**help** He said what??? Cancel?

[Velvetwater]

That's part of the job. Not any different then a student being sick and needing to make work up. If she doesn't like it she can chose a new profession.

 

I have two friends that are teachers, one for over 20 years. And neither have an issue with kids getting pulled out of school for family vacations. In fact one of them is missing school due to a vacation of her own, only three work days but still out of the classroom.

 

Jmediii is perfectly right.

 

There are people out there that need to respect teachers more and think about how taking their child out of school effects things. Our headteacher (and many others within the county) will not allow teachers to set work for holidays as it takes time away from the other 29 in our classes whos parents keep them in school.

 

She often says (paraphrased) to parents 'I will not authorise this holiday or expect my staff to set work, you should carefully see what your child is doing in class and plan the work for them accordingly while you are away'. I work in a school where this is a regular occurrence due to most of our families being from Pakistan and children are taken to their parents' country for 2 months at a time.

 

In the UK a teacher taking a holiday in school time (except extenuating circumstances like a funeral etc) would be given a written warning. I would never dream of taking time off for a holiday so maybe its not Jmedii's wife that needs a new profession but your friend if she does not take it seriously. I hate it when I am out for a course and my class are taught by someone else.

 

Teachers are in their jobs because they care about kids and their education, not to pander to every parents demand. If I gave in to every fussy request this year I would have no time to teach/plan anything.

Edited April 14, 2014 by Velvetwater

[dljones]

I'm a teacher… I say take him with you! Really, kids learn so much more in a week traveling than they would a week in the classroom… sure he might have a couple of math papers to make up or something… But traveling is a wonderful teacher!!

 

 

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Me too... I totally agree. If fact, I might even go so far to say that he will learn/experience more in a week than an entire year in some classes. What about going over the Christmas break?

[silorchic]

As a teacher and a parent myself, I say take him out. Make it educational. Use a map and track your route, learn the native cultures and customs of the locals, what do they eat, wear, work etc. I could go on and on about ways to make it a learning environment. School take class trips all the time. This is the ultimate learning experience.

 

 

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[RoscoeJames]

With prices twice as expensive when school is on holiday we took our kids out the week after Thanksgiving twice when my oldest was 9 and 10 for Disney cruises. We could never have paid for a holiday or Summer cruise. After 6th grade we would not take him home out of school for that long. So I say do it now. They were two of my most memorable vacations.

 

He was a straight A student and my wife spent countless hours volunteering at his school. His teachers were more than happy to make accommodate him but I definitely can see the problem it can cause for teachers but at 9 years old he will be fine if a good student. You won't regret it.

 

 

Clay.

[jmediii]

That's part of the job. Not any different then a student being sick and needing to make work up. If she doesn't like it she can chose a new profession.

 

People like you are just one reason why teachers do not get the respect they deserve. Catering to parents like babysitters/daycare workers is not "part of the job".

 

It is, of course, different than a student being sick and to say otherwise is just daft. Being sick is spontaneous and presents a health issue for all that come in contact plus the student is not able to perform when sick.

 

Vacation is voluntary and planned in advance.

[jmediii]

jmediii is perfectly right.

 

There are people out there that need to respect teachers more and think about how taking their child out of school effects things. Our headteacher (and many others within the county) will not allow teachers to set work for holidays as it takes time away from the other 29 in our classes whos parents keep them in school.

 

She often says (paraphrased) to parents 'i will not authorise this holiday or expect my staff to set work, you should carefully see what your child is doing in class and plan the work for them accordingly while you are away'. I work in a school where this is a regular occurrence due to most of our families being from pakistan and children are taken to their parents' country for 2 months at a time.

 

In the uk a teacher taking a holiday in school time (except extenuating circumstances like a funeral etc) would be given a written warning. I would never dream of taking time off for a holiday so maybe its not jmedii's wife that needs a new profession but your friend if she does not take it seriously. I hate it when i am out for a course and my class are taught by someone else.

