While school was out...

There was Open Streets Chicago.

Dad and the kids joined friends for a water taxi ride to Chinatown.

Dad and the kids brought one of Levynn's friends to the Museum of Science and Industry, where we found a couple things we somehow hadn't seen on our many other visits - like the inside of this United Airlines plane, which we had thought was just another of the planes hanging from the ceiling.

And remember the wheel of time?

For the grand finale on Tuesday, the last day of the strike, Dad and the kids joined all of the friends from the previous two outings and their families at Adler Planetarium.

The Field Museum, with the same gang, was on the docket for the next day - if school had not started. Thankfully, it did.

The strike is over

Back to school (again)!

After seven days of no school, the teachers union delegates voted this evening to end the strike.

It's about time.

Missing something?

Have you heard?

Surely, by now, you have - that the Chicago Public Schools' teachers are on strike, for seven days and counting, in a contract dispute with the city.

The kids, who are supposed to be in school, are not. And we have been alerted that this will continue for at least two more days, through Tuesday.

Dad started writing this post on Wednesday but decided to wait. At the time, he was going to say no more about the strike and focus on what we've been doing instead.

Forget that now.

This. Is. Ridiculous.

And worse.

After much ugliness, including picketing teachers' signs that call our mayor a bully and a liar (and which even our kindergartener can read), union and city leaders finally struck a complex agreement this weekend.

So what do the union's delegates then tell their leaders? In short: "It's probably not good enough, but we need more time to think about it before we even call a vote to end the strike."

But THAT is not good enough. Not nearly so. Not by a long shot.

We have tried very hard not to take a side in front of the kids. But maybe we've been trying too hard. Maybe we should be taking a side. The kids' side.