Originally Posted by
bigcountry
So what about it the son wanted to go ice skating with his father? Or snow ski? Or go see a concert? Maybe even attend an art gallery with his father. List of activities could be endless. Or is hunting the only place you would let him skip?
Sounds like a good question. So would these all "out of classrooms, life lessons" justify skipping if the student kept up his homework? How much would a student have to be caught up? Straight A's? A few B's and C's?
You're right bigcountry, I sure got my fill of answers, lol.
I wrote out a post before dinner and got disconnected before I could enter it. A good part of my post posed the very same concerns that you just did. After teaching my son never to miss church, school, or work unless circumstances dictate (e.g. illness), what happens when I suddenly change the rules? This opens up a real Pandora's Box in that he can say, hey, you let me skip for deer hunting, why can't I skip for this activity which I enjoy even more? I don't know that this would ever happen, but still, it's in the back of my mind.
As far as grades are concerned, I could set the requirement that he maintain his current average. But then again, what if he is a point away from maintaining it? Or a half a point? Sure I could say that there is no leeway, but if he misses by a slight fraction, there's the potential for some real bitterness about the whole thing.
As I said before, who knows the future and maybe this fear of giving him one day off is much ado about nothing. But still ...