"No More Snow Days" . . . . . what do you think of this idea from a local school board?

[Stinky The Clown]

A local school board has put out for comment a proposal to eliminate snow days. Instead, they would have virtual learning on what might have been a snow day. Kids can do virtual or they can otherwise make up the day without penalty (no word on the "how" part of that).

The teachers generally oppose the idea. One said, in a TV interview, that the fun of a snow day was a part of being a kid and a part of the whole school experience.

Personally, I'd favor leaving things as they are. A schedule with 3, 4, or 5 snow bays built into the schedule, with the days becoming part of summer vacation if not used during the year. And i agree with the teacher. Anticipating and then enjoying a snow day is part of the whole experience of being a kid!

What do you think?

[Karadeniz]

1. I agree with you.

[jimfields33]

2. So was bringing treats for birthday.

Nobody allowed to do that. I think the virtual idea is brilliant because it gives three or more days at end of school year.

[Bettie]

3. I agree, snow days are a nice, random break

plus, not every kid has the setup to be virtual on a day when they can't necessarily get to somewhere with free internet.

[ProfessorGAC]

18. Agreed!

However, as I mentioned above, not all these events involve Zoom attendance.
Just access to Google Classroom. That's less restrictive than the headroom needed for live, virtual attendance.

[MissMillie]

4. I do think a "snow day" can be great for a kid's mental health.

I also think it's very practical to have a set schedule for the school year. One year my kid's school had to go an extra full week.


I'm on the fence.

[hlthe2b]

5. Out west they are already having to factor in "intense heat days"

So many classrooms don't have A/C that several Colorado schools sent them home early and have let parents know to expect this more so in the future. Future heat waves may well be accompanied by power overload, even if schools address that problem.

So, whether it is snow, or heat, such unscheduled days off will continue.

[Igel]

32. Seriously not the same.

Snow days are times of gladness.

You barely wake up, are told it's a snow day, and you return to bed.

Or you get out of school early. Nothing happens after "early dismissal" is announced. You leave soon--the announcement only happens *after* bus arrival at your school is imminent.

It's snowing. The world's changed in a strange but happy way, you bundle up, and chuck snowballs at each other. Make snowmen. Sled.

I loved snow days.

Heat days? Had one in middle school because the AC failed and the "modern" building had not a single window. "Hey, it's 93 degrees! No windows? Enjoy!" No joy at the beginning. Then you go home, and it's 93 degrees in the shade. It was miserable.

Where I live (north of Houston) on days likely to be "heat days" the streets are barren. If there's joy, it's entirely inside.

Entirely not the same.

[hlthe2b]

34. Oh, please. I live in snow country and I appreciate the sentimental nature of those days

Last edited Tue Sep 13, 2022, 07:12 AM - Edit history (1)

Not in Houston or that belt from Texas up through Oklahoma--where nasty ice storms are far more likely and hardly a fun time for the kids even if school is canceled. Yes, I spent time in this region as a child as well before happily returning to Colorado. So, yes, entirely not the same.

But sentimentality aside, I'm talking about the lost days from school which is going to become an issue that school districts are going to have to struggle with. And yes, it is serious.

[Salviati]

6. I think it's a pretty terrible idea...

... thought up by someone who has no experiance teaching actual students in an actual school.

Teachers have done OK with advance prep adapting in class education to a remote system, not great, but OK when it was needed. This is a far cry from getting up at 5am and finding that what was supposed to be a normal school day is now supposed to be virtual.

Anyone expecting that to be anything other than an unmitegated disaster is completely delusional.

[Irish_Dem]

7. They could compromise and cut back on the snow days.

But still allow a couple of fun snow days.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. It's a shit idea.

[Archetypist]

9. A few places are doing this

New York (I think I read that somewhere) and Northern Virginia. Awful idea, IMHO. Snow days are a nice surprise; without that school will feel more like drudgery to certain kids (the ones I know, anyway).

[Imperialism Inc.]

10. That would require the kids to carry their chromebooks home every day.

My kids usually leave theirs at school. It would just be one more thing to lug around for that one time when they actually need it.

