school vs disneyworld

[420WDW MONSTER]

i live in texas and school starts in aug. we are going to the world the last week of sept, i have custody of my 14 year old bro this will be his first year of high school. hes not the best student ....ok he doesnt get good grade but he trys....sometimes. we will be go from school for 5 days he can miss only 9 before he looses credit, hes never had a problem with attendance. my question is has anyone ever pulled thier kids out of school before? do i have to lie and say we have to vist our sick aunt or something.
this is the only time of year we can go
springbeak-too much money, husband can't get work off(plus star tours is closed)
summer-hotter and stickier than the devils ball sack!- husband cant get off work
winter break- way to much money! husband can't get off work
my husband is a chef in a tourist spot downtown san antonio and anytime anything is going on holidays and whenever kids out of school he has to work!

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

My kids all missed school because I had to take leave when Her Maj said it was OK and the schoo understood the situation. It didn't do them any harm as they were pretty thick to begin with.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

My kids all missed school because I had to take leave when Her Maj said it was OK and the schoo understood the situation. It didn't do them any harm as they were pretty thick to begin with.

I'm often left wondering what it would be like to be one of your children living in your household. :lol:

 

[Pumbas Nakasak]

It must be good cause I cant get rid of the buggers.

 

[Monty]

It must be good cause I cant get rid of the buggers.

Stop feeding them the good stuff.... :lookaroun

 

[sweetpee_1993]

It must be good cause I cant get rid of the buggers.

I think they're entertained so much they don't leave because they might miss a good punch line. :lol:

 

[heliumalias]

In school I was a straight A student and up until I was 11 (sorry unfamiliar with US grades) they would happily pull me out of school to go to WDW. Like many parents on here, mine were not always able to take time off work during school vacation periods. I can safely say it did not affect my education.

After 11 though the most I would ever miss would be the odd day at the end/beginning of a term (and those days would be non-teaching days).

At high school age I know I wouldn't have liked to have missed a week of school, PARTICULARLY at the beginning of a term/year.

If you're worried about how well he'll cope perhaps you could ask his old teachers for their advice.

The only reason I would personally pull kids out of school at that age would be if one of the family was terminally ill and it would be the last chance for a trip together (or a similar scenario).

 

[Phonedave]

Some thoughts on the subject


1) Yes it is your kid (or in this case your brother who you are guardian of) and the school cannot say if you can or cannot take him out of school. However the school can also fail him or hold him back. You play, you pay,

2) Different school districts have different policies. Some are more lenient that others. Not everything in life is fair - a good lesson to learn.

3) Again, not everything in life is fair. Sometimes you don't have enough vacation, sometimes you do. Sometimes you get to go to WDW when the weather is nice, other times Satan is wearing boxers. That's my opinion, not a hard and fast rule. Me, I am a "suck it up and deal with it" kind of guy. Others, different attitudes.

4) My opinion, school is important. As a kid it's your job. As a parent, having to make some adjustments because of school is part of the price you pay for having kids. Don't want to pay that price? Medical science is pretty sure they know what causes kids. Of course the OP is in a different situation.

5) I am not trying to put the OP down, but for someone to use a handle like 420_Monster on a WDW site, and to have the student in question not be a good student, at the start of High School - well, my gut feeling is telling me he needs to be in school. The OP is free to lead their own life of course, and if sparking one up is your favorite hobby then so be it. It also stinks that at the age of 16 you had to suck it up and become a parent to your siblings, but the truth is you now have responsibility for this young persons life, a life that probably already was traumatic and rough. Sometimes life just drops a steaming pile in your lap and you have to deal with it. Just to bring it around full circle (this is a WDW board after all) "All the adversity I've had in my life, all my troubles and obstacles, have strengthened me... You may not realize it when it happens, but a kick in the teeth may be the best thing in the world for you." - WD


All of the above is of course an opinion. You are free to consider it, ignore it, or call it a load of rubbish. I know what I would do with my kids (as it turn out, both - they missed school once and they hated it so much that I ended up moving a cruise I had booked, at an additional cost. It's a long story involving their mother moving and school calendars changing). What you do with your brother, or anyone else does for that matter, is up to them and is their right to do so.

