For many years I’ve written about the key to getting the most out of miles and points is having some flexibility. If you can only take a certain flight on a specific day, you’ll take or leave what’s available. But if you can shift your plans and take advantage of the awards that are available, when they come up, you can get orders of magnitude greater value – business and first class for the same price as coach, international long haul for the same price as domestic.
That’s because airlines are often making seats available on points that they don’t expect to sell for cash. And these spare seats aren’t likely to be on offer when everyone else wants to travel. That’s one of the reasons I’m a huge fan of ‘shoulder season’ where it’s great to visit a destination but there aren’t as many people there. The visit is more enjoyable, and it’s much less expensive too.
We don’t talk enough about how much difficulty families with children have in making this happen. I have a daughter who is five now so it’s very much top of mind for me. Planning ahead, I can take time off from my day job. And as more or less a ‘knowledge worker’ I can work from anywhere. But schools have attendance requirements.
- Families should focus on programs that make award space available when their booking calendar opens, and especially airlines like British Airways which guarantee minimum availability at that time. Finnair, as it moves to Avios in early 2024, is making this commitment as well albeit with fewer business class award seats (they have smaller business cabins than BA).
- And watch for availability ‘dumps’ and mistakes throughout the year, which are easier to take advantage of now that so many programs have eliminated change and cancel fees. When you see an award that might work with school holidays, grab it and think later if your points are in one of those programs. (Cancel fees really added up when multiplied out across a family.)
Many families just face the boot of the public school bureaucracy when they seek any flexibility at all for their travel.
The story of one father is being virally resurfaced in social media, for when he qualified for the Boston Marathon and let his kids’ school know months in advance that they were going to take the trip together as a family.
He received a nastygram back from the school after the trip that they do not “recognize family trips as an excused absence” and as such they’d be penalized for 3 unexcused absences and “accumulation of unexcused absences can result in a referral to our attendance officer and a subsequent notice of a violation of the compulsory school attendance law.”
The father wrote back:
Dear Madam Principal,
While I appreciate your concern for our children’s education, I can promise you they learned as much in the five days we were in Boston as they would in an entire year in school.
Our children had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that can’t be duplicated in a classroom or read in a book.
In the three days of school they missed (which consisted of standardized testing that they could take any time), they learned about dedication, commitment, love, perseverance, overcoming adversity, civic pride, patriotism, American history, culinary arts, and physical education.
They watched their father overcome injury, bad weather, the death of a loved one, and many other obstacles to achieve an important personal goal. They also experienced first-hand the love and support of thousands of others cheering on people with a common goal.
At the marathon, they watched blind runners, runners, with prosthetic limbs and debilitating diseases, and people running to raise money for great causes run in the most prestigious and historic marathon in the world. They also paid tribute to the victims of senseless acts of terrorism and learned that no matter what evil may occur, terrorists cannot deter the American spirit.
These are things they won’t ever truly learn in the classroom.
In addition, our children walked the Freedom Trail, they visited the site of the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre, and the graves of several signers of the Declaration of Independence. These are things they WILL learn in school a year or more from now. So in actuality, our children are ahead of the game.
They also visited an aquarium, sampled great cuisine, and spent many hours of physical activity walking and swimming.
We appreciate the efforts of the wonderful teachers and staff and cherish the education they are receiving at Rydal Elementary School. We truly love our school. But I wouldn’t hesitate to pull them out of school again for an experience like the one they had this past week.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Michael Rossi
Father
The school district responded saying, though, that the most important thing for children to learn is rule-following.
I believe it is our job as parents to make sure that our children understand the importance of rules, that rules should be followed, and that there are consequences for breaking rules.
I suppose there’s some value in receiving the acculturation in rule-following necessary to become a salaryman: a loyal, white-collar employee of a big corporation (middle-class office worker). But this also has the school saying the quiet part out loud.
- One of the primary criticisms of public schools – and even many private schools – is the standardized curriculum. State curriculums have specific, uniform requirements, leaving little room for adaptation or innovation and that may not resonate with or represent the diverse student population, and that limits critical thinking and creativity. Indeed, here the school says that is the point, do not think for yourself follow the rules!
