Teachers are giving me a hard time pulling kids out of school

[rgf207]

I just have a question.. who here is a teacher? and do you post during school time? Just wondering

I am not a teacher but What is your point of that question? How does it even remotely have anything to do with the subject matter of this thread?

 

[Indiana Rose Lee]

lol, just a shark sniffing out something to attack, I figure. I teach at a college and at a U. The rest of the time I am a homeschooling mom.

 

[creativeamanda]

She wants to attack teachers. My thought is, if a teacher is posting here (I am a teacher, but actually working out of the District Office in the afternoons and posting from my Blackberry), then they most likely are at lunch or at least does not have students in front of them at the moment.

If a teacher takes 5 min out of the day to do something personal, then so what? I can assure you they are going to be grading papers at home. . .

 

[maddmike]

I just have a question.. who here is a teacher? and do you post during school time? Just wondering

I asked a similar question in another thread and that got everyone worked up. I really don't care what people do but its an honest question to some people who claim to be very busy teachers but were spend ALOT of time during the day posting on the dis forum.

And that needs to be done during the school year?

For us we visit WDW during the winter months mainly because it works for us. We don't enjoy the extreme heat during the summer. Also its much easier to get time off work in the winter. Besides we live in Michigan so its nice to get a break from all the snow and the cold for a week.

 

[wvjules]

Regarding all of the "my job won't let me vacaiton any other time." Have you considered that school is your child's job?

There is nothing wrong with ONLY taking quick weekend getaways. no child ever suffered because of it.

I have taken DD out of school twice for WDW. They were in elementary and middle school. No way would I even consider taking her out of high school. She has block scheduling and would have way too much work to make up. Totally not worth it. We informed the school and were aware of the consequences of missing school for a vacaiton. In our case there were none.

 

[HelenePA]

I was just wondering that's all. I just wanted to know if this is what some teachers did on their prep period instead of grading papers which by all means is their choice.

I dont even know why i'm on this thread.. its allowed by my district to take kids out 5 days per year for vacations if I choose to do so. I dont know how the make up work goes since I've never done it before. I am thinking about it next year because I see all the fun pics of Disney for Halloween and would like to go. Dh gets plenty of vacation time (4 paid weeks a year) that he can take anytime he wants. So no I'm not limited on when I can go because of his work.. I am limited on when I can go for Halloween since it only happens once school is back in..I'm going to try to keep the days out of school to a minimum but they will miss some time if we go..

 

[maddmike]

This is a topic where people are going to have to agree to disagree. The situation is different for everyone. I have kids in high school, junior high and elementary school. We take them out a week every year and we have no problems. They have some extra work to do to catch up but its nothing serious and they are still very good students. If taking them out was causing my kids to have trouble in school I would think differently but that is not the case for any of them. Everyone should do whats best for them and their family just as I do.

My problem with this topic is that there are some that think because I take my kids out of school for a vacation I am doing something terrible to them or that I am disrespecting their teachers. I am doing neither. It is how I choose to raise my kids.

 

[creativeamanda]

FTR: I have no problem with parents taking their kids out of school. I have no problem with teachers getting the work together for those kids in the way that is best for them. I have no problem with attendance rules, but do think that if a parent can prove educational merit to a family vacation, then it should be excused.

What I have a problem with is a parent asking a teacher to do additional work so they (the parent) can have things a bit easier for themselves on a vacation they chose to take their children on.

If you take the kids on vacation, then fine. Just be prepared to pay the consequences and don't ask educators to go out of their way to make accommodations for a choice that was out of their control.

 

[waltskids]

I just have a question.. who here is a teacher? and do you post during school time? Just wondering

DH and I are both teachers but I am currently on maternity leave for this school year. So I get to post all I want but DH cannot since the Dis site is blocked in our school district. He honestly doesn't have time to post anyway.

As to the original post, DH or I do not have problems with parents taking their kids out of school for vacations. So many of the students we teach cannot afford a vacation at all, so we are thrilled when the families can go and have a good time. I teach a middle school gifted and talented class (Social Studies) and I require my students to make up all missed work. Most parents would like the work ahead of time, but that's not always possible as much of our curriculum is internet based (no textbook at all). I provide what I can and the students work on the rest when they get back (district policy is they have the same number of days to make it up as they were out). I love hearing about the Disney trips my students take, and parents have even asked me tips about making their trip more enjoyable!

 

[Kath2003]

I just have a question.. who here is a teacher? and do you post during school time? Just wondering

I am.

Absolutely not.

Three reasons:

1. I can't get to any 'social' websites on the school network. Facebook, forums, even webmail sites are entirely blocked (and rightly so).