-dave

 

[fbp]

mi mum tooked mme oot uf scool ever year sins grad 3 fer disneewurld and i'm fine

 

[sweetpee_1993]

mi mum tooked mme oot uf scool ever year sins grad 3 fer disneewurld and i'm fine

LOL! Now that there's funny!

 

[Mikester71]

It must be good cause I cant get rid of the buggers.

:ROFLOL:I hear ya on that!!!

 

[ConstanceIrene]

You made your decision before you posted this.

Everyone will have some kind of reason for or against taking a child out of school to go on vacation. Few children are an exception for allowing them to go on vacation.

Vacation is a privilage and not a right and should be used as a reward for good grades. Taking a kid out of school for vacation shows the child that school is second to leisure. And yes, I am going to say it....You might want to join him in school for a grammer class.

Agreed! It is, however, grammar class.

 

[lbrad]

I have taken my children out of elementary school twice for trips to WDW.
Both times they had "short" school weeks and only missed 2 - 3 days of classes. They faired well both times.
My oldest son had poor grades in high school so I NEVER took them out of school once they were in highschool.

 

[NewfieFan]

mi mum tooked mme oot uf scool ever year sins grad 3 fer disneewurld and i'm fine

:roflol:

 

[slappy magoo]

At the risk of getting all "ABC After School Special" on the thread, if the OP is serious about trying to do what's right for the kid...

With all due respect, your post was a nightmare to read. Normally, I don't give a rat's ______ - it's the internet, not Honors English. But when someone with such poor writing skills asks whether or not it's a good idea to pull her brother - who's ALSO a poor student - out of school for a Disney trip, my immediate reaction was "Hell, no, chain him to the desk and make sure he's a straight A student before he ever is even allowed to see daylight, much less a Fastpass attraction! It's the only chance he has!" But then I put the snark aside and thought, maybe this could be a good experience for all of you...

So what I'd suggest is, make the trip, but be on him to do his homework like white on rice every day between today and the day of the trip. Slacking off will not be tolerated. Skipping school will not be tolerated. Make sure he does the work. Go over it with him. Learn it with him. And act like a mom that cares if he starts slacking off. Within a few weeks, you should be able to tell whether or not he's serious about being a student, doing what it takes not only to go to WDW but to make you happy in general. If you make it clear that his doing well in school is important to YOU - the person who is now probably THE most important person in his life - that's going to carry some weight. If you try to do the work with him (NOT for him), it would show some serious character and may influence him to work that much harder. Be involved with his teachers, make sure THEY know you give a rat's ***, and will lean on him to get stuff done. Because unlike the Ph.D. holder (who apparently doesn't know how to spell "ma'am"), I feel that working hard in school is important, even if you learn nothing important, because a good school and a dedicated parent (or parental figure) can help a student learn how to think, critically, logically, analytically. The brain's a muscle, exercising it's important.

So show him you're serious about his education, even though you'd also like to have some special memories with him that school can not provide by going to WDW. Make him work hard and help him out as much you can and the best you can. And keep it up during and certainly after the trip. Hopefully that will yield some obvious dividends, now and going forward.

All this is written under the assumption that you really wanted advice, and not just people giving you an okey-dokey, to a decision you already made, to make you feel better about it. If my assumption is wrong, please disregard my well-meaning, earnest, heartfelt advice and GO! Have a GREAT TIME! School Schmool, when you can go to WDW nothing else matters! :wave:

 

[EvilQueen-T]

some schools will do prearranged absences and have them do the work either before you leave or due when you get back or within a certain number of days.

and yes it's hot and super humid here at that time of year so plan on hitting those water parks while you're here.

make sure the kid(s) understand that they can't miss any time from school before/after the trip and that the grades have to stay up. maybe figure out some form of incentive if needed above and beyond the trip or as part of the trip that's something he/she specifically would work harder to be able to do.

 

[flavious27]

At the risk of getting all "ABC After School Special" on the thread, if the OP is serious about trying to do what's right for the kid...

With all due respect, your post was a nightmare to read. Normally, I don't give a rat's ______ - it's the internet, not Honors English. But when someone with such poor writing skills asks whether or not it's a good idea to pull her brother - who's ALSO a poor student - out of school for a Disney trip, my immediate reaction was "Hell, no, chain him to the desk and make sure he's a straight A student before he ever is even allowed to see daylight, much less a Fastpass attraction! It's the only chance he has!" But then I put the snark aside and thought, maybe this could be a good experience for all of you...

