You have coaching sessions every day? And for how long? Eh, I would not sign my kid up for something that was significantly less than 180 days if I knew they were going to miss 3 consecutive sessions of it, I agree that’s a little bonkers.
But also: before the pandemic, we also took the kids out of school for the 2017 eclipse, so… I guess we just have always valued eclipses more than school. If it makes you feel any better, we won’t be traveling for an eclipse again for the next nine years. I kind of feel like missing school once every seven-to-nine years is OK.
Almost every day, but with different groups, so in your scenario, they would be missing only one session. Not catastrophic, I guess but of course I’d still mark them as absent without a valid excuse.
Missing three days for an eclipse once every seven - nine years is fine. The problem is the people whose kids will miss three days ( or a week ) for the eclipse , start and/or end most vacations a couple of days early because travel is easier/ cheaper , then take a week off in October because Disney is cheaper then . And they are still absent other days for illnesses (which of course they should)
But also I am pretty sure they won’t be missing much
I think that is a large part of the problem. To say it’s worth missing whatever they will be missing because it’s important to see the eclipse or to go to cousin Daisy’s wedding in Hong Kong is one thing. To say they “won’t be missing much” sort of implies that the teacher and classmates add no value and the kids could learn just as well home alone in front of a computer or with an old-fashioned workbook. I’m not saying that’s what you believe but it’s definitely what someone could take away from that statement if there’s no smiley.
My students (university) frequently ask “did I miss anything?” when they’ve missed class. Drives me up a wall. What’s new is that they now expect me to provide them with lecture notes or a digest or something, which I emphatically refuse to do.
I get not wanting consequences, but the expectation seems to be that they should have accommodations for whatever they desire. This isn’t a majority but it’s a growing minority over the last couple of years.
Unfortunately, this is also a takeaway I got from the pandemic. I didn’t realize this before the pandemic, but it turns out that when my kids are out of school for a few days they actually accomplish more in many subjects (math, grammar, reading comprehension, writing if I’m willing to fight for it) with me than when they’re in school. The big value of school (academically – of course socioemotionally it’s extremely important!) for us is that a) kids fight less with people who aren’t their parents b) the teachers have follow-through and will have them study subjects over months and the whole school year, which is annoying for me to have to maintain, and c) perhaps most importantly, the discussion interactions (which bleeds into socioemotional learning, of course). (**) But for a few days, it’s no problem for me to have them work on their school assignments, answer any questions they have, and provide enrichment for them.
(**) Except for math, where my younger child, as far as I can tell from talking to him and browsing his assignments, has not learned a single thing in school this year. Everything he’s learned this year has been either from books he’s read, taught to him by me, or through doing problems on the computer. I really hope he gets the better math teacher next year.
This being said, I’m pretty sure I’m on the far end of parents, at least at our school, in having a very good handle on what my kids are doing, looking at their assignments to see if/what they are learning, and supplementing if/when I find deficits. Most parents I know don’t keep tabs on this as much and/or don’t have the pedagogical skills/resources to supplement.