And I thought I was ripped off when my mother wouldn’t let me stay home from school to watch my cousin’s husband on Password.

An Indiana eighth-grader was punished with an unexcused absence from her public school after taking the day off to sing in a children's choir for an event featuring the president of the United States...

Meanwhile, school districts in California appear to have different standards for approving absences. According to a story in the Oakland Tribune, several hundred Oakland and Berkeley public-school students traveled to Sacramento last week to protest against cuts in education funding on the steps of the state Capitol – on a school day.

The paper reports a few dozen busloads of students, ranging in age from first-graders to high-school seniors, took part in the "Education Not Incarceration" rally. The rally reportedly was organized by the children's teachers.

Hmm. “Education-Not Incarceration.” I like the sound of that. (Though I think the composer of that slogan sees the situation differently than I do.) I suppose it won’t supplant “Ora et Labora” as our school motto.