I just saw an interesting post on my Facebook newsfeed: there was a mother looking for a way to craft a note so that she could try to argue with the school that a vacation to Disney World should be an excused absence, and that there are tons of educational opportunities within the Disney Parks.
It aggravates me that we, as parents, as a society, have handed over so much control to the government, and thereby the public school system, that we now have to justify why we want to do something with our own children. It feels almost as if a parent wanting to take their child to Disney World is viewed the same as a parent who is burning their kids with cigarettes and blacking out their eyes. They act like you are abusing your children if you plan a vacation during the school year, and they will, in many counties, get CPS and the courts involved for truancy.
I am not saying that school is not important, but I would go as far as to say that school THINKS it’s the most important thing in the universe, and it is certainly not. There are other things to experience in life, aside from 9 hours of daily schooling and homework, as a child. If anything, I would suggest that schooling often cripples a child’s ability to learn and be creative, as I have seen with my own daughter and this Common Core nonsense, where she’s afraid to attempt to sound of words, because it’s not allowed in school. I’m sorry, but who decided that 6 year old children should memorize words instead of learn to read them phonetically? That’s stupid, and it may create a generation of semi-illiterate citizens who can’t read any words that weren’t on their charts growing up. It’s like telling kids to memorize the times tables without explaining to them how they work – it becomes damaging when you get into higher mathematics.
I’m not sure how we’re letting all this happen, and how parents aren’t storming their local school boards with torches and pitch forks, demanding that the students learning be placed above textbook companies lobbying for curriculum changes. I’m also not sure why a parent can be outranked by a public school employee in terms of how they choose to raise their children. Why do I even need to ask the school for permission to take my child to flipping Walt Disney World? And why do they get the right to tell me “no,” threaten to get CPS involved for missing school, and/or not allow my children to make up a test that occurred during their absence if they choose to frivolously label that absence as “unexcused?”
I remember K-12 very clearly. I remember being told non-stop by my parents and teachers that school and the education I would get there was more important than anything else. So, I bought into what I was sold. I always studied hard, did extra-credit, even if I didn’t need it, and I never really had a social life, nor did I ever participate in extra-curriculars, all because I believed that academia was all that mattered. I went to college with the same mindset, graduated with a 3.8 GPA, and, ultimately, I ended up with a mountain of debt and not a single job offer to date that would provide me with a liveable wage. Between my husband and myself (both of us with 4 year degrees, plus grad school for me) we don’t even make enough money to be required to make payments on our student loans, and we’re almost 5 years out of college! I see things more clearly now, in hindsight, and had I focused more on making friends than getting straight A’s, I might have connections and contacts to help me get good job interviews over being a socially awkward mess.
So, my children will miss 4 days of school this year for pre-planned weekend vacations, and, I refuse to tell their school anything other than both my kids feel “sick” on those day. I would love to tell them that we are participating in a sea turtle conservation project, or going to the Smithsonian, or participating in a Run Disney race, but, if I do that, then I have a battle on my hands. A battle where I have to argue and justify and meet ridiculous standards to get approval, all because my kids are more of a dollar sign than people, and if they miss school, the school doesn’t get paid. It becomes so much easier to fake a 24 hour bug than to explain that you want your children to experience life, not spend all of it cramped up into textbooks.
And, yes, I’m aware that I could do certain vacations while school is out, but do you know what a nightmare that is? In many cases, the no-school-day is a national holiday, which means everything but retail places are closed. MMMM, so much delicious education to be found at Walmart! Then you have the Summer break, which, if you want to go anywhere, you’ll be fighting monstrous heat and crowds. So I can go to the Smithsonian in July, when there are hundreds of people crammed into each exhibit and my short, little children can’t see or enjoy a thing, or I can go in mid-October where there are maybe twenty people hanging around the museum, along with a school tour or two, and we can actually experience and enjoy the place.
How about any of you guys? Have you taken your kids out of school for a life experience and said they were sick? Do you have to fight with your school to get vacation time excused? Do you think it’s too much power for a government office to have over a family?
Trying to Mom 