Kids love days off from school.  Snow days, religious holidays, hurricane days, water main breaks, power outages… anything to cause them to miss class is a cause celebre for any child.  Admit it, even you “cut” school at least once in your educational career. I did.  We all have!  Sometimes it is even at a parent’s prompting that a kid will skip class, and it usually leads to a memorable experience for both parent and child.  My dad let me cut school, and I did the same for my kids.  With a reason…

E IS FOR EXPERIENCE

I will never forget the time my dad told me he had to go to Washington D.C. for the day for a meeting and asked if I wanted to skip school and tag along. Yes! Of course I did. Back then there was an inexpensive “shuttle” flight from LaGuardia Airport to Washington D.C.  It was like an air bus – cheap tickets, no assigned seats, and there were regular hourly flights during the morning and evening “rush hours” making a commute to Washington for the day a breeze.

A IS FOR ADVENTURE

Brimming with excitement I joined my dad, thrilled to be the only kid on a morning plane full of tie-clad, newspaper reading business folk, wondering if someone would call me out and get me in trouble for not being in school. In Washington, my dad and I agreed on a time and place to meet in the afternoon, and while he was off in his meeting, I went off to explore the nation’s Capital (and I had a capital time doing so!) Having the trust of my dad to be “on my own” and the authority of my parent to be out of school it was a very special day, as I “played hookey” amidst the landmarks, monuments and museums.

FROM THE WASHINGTON SHUTTLE TO THE SPACE SHUTTLE

Years later I returned the favor to my own sons and invited them to “cut school” (and I cut work too!) The occasion, in October 1998,  was the launch of the Space Shuttle with the oldest astronaut, a childhood hero of mine, Senator John Glenn. The night before, after the kids were already asleep, a friend and I were on the phone talking about the launch when it dawned on us… we only live 4 hours away and neither of us had ever seen a space launch in person, and our boys would love it… let’s go! So at 2 am I woke up my sons with the news: no school today, we’re going to watch some history!  With no specific plan in mind, we rode off on our pre-dawn journey to the Kennedy Space Center (in my mind, Cape Canaveral).  Hours later, with images of Major Nelson and “I DREAM OF JEANNIE” filling my head, we passed signs for “Cocoa Beach” and arrived at the famed “Space Coast.”

A BLAST-OFF AND A BLAST!

We ended up paying to squeeze onto a fishing boat and we watched the launch from the water, drifting along the edge of the invisible restricted area, as close to the launch site as legally allowed. It was spectacular!  As the glorious bit of man-made technology rose up into the sky, burning a sun-bright path up, up and away, carrying its famous astronaut/politician/senior citizen payload, I looked at the awe-filled smiles on the faces of my sons as they craned their little necks and held their little hands above their eyes to shield them from the gaseous glare of massive, space bound thrust… I knew then that “cutting school” was a really, really good thing!

How about you?  Have you ever let your kids cut school to share an adventure?

Jeff Sass is the proud dad of ZEO (Zach, 20, Ethan, 18 and Olivia, 17).  He is also a seasoned entertainment and technology exec and active social media enthusiast.  You can see more of Jeff’s writing at Sassholes! and Social Networking Rehab.

Photo Credit: © Michael Kempf – Fotolia.com