 

Teachers are in their jobs because they care about kids and their education, not to pander to every parents demand. If i gave in to every fussy request this year i would have no time to teach/plan anything.

 

 

+1.

[bwjj931]

We have cruised and vacationed many times while our kids were in school. It's a personal choice but we had no 2nd thoughts about them going during school. You only have a limited amount of those young years and memories are more important than anything in this world.

My boys were (23) and are (15) excellent students and usually doubled up on work the week before we went so they were free to enjoy the vacation. I never expected extra pressure to be put on their teacher catching them up as I felt that was my job if I was taking them out of class.

You don't want to wake up one day and wish you would've done this or that when your kids were "kids". Of course you can experience the beauty of a new location at any age but you can only see it through the eyes of your child for a tiny window in your life.

[Almost Packed]

Wow, I was off a few days and did not check this thread...even though I didn't want a debate over taking ds out of class...this thread was strictly about the ramifications of cancelling, being paid in full, upgrading, then no longer paid in full etc.

 

As far as the whole debate goes, I told dh that we are going on the cruise and ds will be going.

 

I talked to his teacher Friday night at the school carnival and she was very excited about him going. She has been his teacher for 2 years (they have a "move up" program) And she's amazing. She even told me that she thought it was great that we get to travel a lot with him. I even called my dh over to have her re state her opinion on taking DS out of school for the cruise and she said he would be fine and it's not a problem.

 

So, end of subject.

 

We will take him out of school. If they give him the work, great. If not, fine. He's 9. I'm not worried about his GPA in 3rd grade. I'm teaching him things too...he's not our running the street breaking laws. He's having family vacation...time with his family. He's learning lot's of things too. Some things you cannot learn from a book....no matter how smart some of you may think they are.

[Criticname]

Cancel and take the lose

[Granny1]

It seems like now days when you ask on here for information for some reason it does end up being a debate but I am so glad you came back here to let us know what was decided. I myself would not hesitate to take my child out of school for a family vacation and in fact we have and they have turned out quite well. Life alone is a learning lesson and being able to experience it in another country, he won't get that out of a book. So enjoy your family cruise and come back and tell us all about it.;)

[LC1968]

I'm glad you are going on the cruise together. Honestly, nothing kids do in fourth grade makes any difference as long as they can read and pass on to the next grade. At the time that my son was 9 I would have stressed out about it too, but now that he is in high school I laugh at my former self!

 

I took my son out of high school for a week because we were going on a 12-day trip to China that only partially coincided with Spring Break. He easily made up the work and I have no regrets; he will remember it forever.

[paradiscroozin]

I pulled my kids out of school for my cruise in January and it wasn't excused. I told them we would be going out of state and the school didn't care. I was a little irritated but creating memories on vacation is way more important than just another school day.

 

I would still do it again in a heartbeat. The kids had all their work and got it done so attendance wasn't a big deal to me.

 

It may be a disappointment to your son though, if you told him you guys were going on vacation and now all the sudden he's not able to go because of a condition he has no control over and the possibility of the missed days. It could make him feel bad. Because he has a chronic condition, all his absences should be excused, especially with a Dr.s note.

 

 

If you guys haven't told him though, just say it's an adult vacation and you guys will take him next time. I go on vacations with my kids and without. They don't mind.

[Need-a-vacation]

I didn't read all the replies, but I agree with those that suggest taking your son and just dealing with the school complications. At the very least, you have a while to make a decision.

 

My kids are in high school and college now and one of the things I really regret is that we didn't just go ahead and take the trips even if they had to miss school. We were borderline neurotic about never letting our kids miss school in elementary school and we look back and think "a week out of 4th grade would not have mattered as much as the experiences we didn't have together". Now, it really is difficult for them to miss and impossible to predict how critical a particular week may be more than a month in advance. And it probably won't be long that our older son may want to opt out of our family trips. :(

 

I hope everything works out so you can all go together!!