So what I'd suggest is, make the trip, but be on him to do his homework like white on rice every day between today and the day of the trip. Slacking off will not be tolerated. Skipping school will not be tolerated. Make sure he does the work. Go over it with him. Learn it with him. And act like a mom that cares if he starts slacking off. Within a few weeks, you should be able to tell whether or not he's serious about being a student, doing what it takes not only to go to WDW but to make you happy in general. If you make it clear that his doing well in school is important to YOU - the person who is now probably THE most important person in his life - that's going to carry some weight. If you try to do the work with him (NOT for him), it would show some serious character and may influence him to work that much harder. Be involved with his teachers, make sure THEY know you give a rat's ***, and will lean on him to get stuff done. Because unlike the Ph.D. holder (who apparently doesn't know how to spell "ma'am"), I feel that working hard in school is important, even if you learn nothing important, because a good school and a dedicated parent (or parental figure) can help a student learn how to think, critically, logically, analytically. The brain's a muscle, exercising it's important.

So show him you're serious about his education, even though you'd also like to have some special memories with him that school can not provide by going to WDW. Make him work hard and help him out as much you can and the best you can. And keep it up during and certainly after the trip. Hopefully that will yield some obvious dividends, now and going forward.

All this is written under the assumption that you really wanted advice, and not just people giving you an okey-dokey, to a decision you already made, to make you feel better about it. If my assumption is wrong, please disregard my well-meaning, earnest, heartfelt advice and GO! Have a GREAT TIME! School Schmool, when you can go to WDW nothing else matters! :wave:

Every state should have a jersey week where their respective teachers unions have a workshop in the fall or winter months.

 

[WDW FTW]

LET HIM RIDE! LET HIM RIDE! LET HIM RIDE!

~~~Seriously though, give the kid some time off, itll be fun.

 

[sweetpee_1993]

Every state should have a jersey week where their respective teachers unions have a workshop in the fall or winter months.

No, everywhere we've lived (Louisiana & Texas) workshops are generally done during regular breaks like maybe over the summer. There's no extra week off like Jersey week. :wave:

 

[flavious27]

No, everywhere we've lived (Louisiana & Texas) workshops are generally done during regular breaks like maybe over the summer. There's no extra week off like Jersey week. :wave:

This would be a good reason for it, that and the beach resort areas would have some customers in their off-season.

 

[fosse76]

I've pulled my kids from school all through every grade, For 5 days I see no reason why, our school district allows 5 "unexcused days" for vacations and such. Disney is a learning experience. My kids all had to write reports on what they learned. My children's grades never suffered, I think it is common nowadays for families to take vacations during the school year. Enjoy !

I'm sorry, but I can't let that pass. Disney is NOT a learning experience, by ANY stretch of the imagination. I'd learn more about China from Wikipedia than I would by visiting the China pavillion at Epcot. And by pulling kids out of class, you are creating a bad precedent with them for college, where the consequences are more severe (college professors are known to fail students who miss so much as ONE class). And simply continuing to make good grades is inconsequential, and I'll give an example. They simply just might not be tested on the material they missed immediately, so their grades won't suffer, but future need of the material may hurt them.

When I was in high school, I missed a couple of days of school (don't remember why). That week, in my algebra 2 class, the teacher taught matrices. When I returned, they had already moved on. Matrices weren't really needed for any additional material we were learning beyond it, and the test only had one question about it, so my grades never suffered. Guess what? When I got to college, it came up both in my chemistry courses and my advanced calculus courses. I was so lost I spent days trying to learn them to no avail. Some concepts just can't be learned from textbooks, and many teachers test from material taught in class. Textbooks are an aide, not the entire course. Sometimes further explanation/exploration is required.

That was just a specific example, and by no means indicative of everyone. But it illustrates that missing school and maintaining good grades could cause missed learning opportuniites. Not to mention, you are imposing an increased workload on your child/ren. They now have to study harder/longer to make up missed material, often in a shorter amount of time. But it also depends on the coursework. History, English, literature, etc. are much easier to miss out on than math, science and foreign language classes.