- The emphasis on conformity in public schools extends beyond the curriculum to the overall learning environment. Rigid classroom structures suppress individual expression and creativity. There’s too much “teaching to the test.” And public schools can also foster an environment of social conformity, leading to social exclusion and bullying.
- The truth is that the rules matter for the school. Since government funding for each school is usually based on an attendance formula, attendance is what matters. And what counts as attendance matters even more still.
- Meanwhile dumbing down the kids is a feature, not a bug. Kids who just sit there and are docile are easier for teachers to manage, and too many schools are run for the teachers rather than the kids (even as the teachers suffer from the conformity as well).
We need more travel where it’s possible, not less. And flexibility when you travel makes that possible, and makes that affordable, so that more people can do it.
We also need more families participating in life moments together, not fewer. From a public policy perspective, surely that’s an important goal that shouldn’t get lost in the funding formula – rules following rubric.
Build good relationships with your kids teachers, and their school administrators. Try to work with them to develop a plan that will allow travel beyond the school calendar’s explicit days off. Children will get more out of their social studies lessons if they’ve visited the places they’re ostensibly learning about. They’ll get more out of foreign language. They’ll have broader horizons that help them develop, and greater self-confidence. Surely that’s more valuable than the marginal day behind a desk in the classroom.
Every year we take the kids out of school for a trip to Hawaii. Every year we tell the school it’s a religious pilgrimage. They can’t say anything about it.
I had a classmate that went to Norway for a vacation in January. He had a hard time catching up and went from a good student to a dumb student. I think he caught up after 4 to 6 weeks.
@derek – So he caught up in 4-6 weeks and had the benefit of the trip? Awesome!
@Tom – I think the point is that you shouldn’t have to claim it’s religious. 🙂
Not sure I agree about missing, say, a week of class (that’s quite difficult to catch up on!). But a few days once a year would be difficult to argue against. I certainly am not going to judge others who do take their kids out, whether it would be my choice or not. Being a parent is hard!
Gary, I agree that you and your kids should leverage miles and points for unforgettable adventures. However, instead of skipping school, find a different school or school system in your area that recognizes and encourages the benefits of instructive flexibility when traveling to events out-of-district to maximize a student’s educational potential and academic success. When the school administration is recalcitrant, feel free to give them a mental hernia by mentioning “homeschooling” as an educational alternative.
What’s with the drama? He chose to take his kids out of school to attend his marathon run – it’s obviously an unexcused absence. Just because he thinks it’s a worthwhile absence doesn’t make it excusable. If he doesn’t like the rules, he needs to have his kids schooled elsewhere.
Attendance affecting funding for public schools is the key thing here. Many public school systems do have “special” schools for kids that have different needs, including attendance flexibility.
I believe in teaching children the discipline of not missing school (or any commitment) for any reason provides a far bigger reward than good travel memories.
Not missing school is not simply following rules set by a school – I could not care less what kind of rules a school has regarding attendance – it is more about teaching your child that when you have a job (the job being a student in this case), you commit 100% to it.
This is why summer vacation exists.
Covid-19 proved that school instruction can be done remotely and can even be time shifted. In fact, that was the way teachers kept earning their pay. The problem that the school has is all about the money that they get. When a student is sick, they don’t lose that money even though they are not teaching the student. In fact, they will work to get the sick student up to their class level if it is an absence of more than a few days before they return.
I would try to make the trip happen during school holidays. If it doesn’t work out, oh well. He can make up the school work.
Gary I completely disagree with your article. I have spent forty years in education and the last 13 years as a principal. I was also the Student Attendance Officer for my district and referred students to the courts when they were truant. During that time I heard all kinds of excuses for why students missed school. Every parent thought that they had a valid excuse. Your analysis of schools leaves me to believe that. you have not been in a school recently. Please stick your travel blog and leave education to those in the field.
@jns
Yes, school can be taught virtually, yet here we are on the dawn of 2024 and I have students every semester who did not excel in the online environment. They continue to struggle with basic concepts in reading, writing, and critical thinking. As a professor in higher ed, the divide is clear. While some thrived online, many fell behind and are clawing their way to a degree with much more difficulty that they would have without the pandemic disruption. Online education is not a one size fits all solution. I am glad it worked for some, but many were left behind.