[Rebl2]

11. Wonder if they

have thought about power outages. I know where I live power sometimes goes out during snowstorms. How are you supposed to charge the laptop with power out? Many years ago our power was out for a week after a bad snowstorm. How about bad hurricanes where power can be out for weeks. This is a bad idea! Where I live I don’t think they build snow days into the school year anymore. If the snow is bad, they might cancel school for a day or two then they tack those days on to the end of school year.

[meadowlander]

12. In practice kids are going to take the day off anyway

and claim they forgot their computer or the power went out at home.

I grew up in Seattle where it only snowed a few days a year. Some of my best childhood memories are sledding on the hill outside our house and building snowmen with all the neighbour kids who I didn't see that often otherwise (it was the late 80s/early 90s and everyone was inside playing Nintendo most of the time).

Now if those days happened to fall on weekdays, kids would miss out completely on those opportunities. I would argue that having those experiences of connecting with nature and with the neighbourhood are as important as anything we would have learned in school those days.

All those hours spent praying to the snow gods to get me out of a dreaded test or paper deadline helped me retain my sense of joy, wonder and spontaneity into adulthood.

[GuppyGal]

13. There is enough days off and we are already deficient in education.

[TheBlackAdder]

28. Did you ever enjoy snow days as a child?

.

I used to go to school with a few kids who became educators and school administrators.

These were people who would stuff toilet paper in the toilets and make them overflow, they would get wet toilet paper and throw it on the multi-purpose room's ceilings and in the hallways. They would engage in food fights in the lunchroom. And the lunch aids and monitors never busted their balls. After a few seconds, they would tell them it was time to stop. They knew that kids sometimes needed to blow off steam.


Fast-forward to today: These same kids are the most hard-line stick up the ass people you would ever want to meet, with zero policies. They run the schools like a concentration camp. I would call them out, saying, remember when you would throw food in the lunchroom every day, carve writings in the desk, throw shit on the ceilings and stuff the toilets? I would do this after they gave their hard-line spiel during back to school nights. Other parents would laugh. Fucking hypocrites who forgot their childhoods.

.

[marybourg]

14. I don't know. We didn't have snow days in the 1940s and 50's in NYC.

Everybody walked to elementary (up to 8th grade) school. No busing. Streets were plowed and shoveled early in the morning, or you had fun struggling through. In high school we took city buses. Sometimes we had to walk. But we were expected to show up. Didn’t hear the term “snow days” until my kids went to school in the suburbs in the 60’s.

[BigmanPigman]

15. My school closing #318

Yes, I remember it all these years later. I would pray to hear it on the radio in the morning but it seldom came. My district was the single district that never closed when those all around it did. We would end up getting to school just in time to turn around and go back home...no fun snow day since we were already up at 6 AM, dressed, cold and walking to the bus stop in snow. To this day I am still pissed at my school.

When I changed careers and became a teacher in S Cal I never got a snow day of course but we did close the schools in the district for a whole week, twice...2003 and 2007, due to fires burning straight to the ocean, thousands of homes burned. I'd rather have a snow day.

[Scrivener7]

16. Snow days are too delightful to do away with. Get rid of standardized tests instead. They suck.

[ProfessorGAC]

17. Already Doing It Here

I substitute in 17 different districts, and I saw 20-30 emails last year saying they were online for the day.
We had one real bad overnight storm where schools just closed for the day.
Not all 17 did this, but at least 10 did.
As a sub, it has no real impact on me.

[pinkstarburst]

19. Sounds better in theory than actual practice

Lots of time in big weather events (snow days, hurricanes, heat emergencies in schools without AC), power goes out. How are kids supposed to do virtual learning?

Virtual learning worked better during the pandemic when teachers had plentiful time to prep and prepare. Even then it was a disaster. Why go to all this trouble so that students can learn 20% what they might of in a normal day when snow days can be built into the schedule. In areas where 25+ days are required per year, this may make more sense.

Virtual learning heavily favors wealthy white students. Lower income students of color who don't have two parents at home are at a disadvantage. If we want to do what is best for all learners, it would be better to keep snow days and keep instruction in person as much as possible.

[hauckeye]

20. Loved snow days as a kid in Iowa

We'd listen to the radio, holding our breath that they would call our school's name. That was the 1960's.

