FAMILY VACATION VERSUS SCHOOL’S RULES ON SUCH ABSENCE

See me see trouble! These oyibo people sef, can you imagine the reaction of a school where a dad took his children on a family vacation for 3 days to watch him play.

He got a letter from the school that the three days was recorded as "unexcused absence" against the children. 

As expected, the man fired back at the school! He told the principal that the three days experience was more than a year spent in the classroom because the children learnt what ordinarily will take them more than one year to learn in school (I totally agree)

In fact, they should thank their stars the man won his game, if not the school would have seen his other side (lol)

For Naija, who send you, the highest you will get from the school (private only) is probably a call to confirm everything is okay and that the kids will return back to school when the family return from the vacation.

See the principal’s letter and the man’s response below.

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 3 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 a senseless act of terrorism and learned that no matter what evil may occur, terrorists can not deter the American spirit.

These are things they won’t ever truly learn in the classroom.

In addition our children walked the Freedom Trail, 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.

“What’s frustrating is that a week before we left for vacation, my wife notified the kids’ teachers and we had planned for them to make up the standard testing period, which they did,” says Rossi. “I want to be clear that I am not angry with Principal Marbury but the policy set by the school district to deal with unexcused absences doesn’t make sense.”

Mike Rossi pulled his two children out of school to watch him run the Boston Marathon. (Photo: Mike Rossi/Facebook)