# Solar eclipse versus first day of kindergarten. Which wins?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [June 27, 2017, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973 "2017-06-27T04:20:48Z")
**Posts on this page:** 12
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/41 "2017-06-27T18:58:53Z")
> [@Spiderman](#):
>
> You mean like taking their kid out of his first day of school ever? First day of third grade, different story, but first day ever? I’m in the minority here, but my kid would go to school. There will be other eclipses, even if one has to travel farther, like Asia or Africa to see them.
Not only do I have no memory of my first day of kindergarten, I also have no memory of children’s first day. There are tons of school days in that kid’s future, and–in my view–nothing at all “special” about the first one.
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### Author:  [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/42 "2017-06-27T19:12:27Z")
School is for nerds. Besides, what’s the little chillin gonna learn that it’ll need to know when it’s an adult. Kindergarten is just state sponsored daycare.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/43 "2017-06-27T19:34:47Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#):
>
> School is for nerds. Besides, what’s the little chillin gonna learn that it’ll need to know when it’s an adult. Kindergarten is just state sponsored daycare.
Not anymore. If special snowflake doesn’t go to the right pre-school (much less the right kindergarten), he might as well write off an Ivy League education! 😉
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### Author:  [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/44 "2017-06-27T19:54:43Z")
I have only this to say:
FUCK early “fall” semester in public schools!
Carry on!
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### Author:  [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/45 "2017-06-27T20:06:58Z")
Wrong thread!
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/46 "2017-06-27T20:22:02Z")
I don’t have kids of my own, but if I did, there’s no way I’d let anything stand in the way of their education. Not even school.
There is no possible way that he would learn more in one day of school than he would by watching an eclipse with his own eyes.
To all of the folks talking about all of the things that go on at the first day of school: Do you think that the OP is the only one in the country considering this same question? I wouldn’t be surprised if half of the kids in the class are absent on Eclipse Day. The teacher is going to have to go over all of those things again the very next day, anyway.
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### Author:  [@Eonwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eonwe)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/47 "2017-06-27T20:22:51Z")
Ditto that all things being equal, ask the kid.
I will add though, that all the ‘pooh-pooh’-ing of the 1st day of kindergarten based on personal lack of recollection of your own 1st day is a pretty empty reason to make the choice.
There are plenty of things I remember and don’t remember from my childhood, and they may or may not have been moments that my parents or school or whomever else felt were really important.
Driving with my family to see an eclipse might have been awesome . . . or might not have been, depending. There’s a lot of “I, as an adult, think this would be totally sweet, and imagine 5 year old me would also totally dig it, therefore of course this would be a momentous moment in a kid’s life!” going on.
My first thought on this was that missing the first day of kindergarten, in a new building with a brand new set of peers has a lot of potential to make a kid feel like an outsider right from day one (or two), and/or other kids to treat them as one. The potential benefit of seeing an eclipse from an ideal vantage point is eclipsed (heh) by the potential negative of creating a first day ever of school that sets up my kid for some potential anxiety and social challenges.
But again, if I thought that seeing the eclipse was truly an important opportunity and the kid was sharp and together, I’d ask them what they wanted.
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### Author:  [@Jumpbass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jumpbass)
#### Post date: [June 27, 2017, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/48 "2017-06-27T23:07:21Z")
> [@Jophiel](#):
>
> It’s kindergarten. He’s not going to the bathroom by himself, he’s going when the class bathroom break happens. And he’s not wandering unsupervised looking for the restroom anyway since he’s five years old. He’ll learn his teacher’s name at the orientation they always have before the first day of class. There is no “paperwork” because it’s kindergarten. The rules will be helpfully written on a big board and spoken day after day after day since, one again, it’s kindergarten.
>
> In fact, when my kids started kindergarten, you were supposed to take your “First Day” photos the day before at the orientation and parent greeting event since the school really didn’t want to hold up for an hour while every mommy and daddy tried to get photos of their little darling’s first steps inside the school and standing next to the sign and waving to mom, etc.
>
> “My parents let me stay home so we could take a trip to see the eclipse. It was super cool and the sun turned off during the day and it won’t happen again for years and years and years there were tons of people and we stopped for ice cream”.
“…and I found a cool stick.”
Well, looks like your kindergarten does things differently than ours did. I guess we’ll just have to check back in twenty years and see if he’s studying astronomy or severely traumatized from a bad start at school.😃
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### Author:  [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2017, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/49 "2017-06-28T01:38:17Z")
> [@panache45](#):
>
> The eclipse. Definitely. There will always be another day of kindergarten, but there may never be another eclipse this close to you.
>
> Watch the weather forecast. If it’s gonna be cloudy, the kid goes to school.
There will be another in the eastern US in 2024.
But life is uncertain, I’d go for the eclipse.
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/50 "2017-06-28T01:58:09Z")
The first day fall semester at my college is the day of the eclipse. I already told my dean that I won’t hold classes that day (we’ll have an on-line assignment about the syllabus). I’ve told my summer students to skip classes that day; even though we’re driving about six hours to totality, they should make the trip.
We’re taking our six-year old granddaughter with us to view it; she won’t be in school yet that week. She just got back from a week at Walt Disney World, which was great, but she’s REALLY looking forward to the eclipse. She’ll have some great “how I spent my summer vacation” stories.
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### Author:  [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2017, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/51 "2017-06-28T15:58:52Z")
I’m swimming against the current here, but first day of kindergarten.
There will be other total eclipses in the United States, notably [this one less than 7 years from now](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024).
But kindergarten is now what first grade was when I was a kid: the beginning of real school. There’s only one first day of that, ever. If it was any other grade level, I’d go for the eclipse. But not for his first day of school in his life.
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### Author:  [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)
#### Post date: [June 28, 2017, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/solar-eclipse-versus-first-day-of-kindergarten-which-wins/789973/52 "2017-06-28T16:02:26Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#):
>
> I’m swimming against the current here, but first day of kindergarten.
>
> There will be other total eclipses in the United States, notably [this one less than 7 years from now](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_eclipse_of_April_8,_2024).
>
> But kindergarten is now what first grade was when I was a kid: the beginning of real school. There’s only one first day of that, ever. If it was any other grade level, I’d go for the eclipse. But not for his first day of school in his life.
I can see downplaying the eclipse. I think it’s pretty cool, but reasonable minds can differ. I don’t get the “first day of school” worship, though. What, exactly, is going to be that different for the “first day of school in his life” if it happens one day later?
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