Schools urge parents not to take kids to work [View All]

[The Straight Story]

Schools urge parents not to take kids to work

CHICAGO – Many U.S. school districts urged parents to keep their kids in class and not take them to work Thursday for an annual event they say disrupts learning at an increasingly critical time of year.

From Arizona to Illinois to Texas, educators alerted parents that between high-stakes standardized testing in some areas and the H1N1 virus that kept thousands of children home earlier in the school year, the timing of "Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day" doesn't make sense.

"This year, of all years, to have a student miss a day for something like this that could be done anytime — it just seems the focus should be on students and their learning here," said Guy Schumacher, the superintendent of Libertyville Elementary School District 70 in suburban Chicago.

In many districts, some of which sent strongly worded letters or e-mails to parents explaining that taking part was putting their children's education at risk, officials reported that teachers were not finding rows of empty seats in classrooms Thursday.

"We had only six out today (and) that's actually less than usual," said Darrell Propst, principal of Taylor Road Elementary School in Reynoldsburg, Ohio, one of those who asked parents not to pull their kids out of school for the day. "Our attendance was very, very good today."

http://tinyurl.com/3ytuggy (yahoo news)