Gary, you’re 100% right. The commenters talking about the school being rated/funded on attendance are right, too. I’ve had kids in public school, parochial school and private school … they’re all the same, so the comments about finding another school join the praise for rule-following in the round file.
But you can’t fight city hall. If you don’t want your kids to get punished for the trips, well, gosh, they’re all running high temperatures.
@Marvin Brown “Please stick your travel blog and leave education to those in the field” is more or less what cost Terry McAuliffe the Virginia gubernatorial election 😉
@Mike1977, while I appreciate you trying to expand the scope of this situation to weeks, months and years, it is in fact only a couple of days.
Also, having a professor in front of a whiteboard is not always conducive to learning. My professor for C programming language did not convey information properly for the students to learn. It was so bad that almost all of the students petitioned the college for relief after not doing well (relief was granted and the professor was gone the next semester). I got my A by reading the book thoroughly at home and doing every one of the questions at the end of the chapters. The grading was 40% for the midterm test and 60% for the final test with no grading and no discussion for the few questions assigned for homework. Both tests were open book, open notes and you could bring a laptop. With my massive preparation at home, both tests were easy but would have been difficult for those expecting standard, in class type of instruction.
@JL – I agree with your comment as did my parents during my school age.
@Gary – My parents and I subscribed to the discipline JL discussed and I never missed school for a non-school related trip. And I believe rules are to be followed and that allowed me to flourish during my working career as I did not “become a salaryman: a loyal, white-collar employee of a big corporation (middle-class office worker).” I retired as a Sr VP at the age of 56 from a NYSE company and have enjoyed 12 years of wonderful travel during my retirement!
Public school systems waste so much time. They don’t even teach anymore as much as they try to indoctrinate.
Moral of the story: Take your kids on vacation while you still can and enjoy the moment with the entire family. School is a huge waste of time, esp. when many colleges are now going test-optional.
100% disagree – kids should be in school – there is more than enough time during breaks to travel. When kids miss school they’re missing social time with their peers.
If it was the norm for all kids to pop in and out of school to travel with their parents, then, have at it! But, if you pull your kids out of school to travel, you’re gonna be the odd one out. People will make fun of your kid relentlessly. If teachers or admin agree to your ideas, that is just superficial agreement, and behind your backs, you’re going to be derided.
The most important thing a kid can do is stay in school!!
As Gary well knows the comment section is full of incel bachelors who were misfits in their own schools and thus can’t understand the value of school
STAY IN SCHOOL
SHHHH GARY DON’T TELL THEM ABOUT TRAVELING DURING THE SCHOOL YEAR! Theme parks without lines, roads without congestion, lower travel costs with dramatically higher upgrade likelihood, and incredible destinations with wide open spaces vs. shoulder-to-shoulder with a thousand Griswolds all trying to wedge the same experience into the same narrow window of time their educational overlords allotted to them? Don’t you dare put that at risk! (And definitely don’t tell them Homeschooling gets the same amount of learning accomplished in half the time!)
I agree with the idea of taking your kids out of school to travel – and do it myself. But there is more than a tinge of arrogance in claiming that following or breaking rules as it suits you is “free thinking”.
@Marvin Brown. – I taught school briefly after going through two years of “Transition to Teaching” from an engineering career. I thought I’d be giving back to the community – instead it was the worst year of my life once I began actual teaching. And I had won the award for best student teacher among fellow student teachers at the university.
My main nemisis was the assistant principal, someone who was very much like yourself. I developed severe headaches from the stress of dealing with this woman and could barely put one foot in front of the other to enter the building. To cope with the headaches, I had to go on medication that so affected my thinking, one day I had a student ask a question and I found myself thinking “I used to know the answer to this question…” One day, I caught a student cheating and she called me a racist for doing so, insulting my wife at the same time for being Jewish. I vehemently objected and she had me fired. Amazing thing was, the headaches went away the next day and never returned.
