My initial reaction was to go up to school and take a big 
on teacherâs desk, but after being in this community for a little while,Iâve been changed. How about getting teacher a MVMCP shirt. Sometimes being nice to an A-hole is best revenge.
7 Likes
Wow. As I was reading through the thread, I thought how lucky I felt to have my children attend a private school where they donât have to deal with stupidity like this. So I was surprised when I read it is a private school (I feel like our public schools here would be more likely to do ridiculous things like this).
Iâm sorry you had to change your vacation plans, but I understand not wanting to start a battle that could impact your sonâs high school career.
2 Likes
My kids are also in private (Catholic) schools. Years ago we returned from my 3rd grader at the timeâs birthday trip to WDW at about noon. We had gotten up at 4 am to catch an early flight, but since school was in session we sent our kids back to school for the afternoon. My DSâs 3rd grade teacher made him take 3 tests that afternoon that he had missed while gone, some of it over material covered while he was away when she would not give him the homework in advance. And of course he did not do well. We were livid! And made a point of not having that teacher for subsequent siblings. Now with kids in private elementary and high schools, we will take the elementary kids out for vacation (other teachers have been helpful and understanding). But the high schoolâs policy discourages it, not guaranteeing that work can be made up, so we just donât take the high schoolers during school time. Thus our separate big kid/little kid trips recently.
Teacher here - one very simple question I would ask of the principal:
If my student gets a 0% on a project because of an attendance policy, how exactly does that grade represent what they know?
After all, your studentâs science grade should reflect how much science knowledge and/or how many science skills your student has mastered. Behavior and work habits should be reflected in comments, recommendations, or separate grades based on standards related to work habits (which is what we do where I teach). If the academic standard is âstudent can cite evidence to support analysis of a primary or secondary sourceâ (history teacher here), and the student can do that, they should receive a grade reflecting that, regardless of whether the project was late, early, or whatever. Document the âlack of responsibilityâ in a different way - donât skew the academic grade.
ETA: especially when many many many students donât have control over things like their absences
12 Likes
That could be true if all grades are weighted the same. In my experience with my childrenâs teachers, thatâs not usually the case. Tests are weighted the heaviest, with quizzes next. Homeworks and labs are typically weighted less and have less of an impact on the overall grade. One thing to worry about with labs is that enough of them are completed to meet testing requirements. Our school doubles up on the labs so that even if kids miss some, it does not impact their ability to take the state exams.
1 Like
How unfortunate! Definitely a teacher on a power trip, and as a former teacher, drives me nuts!
Seems like your making the best out of a bad situation!! And hey, today you will all be in Disney by tonight so thatâs exciting!
Enjoy your trip!
5 Likes
I want to give you an appropriate side hug and many high fives.
2 Likes
While the teacher appears to have control issues, I canât help but wonder⊠how long are the winter breaks, spring breaks, and summer breaks? Are there no other times to schedule Disney trips, or is that particular time â which requires an absence â the only time one can go?
Itâs not as if schools are in session 24/7.
Most districts have about 180-185 school days a year, give or take snow days & days when terrorists fly planes into buildings & the like.
You usually only get a few longer breaks (spring, Thanksgiving and Christmas) then you get a few Mondayâs or Tuesdayâs off here and there but itâs usually just a day. Since itâs way too hot to go in the summer, that doesnât leave a lot of options.
2 Likes
Weâve typically gone at Thanksgiving and missed a few days. Itâs b/c Xmas and Spring Break are the worst crowd times to go and summer is too hot, just like you said. Thanksgiving is the only way we can get decent weather and bad, but not out of control, crowds (although this yearâs crowds were much worse than I remembered).
In NYC this year (and this is a typical year), they have off June 29-Sept 4, Sept 28-Oct 1, Nov 28-Dec 1, Dec 21-Jan 1, Feb 15-23, April 9-19, and high schools have regents week Jan 18-27 during a time when a vast majority of students arenât even taking regents, theyâre only for kids who failed previously & need to make them up.
It seems to me that pulling kids out of school, rather than dealing with a little summer heat, or crowds (something that touring plans mitigates) doesnât make sense, given how much time kids have off from school. Iâve done Spring Break & Winter Break numerous times using touring plans and didnât have any waits longer than 15 minutes for anything, and this was before FPP even. Of course, one has to be willing to get up early, but those spring break 7am EMHs were golden.
