When parents want to take their children out of my school for several days at a time, they’re required to fill out an Extended Absence Form. This form is overall pretty bland … but one of the questions always produces quite a few entertaining responses:

What are the possible educational objectives that could be accomplished while your child is out of school?

It’s always hilarious to read the crazy “objectives” that parents come up with … you can tell which ones were good at B.S.ing their way through college and which ones still use it in the workplace. So funny!

I couldn’t help but collect some of the best answers over the years … so here are the student names, followed by the “educational objectives” that parents said they would accomplish during their vacations absences:

• Luci: increased geographical knowledge; exposure to Carribean culture
• Nick and Kathleen: learning about the diversity and cultures of the world at Epcot and MGM Studios
• Chad: Exploring the Pacific Ocean and tidepools
• Jeremy: Jeremy will be visiting Inverness. Jeremy’s desire is to see the Loch Ness monster.
• James: hunter safety; outdoor environmental education
• Ben: Ben can help plan for the trip; expensives, milages, average mph, average temp. for week, written report on history of the area
• Chris & J.T.: An opportunity to be enriched by the diverse cultures and the geographical features in California.
• Brian: travel, see the real world
• Jennifer: Will have the opportunity to visit the Carribean Islands and see different cultures and geography. Will get the opportunity to see marine wildlife (on Disney Cruise).
• Courtney: studying.
• Sam: Learn about mountains and mountain life; additional geography appreciation. (family ski vacation)
• Jacob: Will help AIA staff with the 2003 Super Bowl breakfast, much exposure to Christian athletes who use their platform to share their faith (going to the Super Bowl with AIA)
• Aaron: Calculating time, distance, altitude, flying (math); environment, animal and plant life during winter months and on mountains at altitude, altitude and how it affects your body (science); lots of excersize (p.e.)
• Joe: In the past, our children have been enriched with not only time spent with their Grandparents but also written reports on “red tide” (done with our laptop), explored marine life upclose and personal, and visited natural surroundings.
• Christian: Louisiana history (thanksgiving holiday to visit grandparents in louisiana)
• Maria: It is teaching her to juggle a heavy schedule of practices and homework, there is a lot of discipline involved.
• Jonathan: He will experience the mountains of Lake Tahoe and tour San Fransisco. Jon will definitely grow in his snowboarding skills.
• Jamie: Absolutely nothing.

Posted to webeldotnet on Tuesday, October 30th, 2007 at 8:44 am EST in Education (comment feed). If you refer to this post on your blog, please trackback. Thanks!