[central scrutinizer]

21. We had no snow days ever (Grand Island, Nebraska, 1950-60s)

School was never closed for weather. Most kids walked or biked to school. You only got a bus if you lived more than a mile from school. And yes, it was uphill both ways.

[tblue37]

23. I agree with you.

[Thtwudbeme]

24. It won't work. I am a middle school librarian.

The power will go out in parts of town no matter where you are. Some families do not have internet, and if they do- it's not strong enough to stream videos from teachers for 3 or 4 kids.

IOW, it's not equitable.

I did tech for a school of 1200 kids during the Covid shutdown. My cell phone rang constantly. Zoom calls were dropped. The little ones during Battle of the Books would put their dog's photos up so we couldn't see who was really answering the questions.

So, go ahead and take them away- and then try to figure out why teacher's hit "subfinder," or send home worksheets to be done while they are outside with their own kids. Talk to the angry as hell parents who have no home internet.

[Hekate]

25. What is this "snow" of which you speak?

[indigovalley]

26. Snow Days are necessary in some places

I am a high school teacher in Minnesota. We have snow days when the roads are too slippery and dangerous for travel. I don't see us changing that because we have lots of rural students. One thing that has changed, however, is that we don't have snow days if we just have basic snowy weather. If its not icy, snowing heavily, or if there aren't blizzard like winds we have school like always.

Snow days are built in to the schedule and I agree with others here--they can be a nice break in the dead of winter for students. And for us teachers its a chance to get caught up on everything we need to do (plus be able to sleep in that day!).

[TheBlackAdder]

27. Funny that some people want to go back to the 50s while pulling snowdays from today's kids.

.

Gone are the forts, snowball fights, sledding and other fun. Snow days are becoming rarer, and it may not snow on weekends.

In my town, they pulled most snow days, and then when it does snow, they add days to the end of the year.

.

[Diamond_Dog]

29. My husband is a retired teacher

The teachers look forward to snow days just as much as the students if not more!

[Greybnk48]

30. When I was a kid, I would get so excited about the possibility of a snow day!

Why would anyone want to spoil that fun thing? I agree with STC. The school admins. should be bright enough to come up with ways to fold several days into the school year that could shift to summer vacay if unused.

If there were too many snow days in a particular year, then virtual learning could be used in a pinch.

[CRK7376]

31. This teacher loves snow days

even though we seldom get more than an inch or two. Snowdays are a desperately needed mini break between Christmas/New Years and Spring Break. Oops my internet is down due to snowfall....and We have lousy internet service that religiously fails after 2-3 raindrops or snowflakes hitting our cables.....So Rock On Snow Days no Zoom for me, especially if the front pasture has snow!!!!!!

[jcgoldie]

33. I'm a teacher and I am 100% in favor

Last year we stayed out 5 days for inclement weather. We zoomed from home and the kids were done by noon had the rest of the day to enjoy the snow if they chose. We got out on May 20th instead of the 27th had we not been able to cover those emergency days virtually. For me a week in May is worth all the silly snow days you can count. It is also safer in practice I believe because admin seems more likely to call it if the roads are iffy when they know that it doesn't mean the district has to operate additional days into the summer.

edit to add: Virtual learning was not effective for the majority of students during covid but during these one or two day weather stints which everyone can almost always see coming based on the forecast, teachers can answer some questions and make assignments keep everything moving without losing much in my experience last year.

[obamanut2012]

35. I hated going to school well into the back of June, so yay!

Great idea. They can be out by Memorial day for enrichment, camp, etc.

[nuxvomica]

36. I think we've taken too much of the magic out of kids' lives

Snow days were such a joyful event in my childhood, an often unexpected gift from nature, I'd hate to see other generations miss out on it. And it was a mental health day for teachers and school-bus drivers, too. Our lives need some serendipity every so often, and it would be sad if an unplanned day off only occurred for schools in the form of bomb or shooting threats.

[Johonny]

37. I live in LA.

There is no snow.

[aocommunalpunch]

38. As an elementary teacher, let me say

snow days should be factored into the year as forgiven days, up to a point. Same with heat days, which I've also had here in Michigan. The ultimate problem isn't getting rid of the snow day. It's what you put in its place. Virtual day? More work for everyone involved. So, the gain is mostly to check a box of admin. Not worth it IMO.