindered from the absence.

I guess my point is that it is not a bad thing to take a child out of school for a family vacation, but I would suggest being sensitive in how you address it with the school. My suggestion would be to write something along the following lines:

To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing to let you know that __________ will be absent from __/__ to __/__. We will be taking a family vacation to Disney World. I apologize that he will be missing classtime for this trip, but for personal reasons we were not able to take it during a school vacation week.

In addition to quality family time and fun in the parks, we look forwarded to taking advantage of all of the educational opportunities that exist in Disney. However, we are aware that he will be missing valuable lessons and activities in your classroom during his absence. Please let us know how you would like this to be addressed. We are willing to work with you to make sure he is able to catch up on the missed work in whichever way you best see fit.

I look forward to speaking with you regarding this matter.

Anyhow, just my .02 cents. Go! Have Fun! But at the same time be sensitive and accomodating to the teacher. Teachers are always willing to work with you.

Also, just as a word of caution be aware of your districts attendance policy. In my previous district any child who was absent more than 4 consecutive days without a medical excuse was reported to the truancy officer.

Fantastic post!! I'm going to use your letter as the basis for our request to take my DS out in Feb.

I did want to point out (and don't mean to start a debate) that I have said 'It is only kindergarten, blah,blah,blah...' I never meant any disrespect towards teachers. The statement I made referred more to the fact that in the lower grades, I can assist my son with the homework and work with him on the concepts. Once he starts getting into Jr/Sr High, I know that he will pretty much be on his own. For me to help him later on, it may take some major reviewing before I can even begin to have a discussion with him on a subject.

If I ever offended any teacher, you have my heartfelt apology! I have often said that you have one of the most difficult jobs around. To think that you are unappreciated, especially by me, would be just wrong. You all are great!

Thanks again for the post!

 

[seashoreCM]

(copied from another post)

Why not, instead of having the teacher prepare and give out homework and other assignments in advance, the parent extrapolate from the work already done and propose a sequence of lessons and assignments which the teacher can rubber stamp or make a few additions to or otherwise quickly okay.

Remember, there are only four possibilities for doing the work that will be missed (splitting up possible).
1. Before the vacation.
2. During the vacation, e.g. do the math before going into the pool.
3. After the vacation.
4. Some other time of year, e.g. next year after the child was failed and not promoted to the next grade.

Does the school lose $28. for the day if a kid reports to school ill and has to be kept in the nurse's office all day (or sent back home)? Actually I dare say that floundering in class ill instead of staying at home will result in at least slightly higher grades after imputing the re-instatement of any grade penalty for being absent. (Gym and outdoor recess should not be participated in.)

The parents should not have to, either legally or morally, pay the school $28. per child for each snowstorm makeup day missed becaue the Disney vacation was scheduled on those dates first.

A child so hopelessly far behind from missing school due to illness might well be better off repeating the grade and should find getting straight A's this time easier.

>>> Passed [the assignments] in [after vacation] and the teacher graded [some] and threw the rest away because that's only how far the class got.
Did your kid get an A for each assignment when the class finally get to it?

Disney hints:
http://members.aol.com/ajaynejr/disney.htm

 

[Fintastic]

I simply state that we'll be out of town due to family circumstances, and leave it at that. I ask the teacher what requirements and procedures she wants us to follow.

I agree with this.

 

[piggy]

Thanks Camdensmom for the letter to the teacher, I think it is a great idea. We do take our teachers for granted alot of times. To all teachers of the dis.
thank you for a job well done.

 

[Gillian]

I did want to point out (and don't mean to start a debate) that I have said 'It is only kindergarten, blah,blah,blah...' I never meant any disrespect towards teachers. The statement I made referred more to the fact that in the lower grades, I can assist my son with the homework and work with him on the concepts. Once he starts getting into Jr/Sr High, I know that he will pretty much be on his own. For me to help him later on, it may take some major reviewing before I can even begin to have a discussion with him on a subject.

I agree with this! It's not so much about the teacher as it is about the kind of work they do at that age that makes us think they won't suffer as much as the older kids.

However, I have realized lately that I have no idea how to teach my child letter sounds, or letter combination sounds, or how to sound out new words as he learns to read. Although we read to him every night and have him read to us, I really see him growing in ways I couldn't have taught (without teaching myself first) so for 1st grade teachers!!

 

[glass slipper girl]

I agree. If a child has a low A or B, one low test score can bring it down a letter grade. Doesn't mean I think you should never take your child out of school for vacation, I just think you should realize this could be a possibility.

