I am pulling my daughter out of school for three days in march. its her senior year - she only has one major class - teacher aid, PE classes.... so she will not be missing alot of instruction. she has been told to let her teachers know she will be gone and to make up any and all work, including particpation points.

as a teacher I had students pulled out for travel. I have a bear they took on trips and then did a report to the class and any assignments that they missed.

there is so much to learn from travel and sometimes we have to take advantage of it.

I teach high school in an area with many students whose families are from far-away countries.

We have students miss two or three weeks of school to go back to India, Korea, Vietnam, Pakistan, etc for family events. When the parents are paying so much for airline tickets, of course they want to stay awhile.

Generally, the students do a great job of working with the teachers to do work while they are gone and keep up with their classes. We can do a great deal with Blackboard.com and email to help them keep in touch, and most of the kids use the long plane rides to do all their required reading.

We also have families that get deals and take kids out for great travel experiences. Again, as long as the families work with us to plan how the students will keep up with their work, I think it is fine in moderation.

Is it a perfect situation? Of course not, but what is? Will they miss some of my incredible wisdom and dynamic classroom experiences? Sure. But...in the grand scheme of their lives, is visiting another culture more important as a life lesson? Yes, 100%.

(Of course, I don't consider Disney a life lesson, except maybe in consumerism, but that's my opinion.)

The kids come back with a greater sense of the world and themselves, and they learn about responsibility and self-advocacy as they make arrangements to stay on track academically. They are able to make meaningful connections to their studies. For example, one of my AP Literature students just took a week off to go to Ireland. He read Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man as his independent reading and researched James Joyce.

So, I am in favor of allowing families a bit of leeway in taking their kids out to travel.

Blueswimmer, I agree with everything you said, and wish all teachers could be as reasonable...I think not all school districts allow the kind of flexibility you seem to have.

Our older son has missed the last week of school twice now to allow us to travel to Scotland. Both times the timing was determined by work-related obligations my husband had. And the last week of school is really a 'throwaway' anyway, as sandals pointed out.

During the year is a tougher question because of our state's emphasis on standardized testing. I think it would be stressful for both him and his teacher for him to miss time in the weeks leading up to the all-important FCAT. (I am being sarcastic about the importance of FCAT, but not about the stress.) That doesn't mean it will never happen, just that it would really have to be an extraordinary opportunity for us to take him out mid-year. (Disney, definitely not.)

Our school district has a policy in place regarding approved absences, so I would just add to the list of "tips" to be sure that you are complying with any school- or district-wide policies in addition to making up work in your child's classroom.

BlueSwimmer- great post....thank you for presenting such a balanced perspective.