Let your child skip school to hunt?
 

Do you, or would you, let your child skip a day of school to go deer hunting?

My teenage boy wants to go but do to travel time requirements, I would have to let him skip school for one day during the first firearms season and one or two days during the second season. He gets decent grades, having a 3.5 GPA for the first year and a half of high school but several of his A's have been the just barely type and my wife and I are concerned that taking time off would have a negative impact. I should also note that he is on the block schedule where everything is compressed into half the time. This means that every day missed is the equivalent of two days missed for the subjects he is taking at that time.

In addition to the grade thing, I don't want to send the message that he should knock off school (or in later years, work) if there is something that he would rather be doing - even though hunting is a great life experience.

So what would you all do? I appreciate your thoughts on the matter.

Without question! We recently went to Disney for a week and all three of my boys missed a full week of school. My wife nor all their teachers seemed to think it was a big deal. Well, our annual trip to Tennessee for deer and hogs fell the next week and I held them out on that Friday because we always hunt a long weekend. They all do well and it is usually held over their heads as an incentive if they do well in school. I have no problem with it as long as they continue to excel and make up what they missed.

No question, yes, I would let him take the day(s) off. If you're concerned about him getting behind, make an agreement with him that if he chooses to go, he has to read the texts he’ll be missing during travel time or down times after the hunt (cabin, whatever). For me, I’m not sure I’d even do that. I wouldn’t want to ruin the experience by mixing it with homework. Hunting is supposed to be relaxing. I’d let him enjoy his couple of days off. The kid can always work a couple extra hours a day for the next week to catch up. Just make sure that he does.

And, as far as the taking days off from school teaching him that’s it’s okay to cut out from school or work later in life (presumably when he’s on his own), I don’t think so, if you make him understand that he has a responsibility to catch up on the school he misses now. If he doesn’t catch up, then maybe that will affect things the next season when you want to take him hunting (i.e. you don't let him take off school again). There’s a balance in life and work. I think it is okay to teach him that it is fine to take time out of the daily grind to do what you love, as long as it is done in a responsible manner. I do not understand people that work so much that they have no ability to enjoy life. They might say something like, “I’m doing this now so my kids don’t have to.” Rubbish, IMO. The kid is gonna do exactly what you do and say the same thing his go-round in parenting. Life’s too short to miss life for work.

My $0.02

Many decades ago
 

I lived in a community that saw the opening day of deer hunting season on a Monday. Schools remained open, and there was a quiet understanding that more than the average number of students would be absent from school.
In our modern society, it is clear that hunting is no reason for not going to school. There is no real reason, for many, to hunt at all.

It is my recollection that a nearby county has their schools CLOSED on the first day of gun season. At least, it used to be that way 10 years ago...not sure if it still is.

yes i would let them skip school to go hunting. i take days off from work to go hunting so why wouldnt i let them take off from school as long as the missed work is made up?

As long as his grades aren't suffering I don't see a problem with it at all. I've seen folks actually use hunting trips as a carrot to get kids to bring their grades up so they could go on the trip.

when i was in high school, i always skipped school on the first day of firearm season, and so did everyone else that hunted. in fact, my high school allowed deer hunters to skip 1 day a year with an excused absents.

No i would not,
regardless of grades, sets a bad precedence,
school first,
should be your priority to schedule the trip to accomodate his schooling.

H**L Yah i go all the time during school. i only skip school for hunting though i mean a good education is good too!:sign0004::barmy::barmy::barmy::barmy::barmy:: barmy:

i myself am not a fan of folks blowing off school for any reason. It can work for some people. But most of the families that I see practice this have children with substandard to average grades to begin with. Not a rule, but just my observation.

I blew off hunting all thru my college years. It didn't kill me, and in fact helped me. I didn't hunt more than 2 times a year when in college. Now, I have the luxury of taking off weeks to hunt. I knew guys in college who would blow off midterms to hunt. They claim it didn't make a difference, but I personally know several who didn't make it thru. I won't say, hunting alone pushed them over the edge, but the overall attitude to education. Pay now or pay later.

IMO, not doing it sets a precedence in allowing the STATE to run every aspect of your life!!

Where I teach the school shuts down for the week of deer season. But yes I would let him miss to hunt.

Quite a freakin stretch there.

You know for lots of years, hunting has ran my life. the older I get, the more I understand that there are more important things than a deer.

I know a old hunter who came to me with concerns that I spend way too much time hunting, that one day, all my trophies, my mounts, won't mean a thing. And will probably end up in a yard sale for 15 dollars.

If your in your 20's, I understand your response, but I guarantee it will change when you get older.