I can share my son's recent experience with this. My oldest is in 1st grade at a local charter school. For the first semester he had all As. They were all high As too. His grades were:

Reading: (which he goes to 2nd grade for) 94
English: 94
Spelling: 106
Math: 96
Social Studies: 100
Science: 100

All year his spelling tests he brings home, he has never had less than a 98 on a single one. Our youngest child was born on 10/23. I was in the hospital from 10/23 to 10/26 so DS stayed with Grandma at night and his routine was disrupted. He was more tired and distracted (he's a big worrier so Mommy being in the hospital, despite the fact we'd been preparing him for that for MONTHS, was stressful for him). In that time he missed 90 minutes of school. He had asked if he could be present for his brother's birth and we were considering that but told him that we wouldn't make a decision till it was happening. THe baby ended up being born at 10:45 PM so obviously he wasn't there. We did let the kids be a little late for school the next morning so they could come to the hospital and meet their new baby brother since they were VERY disappointed that he wasn't born before they had to go to bed. The spelling test DS had on 10/27 he got a D on. My mother and my husband had both worked with him quite a bit but being tired and his routine disrupted really did affect him a lot. His teacher called me to warn me b/c he was SO upset. She told him she understood it was a "different sort of week" and that allw ould be OK but he was still very upset. Thank Goodness he has had 98+ on everything else so he still has an A but it's gone from being a 104 to a low 90s A. Still, an As an A but had he had 90s rather than 100s on other tests, he would have dropped to a B.

We will be going to WDW in February. The boys will miss 1/2 day on Thursday then miss Friday, Mon and Tues. I've already talked to his teacher about the time he will miss. We are hoping it won't be too stressful on DS but after seeing that affect without even really missing anything, I am a little more worried. I know we will be doing spelling, reading and math assignments in the evening but the way they do Social Studies and Science, it will be harder to make up. His teacher doesn't like centers so it's not center based, but there is a lot of participation. His teacher did say she'd help us out with activities we could do to help catch him up though.

 

[DisneyDadof3]

Our elementary schools went to stupid standards based report card that uses 4,3,2,1 as grades - 3 being at grade level and 4 being above. The catch is they don't have opportunities to do above grade level (at least not yet) so a perfect score only results in a 3. I could care less what my daughter's grades are as long as I feel she is doing well and understanding the material (as much of it is brought home, I can look at it). The grade is irrelevant until they get to Algebra for example in math. Grades are very subjective and need to be looked at as one piece of a much larger puzzle. This coming from a teacher. I would not hesitate to take my children out of school for week until late middle school or high school.

If schools were serious about education, they would quit taking teachers out of class 10+ times per year for meetings.

 

[HappyLawyer]

I've never heard of a super making only $85k.. wow. Our local news just covered this the other night~ in our area it varies from $128k (I think that was the lowest) to some in the upper $150s.
It doesn't make sense to me at all that it's distributed so unevenly Teachers deserve much more than they make.

Sorry to de-rail here

Thisi s very true and many people have a misconception to teachers, i mean hey my hours are 8:40-3:15, i get of easter break, summer break and Winter break, boy i got it made. Yeah, no, we work on the weekend, spend hours creating lesson plans, then the meetings and the paperwork, please, teachers are soooooo underpaid it isn't funny. At least we go into it knowing what we get, my district is not bad, with a masters and teaching special education a first teacher makes about 52k, but then they take out for the retirement fund, union dues, insurance blah blah blah, but teachers need CEO Pay. We certainly do CEO work.

 

[casey49781]

Last year my daughter was in 3rd grade , the teacher missed more days off than the 6 , my kids will be taking this year for a family vacation, not to mention all the inservice days they miss. Our teachers dont even have a contract so they have a pending school calendar this year....

 

[Momof2princess]

While I appreciate the OP's insight, there isn't a chance I'm going to apologize or ask approval from anyone as to what I can or can't do with my own children. School is not the end all be all of the world. As of this year I have been out of school (not counting college) longer than I was in. It's a miniscule part of life and there is no reason to make it bigger than it is.

I'm taking my dd out of school next month for a week. She will be going to her grandparents home while dh and I are on vacation. I sent a note last week very simply stating the dates of her absence and offering to make up any missed work. When my dd is on her death bed I whole-heartedly believe she won't say, "I wish I'd spent more time in school instead of with Momma and Poppa."

As far as an e-mail talking about lost revenue - EXCUSE ME? Lost revenue? And here I thought the purpose was education... While I can certainly understand the need for $$$, not at the expense of family time or a sick child. Where is the line drawn? A kid with a temperature? A kid whose grandmother died? A kid who is stressed to the max and just needs a break? This, and a million other reasons, are why my kids go to private school.

I could not agree more. While I do appreciate the OP insight and her thoughts, I would never aplogize or ask for "permission" to take my child out of school. My DD's teachers don't ask my permission for when they are out. (now before anyone says anything I know they must ask the principal/central office for time off but it is almost 100% of the time granted) Take for example last year my DD teacher took the last week of May off to go on a cruise...mind you school was out 2 weeks later for the summer. Or yesterday my DD's teacher took the day off for an eye appt. Now could she have not taken the appt in the afternoon?

