DON BABWIN
Associated Press Writer
CHICAGO – Many U.S. school districts are urging parents to keep their kids in class and not take them to work Thursday for an annual event they say disrupts learning at an increasingly critical time of year.
From Arizona to Illinois to Texas, educators are alerting parents that between high-stakes standardized testing in some areas and the H1N1 virus that kept thousands of children home earlier in the school year, the timing of “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day” doesn’t make sense.
“This year, of all years, to have a student miss a day for something like this that could be done anytime – it just seems the focus should be on students and their learning here,” said Guy Schumacher, the superintendent of Libertyville Elementary School District 70 in suburban Chicago.