Snow Days

The big topic this week has been snow days. Between school closing this summer and school opening this fall, the departing governor deprived the schools in Ohio of two of their snow (or calamity) days. We had five, he left us with three. Most of the rural or smaller schools have now used two of these three days, and it isn't Christmas yet.

The new governor has promised to give us back our two taken-away snow days. And many schools build a few extra days into their schedules, because apparently they know something the government does not: Nature won't be legislated.

Whose idea was this? Who decided that a child's ability to learn was dependent on how many hours they spend in a classroom? Are our children deprived of their right to education if they spend five hours a day in the classroom instead of eight? Where is there data to back that up?

Schools used to be scheduled around the natural cycles of (agricultural) life. Now, parental life has to be scheduled around school. And God forbid the school not be there when the parent(s) have things to do. If that happens, in this society, it is the parents who end up punished for tardiness or absenteeism.

That shows that it's not so much the hours needed in the classroom for learning. It seems to be much more about the hours in the classroom for babysitting.

I propose a whole new concept. Let's set school schedules, without counting days or hours in seats. Let's say these are the days of school. And when something happens, we smile as we regret the lost opportunity, and when the calamity is over with, we just get on with life.

Not rearrange it.