As for schools loosing revenues well thats a whole other issue that deals with the gov. and where our tax dollars are spent.

Just my .02 cents. Not looking for an argument or approval as we all have our own opinions and free to voice them.

 

[disneygal33]

I could not agree more. While I do appreciate the OP insight and her thoughts, I would never aplogize or ask for "permission" to take my child out of school. My DD's teachers don't ask my permission for when they are out. (now before anyone says anything I know they must ask the principal/central office for time off but it is almost 100% of the time granted) Take for example last year my DD teacher took the last week of May off to go on a cruise...mind you school was out 2 weeks later for the summer. Or yesterday my DD's teacher took the day off for an eye appt. Now could she have not taken the appt in the afternoon?

As for schools loosing revenues well thats a whole other issue that deals with the gov. and where our tax dollars are spent.

Just my .02 cents. Not looking for an argument or approval as we all have our own opinions and free to voice them.

The problem is we as parents are allowing decisions about our children to be made by the government. It is the teachers deciding we should medicate our children(Yes I realize some kids actually need it but not nearly the number that are on it) It is the government decided what our children should learn about sex, whether or not they are allowed to pray before their lunch. It is the schools that are outlawing the teaching of the basic facts of American history in our schools because our fore fathers happened to put the words "endowed by their creator" in the Declaration of Independence.
Frankly it is amazing to be that more parents aren't standing up for their rights to raise their children as they see fit!! I for one will never return my children to the public school system. They are my children and they will grow up with the values I set forth for them, not the teachers, schools or government!!

 

[Happy05]

The problem is we as parents are allowing decisions about our children to be made by the government. It is the teachers deciding we should medicate our children(Yes I realize some kids actually need it but not nearly the number that are on it) It is the government decided what our children should learn about sex, whether or not they are allowed to pray before their lunch. It is the schools that are outlawing the teaching of the basic facts of American history in our schools because our fore fathers happened to put the words "endowed by their creator" in the Declaration of Independence.
Frankly it is amazing to be that more parents aren't standing up for their rights to raise their children as they see fit!! I for one will never return my children to the public school system. They are my children and they will grow up with the values I set forth for them, not the teachers, schools or government!!

My children have been educated in public schools, and no one but my husband and myself have made decisions for them. My youngest was tested for ADD and WE (his parents) decided NOT to put him on medications......the school/teachers did NOT interfere with our decision. Where are your accusations coming from? Personally, my children learn their values at the home-front. I don't expect anyone else to do that for me!

 

[camdensmom]

The problem is we as parents are allowing decisions about our children to be made by the government. It is the teachers deciding we should medicate our children(Yes I realize some kids actually need it but not nearly the number that are on it)

Actually, teachers are not legally allowed to even suggest that a child has ADD or ADHD and we certainly are not making decisions to medicate. ADD/ADHD and anything else that requires an RX is a medical decision. It needs to be addressed with and diagnosed by your child's pediatrician.

We as teachers can do little more than recommend a parent speak to the doctor if they have concerns. The schools are only able to diagnose learning disabilities and those do not require meds.

 

[DisneyDotty]

It's so disheartening to read entries from parents who believe they're slowing losing all rights to parenting...
If my kids don't think they can say a silent prayer before a meal (or a test!) at school, then I as a parent have failed them in their religious upbringing.
If I don't insist on their getting proper medical treatment, then I as a parent have neglected them.
And if I don't supplement their education in school (you should see what they're doing to my kids' math programs around here!), then I am shortchanging them.
Trust me--I get frustrated with my kids' public schools all the time. And I was a public school teacher, so you think I'd be more sympathetic! But I don't rely on the public schools to do my parenting. And I do try to work with the schools to achieve some kind of mutual respect and satisfaction. Of course, should that fail, I too would consider other forms of education.

 

[disneygal33]

It's so disheartening to read entries from parents who believe they're slowing losing all rights to parenting...
If my kids don't think they can say a silent prayer before a meal (or a test!) at school, then I as a parent have failed them in their religious upbringing.
If I don't insist on their getting proper medical treatment, then I as a parent have neglected them.

How dare you say that. You don't know what you are talking about. My child was reprimanded for saying a silent prayer over her lunch. She whispered the word Amen when she was done. She then ended up in the office. Why? Because she dared to pray to herself. I was then called and told I needed to explain to her she was NOT ALLOWED to pray at school, not even to herself. It might make other students uncomfortable to see her with her head bowed and her hands folded. We were told if it did not stop she would be suspended. She didn't share her believe with other students, she didn't insist anyone pray with her. She then got suspended because I told her to she could continue to pray to herself as long as it was silently. 2 days later she was caught with her hands folded and her head bowed over her lunch. she This was the same public school that sent her home in Kindergarten with a book about homosexual princes I didn't fail her, the school did.