Something I have never understood..

[GalDisney]

ok, it is now early januaray and the holiday Christmas and New years vacation is almost over. Kids are just now getting back to school after 2 or three weeks off,,NOW why is the Martin Luther Holiday on Jan. 16?? This means kids out of school and people off work AGAIN a week after a major holiday break!! I dont get it. Dont kids go to school anymore and dont people have to work anymore!! I work retail so i dont get any holidays off, ecxept Christmas and Thanksgiving!! Not Fair!! The major reason I am ranting is because I want to go to WDW and it will be crowded..again! ugh!!
It never ends.

 

[mrsv98]

Get this, not only does DD have MLK jr Day off, but she also has the next Mon off for an "Institute" day Oh well, it doesn't matter to us, we will be in WDW anyway!

 

[kilee]

In NYS we have Regents Mid-terms the week after MLK- so if you don't have a test at our school and your jr/sr high student- you don't have school.

Actually my ds has less days off this year it seem. He usually has a week off at Easter and the 3rd week of April off. W/ Easter being the 3rd week- he only has that off and not an additional week anywhere else (that isn't normally there). He also usually has 3 long 4 day weekends in March for staff development. Took those away this year too. Along w/ Thanksgiving week-- we were normally off all week and only had 3 days off this year. I'm actually upset over the new schedule because it left less room to travel. Flip side-- he ends school 2 weeks earlier this year. If we don't use our snow days (haven't yet) we could be out 3 weeks earlier.

 

[georgina]

I believe it is because January 15 was his birthday. My kids only missed 6 days of school over the holidays, and have midterms this week, so they have this Friday off (end of the 9 weeks) as well as Monday. DH doesn't get MLK day off, although he was off on Jan 2 and my kids were in school.

 

[bicker]

Yes, the date was not chosen at random, but is the closest Monday to his actual birthday.

 

[golfgal]

Our kids have been back to school since the 3rd. They have the 16th off this year, they alternate years between MLK and President's Day (except this year we have them both off for some reason).

 

[Mariposa]

It seems that our school district is taking off more days during the school year, but summer appears to be shorter now. Go figure.

 

[DisneyMim]

Schools go a certain number of days, which is determined by the state. It doesn't matter how many days off there are during the year, the total number will remain the same. Now as for MLK day, we have it off to honor this remarkable man who's birthday just so happens to be in January. Same thing happens for President's Day. My husband is a teacher, so we've always lived our life by the school calendar. Our High School has mid-terms during the four days following MKL day. This gives our children another day to study. I think if you know the school calendar ahead of time you can plan. Sometimes schools don't do a great job getting them home, but usually they are posted on websites.

 

[Tigger&Belle]

MLK is a federal holiday to celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King...not a random day off from school. My kids have one of those random days the following Monday.

 

[mickeyboat]

We do not have MLK day off, or any days in January. We have a week of vacation in February, and one in April. We have already used two snow days this year, so we will have to go to school at least one extra day in June. Yuck!

Denae

 

[Nancy]

My kids "major" holiday break was 1 week long, they have been in school since the 2nd. They get off MLK day but it is only for 1 day, not another whole week. I did not have a break during the holidays, I worked everyday so not everyone was off for a long holiday break. Banks, post office, etc only got the day off after the holiday. I can't imaging a 1 day holiday making WDW too crowded to go to. The high school does have the state regents exams but only the high school gets off, the middle and elementary schools still attend classes during that time. I don't know my kids spend an aweful lot of time in school, they have state mandated number of days, they go from Labor day until the end of June, (usually around the 20-25 including exams) seems like they attend school as much as I did.

 

[Cass]

Being Canadian we don't observe that holiday (MLK) but, what a shocker when I was on acaribbean cruise and in San Juan that day, a public holiday, everything was closed and thousands of locals on the beach, street parades - it was quite an experience

 

[Christine]

Actually, it may *seem* like everyone is off, but they aren't. My company, for one, does not give MLK as a holiday. We only get 8 holidays, not the 9 or 10 that some places do.

Not all schools take MLK day either. My son's private school will have school that day and they do a special lesson plan on MLK on that day.

 

[skiwee1]

I hear you! My kids were off Dec 24 to Jan 3. They then get off MLK day. That's bad enough but they also get off Jan 24 to the 27 for stuff. I understand that we have a set number of days for school but all these extras makes the school go from end of August til mid June or later. It is getting so that we almost have year round school just because of all the nonsense tossed in.

 

[cardaway]

I'm getting it off for the first time this year. Picked as a "floating" holiday. I wish they would hav picked one in Feb or March and given us holidays more spread apart. It's a long way to the next one now.

 

[Mercy]

Well my son goes to a private school... he started back on Jan 3 from the Christmas holiday. He has a 1/2 day Jan. 11, off Jan. 16, and off again Jan. 20. He's out of school more than he's in it seems.

I have the 16th off from work, yippee, don't really care what the reason is!!

 

[MamaLema]

I'm Canadian, but I noticed while planning a trip to WDW that the U.S. has way more holidays than we do.

Our next holiday is Easter.

 

[Christine]

I'm Canadian, but I noticed while planning a trip to WDW that the U.S. has way more holidays than we do.

Our next holiday is Easter.

And the funny thing about Easter is that most working adults do not get a holiday at all for Easter.

 

[ChristmasElf]

For the poster that was commenting on the crowds at WDW on MLK day, don't worry it will not be too bad. Usually WDW is fairly quiet from the first week in January through Presidents Day in February.

 

[Crankyshank]

I work for a University and we have Monday off. However that's our last day off until Memorial Day.