Your alarm clock rings. You wake up groggily, and check the time. 6:45. Time for school. Then, like a miracle, a parent comes into the room and says that today is a virtual day. With a sigh of relief, you sink back into bed. But is that really the best option? As you know, a few weeks ago we had our first virtual day after using all our snow days. The reactions were mixed. “It stunk.” Said one Welsh Valley student. “It was a lot less workload than a half day.” Another said. On one hand, that’s the way it’s always been, and you don’t actually learn much, but on the other hand, days are added on and it’s not much worse than snow days. So let’s see if this day was a right choice.
First of all, snow days should stay school-free because that’s the way it always has been! Before COVID, you had as many snow days as we liked. You could sled and snowball fight to your heart’s content. Now, we have days where we waste away staring at screens. Why did we have to change that perfect equilibrium? It was fine the way it was!
Another point why those days should be only ours is because it’s not very healthy. Many students fall behind and have trouble paying attention on screens, sometimes switching tabs to games and getting distracted by phones. Because it’s at home, parents also struggle to stay focused. Snow days were part of our childhood, but that was taken away. Instead of the fun we used to have playing outside, we become glued to our computer while the snow melts outside.
Now, we have to look at the other side. While more snow days could be great, there are other things in our way. One reason is that then we get extra days! The only reason we were able to have multiple snow days before the pandemic is because we were forced to add days on to summer. This disrupted people’s vacations, made schools with little to no A/C intolerable to learn in, cost money for the unlucky schools, and generally didn’t help students.
It’s true, despite the problems with staring at screens, unfortunately, many students laze around on their phones during snow days anyway. Plus, a virtual day is exactly the same time as a half day. Then, you have some time for asynchronous work. If you’re lucky, it might only take a few minutes to finish your homework. After all that is done, you will have time to play in the snow.
There are many different reasons for these days to stay or to leave. We have always had free snow days in the past, and it adds screen time. But the days added on in the summer and the miniscule amount of extra work point the other way. So what do you think? If you can, vote now! Maybe we will finally know the answer.
https://www.parents.com/virtual-learning-on-snow-days-impacts-on-parents-and-kids-8580428
Don’t bring back the days of Zoom; snow days should not be virtual