Horrible experience, but it taught me a lot, how the school system actually worked and that if parents knew what they taught in education schools, they’d burn them down. And this was 10 years before the general public became aware of the Marxist Drivel Factory that is our education schools. (If Paolo Freire is one of your favorite educational theorists, you’re evil.)
I’d get PTSD flashbacks dealing with my kids principals, but I knew what they were up to and so could fight back. I learned to lie to people like you. I filed FOIA requests to find the hidden agendas, only to have them blocked by bureaucrats, but I knew I had hit gold when they wanted to charge me $4000 to produce 30 particular pages of emails. That’s illegal, but I didn’t have the money or time to deal with it at the time. Parents are on to you – don’t think being an “education profressional” amounts to much. A Ed. D. is the most worthless degree I know of, I know what goes into it, and I refuse to call you “Doctor”.
So whatever happened to that assistant principal? Like Mark Twain, I would never wish someone ill. but I have on occasion read an obitiuary with more than a little glee. Got to read hers about five years later. You might want to think how many people are going to find glee at reading yours and try to do good rather than just enforce the mindless rules. “I was just following orders” makes for a lousy epitaph.
@Mike1977 Just because you can point out the kids who failed at virtual school, that’s nothing to do with virtual but everything to do with the kid and the parents. There’s plenty of options for virtual education that’s taught live just like a regular in person class. But there’s plenty of advantages. Students aren’t bullied much at all because it’s easy to remove communication privileges from the problem kids. People with attention problems are handled differently. (The class clown doesn’t get to use voice or typing chat with the class, only the teacher.) Kids with mental and physical disabilities have a much easier time because they don’t have to travel and then classes are often recorded for archival and later references. Many reasons why virtual should not be put down or discontinued just because you can find examples where it wasn’t done properly or didn’t fit a certain kid’s needs. There’s actually many more arguments of the physical school system being the problem.
We have left public school education to the so-called experts for the last 40 years. All we have to show for it is a continuous downward spiral into total mediocrity. Less than half the students that enter grade school come out the other end being able to read, write of do simple math, much less even be capable of doing it at grade level. The main concern of today’s educators is that no young people be allowed to escape the indoctrination, and they must not ever be allowed to become free thinkers.
@Daniel R Hope – The data says otherwise, and no matter what your Dear Leader Randi Weingarten says, it’s not on the kid and parents, it’s on her and her minions. I agree that kids and their parents can often be held to blame for education results, but virtual school isn’t one of them. That’s completely on the teacher’s unions and their paid-for agents in the Democratic Party – they all represent the best interests of the teachers, not the students and parents. Yes, you could take the best parts of virtual school and incorporate them into an in-person environment, but no one is doing that. But thanks for letting the world see what schools were up to.
Please don’t use your travel points advice and “view from the wing” as a springboard for airing your disagreements with the public school systems. Keep to your topic of expertise and indicate that using some of the available information is helpful for families who want to take trips during the regular school year, rather than your telling people “why your family should skip school.”
@Susan Leinberger – you realize I mentioned that many of the issues here are also pertinent to many private schools as well?
@C_M Your reply to me is very wrong and also doesn’t make sense. First of all, I don’t have a leader, let alone any familiarity with the person you mentioned. Now are you for or against virtual education? I’m very much in favor of the benefits it has for a huge variety of kids. Then the data you mention, the only thing data shows is that our physical education system is an abysmal failure that’s doesn’t care about the students and is only making things worse for them, plus the whole system gets worse and worse each year. Also, you didn’t pay attention to what I was saying about the students and parents to blame. I was responding to someone else who was trying to consider virtual school a bad thing because they’ve seen students who didn’t do well with it. Generally when this happens it’s because the students are treating the environment as fun time at home rather than remote education, and the parents aren’t reinforcing the need for a no distraction learning environment.
