All Teachers, Parents and Caregivers should read this letter.

In April 2015, Philadelphia dad Mike Rossi, a part-time radio personality, pulled his nine-year-old twins out of Rydal Elementary School in Pennsylvania's Abington district for three days so the family could travel to Boston, where he ran the marathon. When the family returned, a letter from the principal was waiting: the trip counted as unexcused absences, and repeated unexcused absences could be reported under the state's compulsory-attendance law. Rossi posted the letter and his reply on Facebook. It exploded, with more than 31,000 shares within days, a national debate about who gets to decide what counts as a learning experience.

The school's letter read:

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Rossi,

I understand that your family recently took a family vacation. I want you to be aware that the Abington School District does not recognize family trips as an excused absence, regardless of the activities involved in the trip. The school district is not in the position of overseeing family vacations or evaluating the educational nature of a family trip. The dates that your children were absent were recorded as unexcused. An accumulation of unexcused absences can result in a referral to our attendance officer and a subsequent notice of a violation of the compulsory attendance law.

Please contact me if you have any questions. Thank you.

Rossi was not about to bow down to authority quietly. He wrote back, as posted on his Facebook page:

Dear Madam Principal,

While I appreciate your concern for our children's education, I can promise you they learned as much in the five days we were in Boston as they would in an entire year in school.

Our children had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, one that can't be duplicated in a classroom or read in a book.

In the 3 days of school they missed (which consisted of standardized testing that they could take any time) they learned about dedication, commitment, love, and perseverance, overcoming adversity, civic pride, patriotism, American history, culinary arts and physical education.

They watched their father overcome injury, bad weather, the death of a loved one and many other obstacles to achieve an important personal goal.

They also experienced first-hand the love and support of thousands of others cheering on people with a common goal.

At the marathon, they watched blind runners, runners with prosthetic limbs and debilitating diseases and people running to raise money for great causes run in the most prestigious and historic marathon in the world.

They also paid tribute to the victims of a senseless act of terrorism and learned that no matter what evil may occur, terrorists can not deter the American spirit.

These are things they won't ever truly learn in the classroom.

In addition our children walked the Freedom Trail, visited the site of the Boston Tea Party, the Boston Massacre and the graves of several signers of the Declaration of Independence.

These are things they WILL learn in school a year or more from now. So in actuality our children are ahead of the game.

They also visited an aquarium, sampled great cuisine and spent many hours of physical activity walking and swimming.

We appreciate the efforts of the wonderful teachers and staff and cherish the education they are receiving at Rydal Elementary School. We truly love our school.

But I wouldn't hesitate to pull them out of school again for an experience like the one they had this past week.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely, Michael Rossi, Father

The debate kept rolling for weeks. Rossi met with the principal afterward, and the Abington school board president posted a lengthy public response on the district's website. In fairness, the hero story later picked up a wrinkle: running outlets including Runner's World raised questions about whether Rossi's marathon qualifying time was legitimate — he denied the claims. But the debate about attendance policies outlived the man at its center.

Now that's a perfect response. Way to go, Dad.

Sources: PhillyVoice, BuzzFeed