2. I would be fired for not doing my job. If I have a class in front of me, my responsibility is to them. Period.

3. I could, IF I wanted to, leave school during the lunch break and use the Internet elsewhere. I could also use my cell phone to access the internet at lunchtime. We are not paid during that time, so we are free to do so. I don't do so, because that is VALUABLE time for me to sit, relax and socialise with colleagues. Remember that I may spend all day around people, but socialising with adults is very different. Oh, and this is on the two lunchtimes a week when I'm not running an extra-curricular activity (for which I am not paid).

Believe me, I would love to have the time to sit down and browse the internet. I check the news website once a day if I'm lucky for relevant articles to show my students. That's about the extent of it.

This is the first time I have accessed the forum in three days because grading takes up my evenings.

 

[Colleen27]

Regarding all of the "my job won't let me vacaiton any other time." Have you considered that school is your child's job?

There is nothing wrong with ONLY taking quick weekend getaways. no child ever suffered because of it.

I have taken DD out of school twice for WDW. They were in elementary and middle school. No way would I even consider taking her out of high school. She has block scheduling and would have way too much work to make up. Totally not worth it. We informed the school and were aware of the consequences of missing school for a vacaiton. In our case there were none.

No, I don't consider school to be my kids job in a clock-punching sense. Education is my kids job, but education isn't limited to a classroom and they aren't falling behind for missing time out of their elementary school careers.

I've already said that I don't see us doing the same when the kids are in high school. DS might be able to manage it, but DD wants to go to the IB school in our county and that's too intensive a program to miss time. I'm hopeful that by then (6 years down the road) the economy will have rebounded some and DH will be better able to get away from his business during the summer; we just started the company in 2006 so we're still in that long hours, building a reputation/customer base stage, and this isn't easy time to be in residential construction.

 

[Colleen27]

Don't your children have some time off of school in the winter? Ours are off for Columbus Day in Oct, Veterans Day and 3 days for Thanksgiving in Nov, winter break at Christmas, MLK Day in Jan, Washington's Birthday or Presidents Day in Feb as well as a few institutes days thrown in as well.

We have a 4.5 day weekend at Thanksgiving and the usual Christmas break, plus a 3 day weekend for President's Day. Christmas is the only winter break long enough for real travel, and unfortunately, DS is with his father for most of the break. He goes to his dad's after our 2pm Christmas dinner, before his dad's family's 6pm Christmas dinner, and stays until NY Day. But since that means he is home every Christmas Eve and Morning, that's not a boat I'm going to rock, you know? Besides, with my ex working at a shop that is closed between the holidays, it is the only good, uninterrupted time he has to visit with DS; right now, his weekends are down to just Sunday with no overnights because he's working 3rd shift and has to work Fri & Sat nights.

We do what we can to match our travel to the kids' schedule, within the constraints we have with DH's business. We try to plan around those random half days and inservice days that crop up over the course of the year; our January dates, for example, are during a week when the kids have 2 full days, 2 half days, and a day off, so they're not missing 5 full days of class for a week long trip.

 

[Colleen27]

For us we visit WDW during the winter months mainly because it works for us. We don't enjoy the extreme heat during the summer. Also its much easier to get time off work in the winter. Besides we live in Michigan so its nice to get a break from all the snow and the cold for a week.

Wow, there are a lot of us Michigan folk weighing in on this one, aren't there?

 

[Mickeypooh99]

Wow, there are a lot of us Michigan folk weighing in on this one, aren't there?

It is soooo nice to leave the snow and ice behind in Michigan for a warm vacation.

 

[eliza61]

College and K-12 are not the same thing, and until we have compulsory college graduation for all students, the attendance policies at colleges are irrelevant.

The argument for making school aged children do unpleasant things because it will acclimate them to doing unpleasant things as an aduld makes no sense to me. Should my 8 year old have to pay taxes and get a colonoscopy because she'll have to do that at some time down the road?

No, but she should be made to do AGE APPROPRIATE things to PREPARE her for doing unpleasant things down the road.

So an 8 year old should be made to go to the doctors for vaccinations even though they hurt. So the message becomes you cannot avoid mandatory, neccessary things simple because you don't like them and then by the time they are 50 they will be able to prevent colon cancer because they learned not to avoid responsibility. Kids do not MAGICALLY pick up these traits, we teach them, age appropriate lessons.

And personally I think all kids should have to pay part of their allowance to the household. May help the enormous problem we now face of children having absolutely no clue how to manage their money and have 20K in cc debt before they hit 25 because no one wants to teach them the unpleasant thing of SAVING and not getting instant gratification.

 

[Pigeon]

No, but she should be made to do AGE APPROPRIATE things to PREPARE her for doing unpleasant things down the road.