Both my kids have missed 3-4 days the last 10 years before winter break
Not to travel business, but because more mileage seats are available
Travel is not less eye opening and meaningful than school
My kids have been all over the world since they were born
We plan a year in advance for both winter break and spring break
Japan, Europe, central and south america, hawaii, vietnam, and many many more
Japan coming up again in march with the little one, currently in dominican republic, and planning already barbados and st lucia for next winter break and australia for spring break 2025
No school day can give them the experience they get from all that
Much time is wasted in today’s schools, public, private, five-star, one-star. Pretending that every instructional moment is critical and not to be missed is farcical. Living a balanced life means knowing which rules are important to follow and which rules are rules for rules’ sakes. I like to teach my children the difference between important rules that mean something and have positive and negative consequences, and which rules typify “makework” where the main (or only) purpose of the rule is to generate employment for those enforcing the rule. The sanctimonious “attendance officer” for the district commenting above sounds like the latter type. I practically dare a bureaucrat to send my son or me to court because I took him to Asia for a few days when it cost me thousands less to do so. Bring. It. On.
Oh, and also judging from the results produced by many public education systems, these “experts” to whom you’re apparently supposed to leave these matters, Gary, are few and far between, if any.
Public education, what a sad, farcical joke. The average child is “required” to attend 180 days of school per year. Anyone who suggests that missing 5-7 of those days – less than 4% – will lead to some grave and unappealing outcome is delusional. We took our daughter out of school every year for travel, sometimes up to two weeks, and she still graduated with honors and went on to college, completing her Master’s degree by the time she was 25.
Someone will say, “That worked for you, and your story is nothing more than anecdotal”. I agree, but my point is that each parent should be free to determine the best course of action for their child and judge for themselves what method will create the most successful outcome. For gosh sakes, missing a few days of school won’t have them end up living on the street at 35.
Gary,
I think the story you referenced distracted from your point. The marathon runner’s kids did not face any adverse consequences (as far as we know) from their three unexcused absences. There is a reason schools allow a certain number of unexcused absences before any real consequences happen. In the United States, if schools started judging what is excused and unexcused other than illness, injury, court appearance, etc., someone is eventually going to sue someone for discrimination. Some (maybe many) schools consider weddings and funerals of family members to be unexcused absences. Travel delays preventing return to school following a break are unexcused. If unexcused absences were zero-tolerance, no one could take their school-age kids thousands of miles from home over a break because of the flight cancellation risk. Not only do you need to worry about what happened with WN last year, the ULCCs often cancel flights and say “sorry, here’s your refund or we can get you there next week,”. Good luck getting walk-up tickets on another carrier without a huge financial hit in that situation (most people are not sitting on millions of airline miles or even know this could happen). During peak travel season, even if you know a few days prior that bad weather is coming you may not be able to get out before it strands you for days. The legacy carriers even struggle with rebooking families during peak travel season. I am a UA 1K and often fly standby when meetings end early but would drive across the country before I tried flying standby with my family in tow. Schools allow a certain number of unexcused absences and it is up to parents to manage risk and work with that number. Many teachers get a few personal days per year (separate from sick days) where they don’t need to say why they use them. Everyone knows kids usually don’t learn as much with a substitute as a regular teacher. Schools give you a few freebies and it’s up to you if/how you use them.
This is a complicated tradeoff. There are benefits to travel. But if you look at the progress a child can make in math or reading in 1 year in the early grades, going from struggling to breezing through paragraphs for example, the benefit of 3 days of travel definitely does not exceed a year of school. And rules are important too. But schools should be a bit flexible. Most real jobs in the work force allow a few days of vacation each year outside of official company holidays. Our school called it an unexcused absence when my daughter was out half a day to attend her moms college graduation after her mom, a 20 year military veteran, went back to college on the GI bill. That’s kind of insane to penalize for that, seeing your hero mom graduate college in her 40’s. Even teachers, who get the summer and winter off, can take a few days of vacation, and I think if a teacher took off a day to attend their military veteran daughters college graduation, the school would understand. Rules are easiest to follow when they seem fair and so giving the students, teachers, and principal similar flexibility to take a few days off would seem fair.
