Parents say schools are overreacting to swine flu. Or, parents say keeping kids out of school is stupid.

Two ways to read this article from the Joongang Ilbo, I guess.

One elementary school in southern Seoul’s Seocho District sent a letter to parents suggesting that students who attend Chungdahm and show flu symptoms stay home for a few days. The school said that the absences wouldn’t be recorded, even if the students ended up testing negative for the new flu.

According to a source familiar with the school, at least two or three students per class attended a Chungdahm institute in the area.

The school’s recommendation rubs some parents the wrong way.

“It’s true that I was worried at first about the large number of kids in my daughter’s school taking classes at Chungdahm institutes,” said Park Jin-hee, a 36-year-old mother in Samseong-dong, southern Seoul. “But encouraging students to be voluntarily absent from school doesn’t seem right.”

Another elementary school in Gangnam recommends that students returning from trips or studies overseas wait about a week before resuming school. Seven days is the maximum latent period for the flu. Other schools are having health teachers check students for flu symptoms on a daily basis.

Choi, a mother in the Gangnam area who declined to give her first name, feels that the schools have gone too far.

“I appreciate the school's effort but I don’t think it will be easy to have my son take days off simply because he goes to the institute and coughs occasionally,” Choi said. “I was told that those infected teachers didn’t even get a chance to teach at individual branches since they were being trained.”