On an otherwise uneventful Tuesday, I got a letter letting me know that I had a meeting with Augustine’s principal. ‘Clearly’ the letter stated ‘unbeknownst to me, my daughter had been skipping school.’ 

Well, Augustine is in Kindergarten. She loves school. Nothing was unbeknownst, Jade and I had been taking her out of class because we made the decision to intermittently skip school – and it’s the best thing we’ve done for our family.

First off, giving Augustine a great education, raising her to be one of the smartest in the room, it’s been our mission since she was born. (Literally, the doctor had to tell me and Jade that Augustine doesn’t need us to finish reading Charlotte’s Web at 3 months old.) So, it’s not that we don’t value learning. 

It’s that – and let’s be real – school calendars planners are lazy.

It might seem harsh, but I’m not here for them – I’m here for the families and the parents. 

These people who plan school calendars, they’re juggling a bunch of factors – traditions, standards, contractual obligation – but they aren’t taking into account the families – what might be best for them…which is why, every year’s schedule is more-or-less a xeroxed copy of the previous year’s and the previous year’s is really just a copy-and-paste version of some great, all-powerful unified school calendar that has remained unchanged since the 70’s.

This Elder Ring style calendar…it is and always has been unable to keep up with the modern world. It’s a cleaver when we need a scalpel, it’s someone answering ‘yes’ to a multiple choice question, it’s one-size-fits-all in a multi-shaped world. It lays out holiday breaks and forces us to deal with the headaches and carnage.

Think about it. Every year, millions of US school kids are all released into the wild on the same days (President’s Day, MLK Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, etc). Which means millions upon millions of American families are yearly subjected to the same vacation planning nightmares – everyone who’s going anywhere is going there at the same time; booking hotels becomes a chore, prices are ridiculous, even eating out becomes a game of chance.

And, even if you can afford the higher cost, it’s unbearable to travel anywhere convenient during a standard school holiday.

I’m sure without trying hard you can summon a flash of news coverage on Memorial Day Weekend showing endless lines at airports or the walls of break-lights leading out of town (for me it’s that horrible 405 shot of cars stopped in both directions as far as the helicopter-view can see). When everyone is jammed into the same day, leaving is a monster.

And then, when you do eventually get to wherever you’re going – the hoard has gotten there too. National Parks aren’t about communing with nature on Labor Day, they’re about ‘beating the rush’ and ‘making way’ for other hikers. Skiing on Martin Luther King Day is taking your life into your hands as everyone jumps on the slopes. Veterans Day can be summed up in one image of an endless parade of boat trailers waiting for their turn to drop-in.

Now, it doesn’t have to be like this. Schools could work with other districts to off-set holiday breaks (even just deciding alternate takes on Fridays and Mondays would help some). But, instead, nearly all 131,000 schools hang onto there standard “holiday-clumping”.  So, we parents have to solve this problem on our own…at least that’s what Jade and I and the parents we know have decided upon.

I don’t want to waste my money paying double for a ‘popular weekend’ for a sub-par experience of overcrowding and limited resources. So, we skip school.

Man…skipping school – it was hard for me to support at first. I was the fourth grader pleading with the teacher to not count my days-missed-due-to-strep-throat against my perfect attendance. (I lost the case and my name was removed from the construction paper wall of fame.) But I had to rethink things for my family.  

If finding ourselves priced out of the Motel 6 during a MLK weekend getaway began to change my mind. Then splurging on the aforementioned ‘minimalist’ room and having every restaurant booked solid until 10pm was what really kicked me in a new headspace. 

We deserve better trips, more bang for our buck, the best vacations we can find…we deserve flexibility.

There’s no way to play within a school’s calendar and match the experiences that can be had just by being more flexible with attendance.

Everyone should skip school. Trips are more affordable, experiences are richer, and everyone in the family is more at ease when you don’t have to compete with crowds.

Think first about your own mindset and the way even a little inconvenience (like not being able to find any food to eat until way after bedtime) can create just enough stress to scratch the shine off of an otherwise fun day. Then add in a handful of these minor setbacks and the entire trip is remembered differently. It’s not worth it.

Skip school. Shave a day off here or there for family getaways. 

Planning ahead, and doing it strategically will not hurt your kid’s education. Because, despite whatever your principal says in a tense meeting where the word truancy is bandied about like guillotine during the French Revolution, no one learns to read, understands Shakespeare, or solves complex equations in a single day. 

You, your family, and your kids will be richer (figuratively and literally) if you stop supporting the outdated ideals of Perfect Attendance and begin believing that education is cumulative and broad. Do what we do, plan ahead, take your kids and family on life enriching trips, use the term ‘world school’ when debating with your own principal.