School break calendars vary widely. Most of those breaks you list arenât given to my kids. The only time we have more than a 3 day weekend is summer, spring break (ours is tied into Easter), winter breakâall extremely crowded WDW times (except summer in recent years since they blocked it out from some of the APs). Since we have to travel from far away itâs not feasible to go over a 3 day break. The Thanksgiving we used is only a little better than a 3 day break. The Easter time we get off is blocked out from the WDW military discount b/c they know so many people come then; so is the entire winter break. That only leaves summer which for me is typically a no go b/c I canât take the heat.
1 Like
Does your school year go beyond 180 days? I think my state laws on attendance are so strict because students have more days out of school than in school. Of course all school districts and states are not the same.
1 Like
I think teachers (and administrations) often fail to consider if they are actually teaching the lessons they intend to. I remember an report/essay I had to write in 7th grade. Overall, it was pretty darn good for a 7th grader. Iâd even spent that summer taking a correspondence course in writing to improve my writing skills. Graded 97/100, with the only points marked down being for misspelling a word. Only, it wasnât misspelled, it was a Ukranian word with multiple acceptable anglicized spellings. And I could even provide the reference book I used in writing the report to prove it. The teacher wouldnât budget on the score, even after being forced by my parents (and the vice principal) to admit there was no error. His justification was that he âdidnât give 100s, because then students would have no motivation to try to improveâ. The lesson I actually learned was 'it doesnât matter how hard you try or how much work you do, itâs all arbitrary. Donât bother trying for perfect, just do the barely acceptable." I skated by the rest of my academic career writing papers the night before they were due (including 15 page college research papers).
7 Likes
Our schools go about 180 days and we have some school breaks. They allow 5 educational days as well, which is what we use to pull our kids out of school. We are going to Disney the week before Memorial Day and they are missing 4 1/2 days. Educational trips are pretty common across the board, so no one thinks much of it. And we choose times where there is no testing and when the kids arenât doing a ton of work. So I think this all varies state to state and school to school.
Iâve never experienced (as a kid who moved a lot ::military dad:: or as a parent) a school district with more than 2 breaks that were a week+ long - Winter/Christmas break and spring break. Plus, not everyoneâs work schedules are super flexible and allow vacations that align with longer school breaks.
Crowds arenât the only problems with busy times, prices are also higher. Not just for direct WDW costs (tickets, hotels), but flights/rental cars/etc.
We pulled our kids for a week when they were in elementary with no regrets, and our district allows it. Now that the oldest is in middle school, I wouldnât pull for more than 2 days for a family vacation. But I donât judge others who do. They know what works best for their families.
4 Likes
Wholeheartedly agree. After more than one similar situation in school I also backed off academically. Whatâs even more unfortunate is that Iâve never noticed how my grades in public school impacted my adult life. Actually havenât noticed it with any other family members either.
We had a big family trip in September with two of our great granddaughters missing a day of school. Naturally their parents got the talk of irresponsibly missing school. I canât think anybody in the future is going to ask about a day missed in second or third grade.
We had a similar situation with a grandson in his senior year - missing a day or two for a trip to WDW. In this case it the principal - well . . . I have no adjectives for this guy except he probably makes the OPâs teacher look like Mother Theresa - who was saying no makeup for an unexcused absence and NO family trip is excused. So the teachers made sure they assigned all his work before he left with nothing due until he returned. Principal was not happy.
In the OPs case, if I were the student, Iâd ask my parents to keep the trip as planned, accept the 0 (I still have the knowledge) and make sure my subsequent grades were such that the jerk HAD to give me an A for the year.
1 Like
Yes itâs 180 days. And no flexibility at all. Any sort of unexcused absence is frowned upon. The one I worry about all the time is what if an extended family member passes away. Travel for that is unexcused unless they live in the same house with you which makes no sense to me at all. Since weâre military all of our family are far away and many beloved relatives are becoming elderly. This is part of why I donât take the kids out of school for a week at a time for optional vacations. I want to have the goodwill of the school in case they have to miss the better part of a week for a funeral. Much more âexcusableâ if you havenât already missed a lot of days for vacation.
Thatâs insane. Parents should really protest that.
2 Likes
The federal government (under ESSA) has indicators each department of education can identify for accountability. In my state, student attendance is an indicator.
1 Like