My father always called the school to get me out of class for a day of hunting, the next year after it started the secretaries would non-chalantly ask if I was hunting and then continue to tell him to tell me "good luck"... I made it through high school, 4 years of college and Army service.

IMHO, skipping school in high school prepares students for college more than high school itself, and presents an opportunity for the student to develop good class ethics, by having to find the time to complete the assignments he/she missed.

If you think the kids have been minding you and deserve to go. Then by all mean reward them and let them skip. If they give attitude alot then no.

With out a doubt.......Yesssssss

I say yes. My father let me cut school for hunting when I was a kid. It was understood though, that if my grades slipped or I got in trouble at school, the time out of school for hunting was a no go. I think it's a necessary/valuable thing. Good quality time spent with your father and at an early age while you learn what an agreement with stipulations means. No grades = No Hunt. For me it's not a matter of right and wrong, it's a matter of tradition, and traditions, as well as hunting are a dying breed.

Not as big as a stretch as your (apparent) comparison that this father taking his kid hunting on a school day is somehow similar to your (over) obsession with hunting. Who in their right mind would agree that there's nothing more important than deer? Tell you what, though, teaching this kid LIFE SKILLS that he will NEVER learn in school is absolutely VITAL. I do not take for granted that we will be able to wander around the grocery stores like zombies forever. If we see those times, one's ability to pick up a gun and do what needs to be done will be of so much more importance than not having missed a couple of days of school.

I am not poo-pooing the importance of education. What I am saying is that the State is conditioning us to become completely dependent on the system, a system that is hopelessly corrupted and controlled by fewer and fewer people every day. And I REFUSE to have my children subjected to it like little slaves.

Depends on the kid and the situation. Matt, my 13 year old son, has taken days off from school for the purpose of hunting. The deal is he has to check with his teachers and get a line on the work to be covered during his absence. IMO as long as he stays up with everything and is getting good grades it's not an issue. I think the preparation and work before hand is key.

So are you saying without this skipped days, its impossible to teach a child these life skills? That makes no sense whatsoever. I mean I taught myself.

Can't a child bowhunt? I mean I do 95% or more of my hunting with a bow. Most of East US, gun hunting is nothing more than shooting pressured deer. Sit in a tree, something will run to you. Not sure what life lessons one would learn. In fact, every year I consider skipping the orange army week.

Facts are facts, concerning education, college and employability and how much more a college graduate makes.

I just know from my experience, I had and have friends who I graduated from HS with who lived, breathed and died hunting, and refused the disciplines of sometimes, hunting has to wait. Same folks, well over 20 years later, work like mules and only get one week vacation a year and tell me how lucky I am getting 5 weeks a year and able to hunt so much. Again, not saying its rule, but its rather interesting.

Still in highschool...I skip opening day of school every year and in middleschool I took the whole week off. It is an excused absence here

Are you going with him? If so then definitely yes... Later down the road, the time he spent hunting with his dad will be way more important than that one day of school that he missed.

I say go for it. I can see the debate in your mind with grades, but get his assignments early. If I never did something fun once in awhile, I would have less drive to perform in school.

Just curious,
wheres the dad in this?
why cant he plan weekend hunt?
personally i would plan hunts around kids school schedule,
not take him out of school to accomodate my work schedule

Skipping School
 

If my son has been doing well in school, his grades are up and, he's been respectful at home, I would definitely reward him with a day or two off from school to go hunting. However, he would know up front that it is his responsibility to get his missing assignments and get them turned in ASAP.

I am not saying you HAVE to skip school in order to learn these skills. You taught yourself, good for you. Me too, and still learning. I'd rather have been taught by my father. And I'm saying that it's the DAD's prerogative to take his kid out of school to hunt if he wants. I do NOT surrender the right, will and future of my children to the state. In Virginia, you cannot hunt on Sundays...could be like that in other states. Maybe this guy doesn't have a place nearby to hunt. Maybe the dad wants to take his kid hunting somewhere where travel time is significant and it would eat up a lot of the hunting day. Who knows? Again, my point is that it's up to the dad.

Are you REALLY going to bring up the bow vs. gun thing here? Really? "Most of East US, gun hunting is nothing more than shooting pressured deer. Sit in a tree, something will run to you." Talk about overly broad statements. :rolleye0011: Not even getting into it. And what does that have to do with taking time off of school? NOTHING.

Again, for someone calling my view a “freakin’ stretch,” you’re bringing this to extremes all over the place. You are making correlations that SIMPLY DO NOT EXIST. What you are basically inferring is that a dad who takes his kid out of school to go hunting, skiing, family vacation…WHATEVER…is teaching his kid to be undisciplined, implying that his son won’t go to college, won’t be able to differentiate between what is more important than hunting, and what is not, etc. If you weren’t implying that, then bringing up the earnings and employability of college grads vs non-grads is IRRELEVANT, along with the stories of your friends. You have stated that for both you and your friends, you were obsessed with hunting well beyond the point of reason. You cannot correlate that with a kid missing a couple of days of school to go hunting!!!!