However, just because its fair does not mean its always smart. A student at certain grade levels might be right on the line of getting in or not getting in to a gifted program, magnet school, advanced math class, making a varsity team, etc that could affect their future a lot. If 30 kids will make it and they are about the 25th-35th kid on that list, missing several lessons could cause them to miss a couple questions on a test that could then cause them to be fairly and honestly with the available data be ranked behind another kid with similar ability who didnt miss lessons and miss that opportunity. My family went to Disneyland and I missed the recorder lessons, did bad at the recorder recital, and never pursued music, but music is not a good career and I dont think I ever had natural ability for it. Had I happened instead to miss some math related achievement and fell behind on the race to be one of the first students to master the times tables instead, and never been a top student at that and not won a lunch at mcdonalds with my teacher, I might have decided I was bad at math, and never recovered, if that trip had happened to be right at the critical time that my class was learning the times tables.
Overall, I think if parents have a super high achieving student who will be great at everything no matter what, then sure take all the trips. If they have a very average student who is not looking to lead the class in anything but will never be at the bottom either, take the trips. But if they have a student who is above average but not perfect, they might want to be strategic about travel, because if they pick the wrong time that could be what tilts the scales on whether their kid gets grouped with high achievers or average, and later decides whether they make friends who get them into robotics or fentanyl. There can be strategic times if you have to take them out for a trip. Maybe avoid doing so right before a standardized test. The author says they can miss the standardized test and ‘make it up any time’ but if the teacher dedicated a lot of time the week before the test to review for it, all the other kids took it immediately after that review, and the authors kids took it a few weeks later after lots of commotion to forget the review, they probably scored worse on the test, and maybe next year if they apply to the special high school with the biotech program, maybe that school will pass and suggest they apply to a nearby school known for its sociology program. But if he waited until his kid got into the biotech program and did the trip the next year, they wouldn’t kick them out for missing 3 days. Their kid could come back to the biotech program inspired by what they learned at the museums in Boston and be a better student. But they can’t do that if they never get in because the timing of the trips blows their test score. At some point I think its smart to consider timing and ace the test, get into the gifted class, make the varsity team, and take the trips strategically in between. I get that running the Boston Marathon is a big deal for the dad, but it would be smart to make sure that week wouldn’t have been his kids own ‘Boston Marathon’ of getting the top score on a test in class, getting an award, being recognized as a leader in their class, etc. If we all remember our best moments and achievements in school, those are our own marathons, and many of them involve fields that pay better than running. So see the world, but try to time it so your kids don’t miss their own biggest achievements.
I don’t object strongly to the trips if missing a few days is necessary, but to not minimize days lost so that you can fly in business class?
Mistake.
If nothing else, terrible message to send to your kids.
@Gary, 100% Agree. I write this as we leave tomorrow for a trip to Japan in which one of daughters will miss number of days of school. Part of education is experiencing the world which cannot be learned sitting in a classroom. We as parents know my daughter and know she will be able to catch up the work she misses and even if she did not, the trip would still be beneficial to her. We, as parents, are responsible for raising and educating our children. Schools are a tool in that not a substitute for it.
One of the best things about being a homeschooling family (and I recognize that homeschooling isn’t for everyone, so please don’t feel as if you need to make excuses to me for choosing other options) is the flexibility to be able to do things during the normal school day and normal school year. We choose to do all of those family experiences during the off-season and in the middle of the week so we can avoid crowds and get the most bang for our bucks. No one to say the absence was unexcused, no school to make-up, just tons of family time and fun learning (even trips to Disney can offer chances to learn). Right now, I’m trying to figure out logistics to take an RV trip up the East Coast of the US to hit the historical battlefields and other sites as part of the history curriculum.
Do not irritate the teachers unions by parenting and taking your children on valuable trips!!! It’s all about the $$$$$$
“Since government funding for each school is usually based on an attendance formula, attendance is what matters.”
Follow the money… even in School.
ST
If you are talking going to disneyworld, I cant agree to skipping school. If your talking going to Boston, Europe, Asia, yeah one can learn alot.
When my daughters were in public school, it was terrible to have their classes dumbed down so the majority could do “well”. More enfuriating was when the schools taught to the tests. And they did indeed suffer money consequences due to absenses.
So a three day trip to Boston would be far more interesting and useful than three days of dumb down classes and being taught to do good on standardized tests.