Several school districts in Chicago are the harbingers of doom, and by “harbingers of doom,” I mean “children are totally despising the kill-joys that are trying to prevent them from accompanying their parents to work despite the fact that it’s been an ongoing ritual for as long as they can remember.”
Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day officially began in 1993 and served the purpose of a mentoring-type program for children to learn what it was to be in a work environment and sharing said experiences the next day with their peers and teachers. The program was initially designed to deter young women from dropping out of school due to the stresses of “rigorous science courses” and a lack of self-esteem. This was evidently a problem in the early nineties. Ten years after, the opportunity to go to work with their parents was extended to male children.
The third week of April was chosen because studies stated that the school year was “least busy” at this time.
However, officials in nearby districts of Chicago like Hawthorn School District and Naperville School District both state that children will most definitely be marked absent and will be responsible to make up any work that’s missed during the hours of their absence. Many teachers involved in the movement state that the Take Your Child to Work Day should be moved to the summer so as not to interrupt the child’s school career.
A representative from the Hawthorn SD states that children absent from school on a high level often leave the teachers high and dry:
“If so many children are out on the same day, everything that’s done has to be redone. We’re responsible for every bit of the Illinois learning standards. That’s a lot of information to pack into 180 school days.”
I didn’t ever participate in TYCTW Day. My mom was a stay-at-home mom and my father was in the military, so my only options were staying home or hopping a flight to wherever my dad happened to be touring at the time. Since my parents couldn’t afford to send me to Prague, Somalia or California every other month, my only valid option was to stay home. And my parents wouldn’t hear of it.
I can understand the district’s disdain for children missing school — it does, after all, impede upon the child’s school education, albeit in a small way, but I can also understand how that “small way” can be multiplied time and time again with various students that might participate in activities such as this.
Thoughts?
If it’s all on one day, then it’s just one day out of school – and something the schools could embrace as a career day. Perhaps run some career-exploring programs at school for the kids who don’t have someone to follow to work. I think it would be great for children to be encouraged to explore the real world, and see reasons for their education, rather than just the continuing ethic of ‘school is good because it is school!’
“I think it would be great for children to be encouraged to explore the real world, and see reasons for their education, rather than just the continuing ethic of ’school is good because it is school!’”
This. Totally.
I never did anything like this in school, and I don’t think any of my friends did either. Honestly, I don’t think it’s something I would have enjoyed.
I really didn’t either, as my father worked at a plant that made auto parts (how fascinating, right?). But just being able to have that experience is worth something, I think.
It’s awful that schools are resorting to punishing children with absences and makeup schoolwork instead of building into their curriculum a means of helping children learn from their experiences at work with Mom or Dad.
A classroom isn’t the only place where kids learn. They are learning all the time, especially from parents and administrators who are telling them that they must be punished for learning outside the system.
My mother took me out of school when I was 9 years old for an entire month. We traveled to Tahiti, Australia and Hawaii. I went to museums, parks, met my Aussie relatives, saw plants and animals I’d only ever seen in books or on TV… AND I did piles of math, reading, science and social studies homework that my teachers gave me.
I came back a different person. I still recall 30 years (ahem) later that whole trip. It galvanized my love of travel and instilled in me values like lifelong, worldwide learning. And I did a project on what I learned and did on my trip… not to punish me for missing class, but to help other kids who were not as lucky as I was to have the opportunity to learn something from my experience, too.
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I was too old to be affected by TYDTWD except i was in graduate school in the ’90s, and worked there, too. We had a program for the day that was jut a blast for everyone concerned. The adorable, fabulous little girls were in groups everywhere, doing different activities, and people just kept their pre-school kids with them, which was fantastic, too. It definitely made our workplace a more human, family-like place, and although not much work got done, we all felt enriched by it.
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