No one is saying that hunting never has to wait, or that hunting is the most important thing ever. You are imagining that people are saying that.

Hmm a day hunting or a day in school,Take him hunting school will be around forever but you could be gone tomorrow and so could your son,none of us know how long we will be here.The fact of the matter is school gets way to much of kids time anyway.

Absolutely!

As long as they have decent/good grades, etc...acceptable in your mind's eye.

Also I almost think it teaches responsibility, like hey you're gonna miss thurs and fri of school, get your assignments etc..., seems like nowadays the parents do everything for their kids, then they get to college and never goto class and flunk out with a 0.5gpa....these kids who's parents never let them live I swear go off to college and are the craziest of the bunch!

It's different for each child. I think you're looking at it the right way and I think from the description he's not the kind of kid that would be happy to blow off school for no good reason. Being concerned about missing the time is fine, but as others have said if you ingrain into him his responsibilities to make up the work and hold him to it. He'll have a great trip of memories and learn a little about balancing work and fun in the process.

if they are doing well i dont see why not,after all isnt hunting a learning experiance in its self?like that saying,everything is good,in moderation.the best way to learn things is threw experiance and i do not live life for the dallor sign but instead for what life has to offer.and because of the way i live my life i still get my 5 weeks a year of hunting in.gotta work smarter not harder.thank god im not a sheep!

Nobody said it wasn't up to the dad. Are you imagining it? He asked, I answered.

Sure, if your really going to try to bring up Life long lessons from skipping school for the opening day of gun season. Try somewhere else, I have hunted several states on the east coast, and its pretty well the same.

No reason to cry over this man. Its just the internet. Why has this hit a nerve with you?

Just observations. I clearly outline that this is not rule. I clearly state its my observations. Perhaps you should have not missed reading comprehension in school, and you would have read these statements.

Nobody is crying, and you didn't hit a nerve. Just pointing out that your statements are inapplicable. Sorry, I can't comprehend an extraneous train of thought...something unfortunately that can't be fixed by school.

Its really this easy. The guy asked, I replied. I gave my reasons, and gave my experiences.

Everything is pertinent no matter if you are able to see it or not. This cannot be learned in school, but more experience.

I am just pointing out how my statements are applicable. You don't see it, and that does not surprise me. Its really no big deal.

From reading all of these postings I really only have one question - Do you mean kids are supposed to go to school during hunting season? How Rude!!

Yep. When I was in HS in the mid 70's we could bring a note to school and take the whole week off (that's how long deer season was then).

I plan on taking my son out of school for at least a week in the fall when he is old enough to hunt unless for some reason he is struggling to get by in school or something.

Somehow I think spending a week in the mountains hunting elk with his dad will stick with him longer in life than spending a week in history class.

I rarely missed any school and got in plenty of hunting as well, and my mother always stressed that good grades were money in the bank and that turned out to be true when it came time to apply to college, but I think with a little work you can have your cake and eat it too.

I think teaching a kid to plan ahead and get his assignments done and take care of business for taking a week off of school is a very important lesson that will actually benefit them in the long run.

Take your son hunting. School and work will always be there, cherish the time you have.

Thank you all for your responses. Reading through them, it's amazing to me how the diversity of responses pretty much replicates the war that is going on in my own mind.

One thing that came to mind since I posed the question, is the fact that missing a day of school may impact his grades that are on the margin, however, it would probably have little or no impact on his ACT or SAT scores for college admission. So I suppose the bigger issue is, would I be impacting his work ethic down the road. Sure one day is no big deal, but one day can lead to two, and for all I know, he may then take a week off from college to go elk hunting out west without us even knowing it. Conversely, he may relish that one day and take no more than that down the road. Who knows the future?

One thing I will say, my son is a hard worker. Like many boys, he needs a little nudge on the homework front once in a while, but once he's kick-started, he stays with it. Also, he has caddied four days a week at the nearby country club since the age of 13 and willingly gets up at 5:30am so that he can be one of the first ones on the list. But still ... there's this lingering fear in my mind that I'm starting a new precedent that may negatively impact him for years to come. Sure it's only one day, but like the old pulpit preachers say, one drink most surely leads to two.

every year my dad takes off and he and i go for the first 3 days. granted i only have school two of those days. but i dont seen anything wrong with it as long as they can maintain their grades. there has been a couple years when i didnt have the grades to go.