Skipping Parent-Teacher Conference Day

Nick has no school for teacher conferences and he's coming to class with me. I'm not going to see his teacher. This is the second conference of the year, the second one we've missed. Poor Nick: this sounds like classic second-child treatment. But it's really not. We know his teacher (she taught Mariah seven years ago) and we see her in the mornings when we drop him off, as well as on the occasional afternoons when she accompanies the kids outside for pick-up. We e-mail with her. She knows us, and we know her. We have casual daily contact, and that gives us a lot of confidence about what's going on when we're not there.

But even if we didn't, I'm not sure we'd get a whole lot from the conferences. Neither does Emily Brazelon, and she has an interesting idea (not original with her, but still) about how to make them better. One thing that's missing from the article: the cost of missing work to attend a conference. Can everyone afford to take a personal or sick day to meet with their kids' teacher? (Of course, if that Texas legislation had passed, one could weigh that against the cost of missing a conference: a $500 fine! Now that's a solution...)