So an 8 year old should be made to go to the doctors for vaccinations even though they hurt. So the message becomes you cannot avoid mandatory, neccessary things simple because you don't like them and then by the time they are 50 they will be able to prevent colon cancer because they learned not to avoid responsibility. Kids do not MAGICALLY pick up these traits, we teach them, age appropriate lessons.

And personally I think all kids should have to pay part of their allowance to the household. May help the enormous problem we now face of children having absolutely no clue how to manage their money and have 20K in cc debt before they hit 25 because no one wants to teach them the unpleasant thing of SAVING and not getting instant gratification.

I'd rather my kids actually had a childhood.

 

[Lionqueen2]

I have one problem with some of these arguments about vacations...mainly about yearly or sometimes twice a year trips.

Nobody needs to go to WDW every year. I understand the draw of it, believe me (19 trips in 20 years.....i really do understand). These people who are talking about family time adn WDW, get real. Family time does not have to be at WDW. Go away for the weekend somewhere closer to home. Have family game night, movie night. Go play mini golf, bowling, etc. WDW does not equal the only family time there is. If it does than there is something wrong right there and you have bigger issues to deal with than the teachers and taking your kids out of school for a week.

We did not go to WDW this year. Yes we did go to DL in june for 1 night and we are going again in oct. for 1 night but that's because we just moved to LA (it's like LA initiation to go a few weekends of the year) but thast not our only family time. My dad works insane hours. Leaves teh house at 6:15 AM and gets home around 7 PM eats dinner and goes to bed at 9. 5 days a week. He also travels 1 weeks out of every month. But you know what, our 2 trips to DL are not our only family time. We do simple things like go to the beach for a day, go into the city for the day and yes at 20 i still like spending time with my parents. My point is, quit the family time argument when it pertains to yearly WDW vacations.



When you have kids, you should understand that once they get to school there are rules to follow. If you choose not to follow them, your choice but face the consequences. Don't complain about the rules, son't complain that the teachers are not accomadating. Don't complain. You choose to have kids, you choose the jobs you have, you choose to go to WDW. It's choices and sometimes there are consequences.

This is a wonderful post.
After reading through this thread, I was beginning to think that the world had changed to see so many folks thinking of WDW as so important to family time and found that very sad. Family time to me involves spending time with your family. That might be shopping with your daughter, playing games with children, a picnic, working on a school project with a child or just sitting down to dinner and talking with each other. Giving each other time and attention is family time to me. To me, the best and most valuable 'family time' occurs in everyday life.
I love WDW, but don't really regard it as 'family time'. To me it is simply just a fun time with lots of attraction that are there to entertain and WDW does an excellent job of that.

 

[eliza61]

I'd rather my kids actually had a childhood.

I do to, I just actually believe it is possible to have a childhood and learn old fashion things like respect and responsibility at the same time.
So when you leave childhood (which as far as I know every one must do) you are actually equiped with these important attributes.
I didn't know teaching children priorities and responsibility meant they were some how denied a childhood. Wow and we wonder why our young adults are so screwed.

This is a wonderful post.
After reading through this thread, I was beginning to think that the world had changed to see so many folks thinking of WDW as so important to family time and found that very sad. Family time to me involves spending time with your family. That might be shopping with your daughter, playing games with children, a picnic, working on a school project with a child or just sitting down to dinner and talking with each other. Giving each other time and attention is family time to me. To me, the best and most valuable 'family time' occurs in everyday life.
I love WDW, but don't really regard it as 'family time'. To me it is simply just a fun time with lots of attraction that are there to entertain and WDW does an excellent job of that.

Well said LionQueen,
Isn't it sad that nowaday, Disney is placed as a priority above all else.

 

[sbell111]

Well said LionQueen,
Isn't it sad that nowaday, Disney is placed as a priority above all else.

It might just be because we are discussing the issue on a Disney dicsussion forum.

 

[Colleen27]

I do to, I just actually believe it is possible to have a childhood and learn old fashion things like respect and responsibility at the same time.
So when you leave childhood (which as far as I know every one must do) you are actually equiped with these important attributes.
I didn't know teaching children priorities and responsibility meant they were some how denied a childhood. Wow and we wonder why our young adults are so screwed.

I don't think the problems in America today have anything to do with involved parents placing family time/vacation above perfect attendance. There are so many larger problems in our culture, not the least of which is the "That's the way it is, just live with it" mentality that teaches young people that they are powerless to affect real change in the systems that they participate in.

Well said LionQueen,
Isn't it sad that nowaday, Disney is placed as a priority above all else.

It might just be because we are discussing the issue on a Disney dicsussion forum.

Exactly. This is a Disney forum, after all, and still I've yet to see anyone putting Disney "above all else". Putting it above perfect attendance, certainly, but not above the things that really matter like education and family.