I heard about this on the news and this gave me a bittersweet feeling! Growing up, and maybe even still, anyone who is goes to school prays for snow days. Now that more and more students are having technology incorporated into their classes, they may not be able to completely miss school on future snow days. A school district in Ohio made the news by being the first district to implement ‘E Days’ during snow days. Teachers and administrators dread the thought of pushing the school year into June days. By implementing E Days, students will be responsible for doing their schoolwork over the Internet during snow days in order to keep up to speed and finish the school year on time. I can see both the good side and the bad side to the situation, but I was a little heartbroken at the concept of no more snow days. That was the best part about winter! I remember watching snow fall at night when I was going to bed and then waking up extra early to read the cancellations on the news… it’s like a right of passage during childhood! Now I realize that this may be dramatic, but seriously… is one snow day so bad that we still have to make kids work? I believe that a snow day is more or less nature’s way of giving kids a break! I say let kids be kids, if a snow day turns into a snow week then E Days would be a great idea! I guess the bright side is that I’m old enough that snow days really don’t matter anymore like they did in grade school and high school, and I’m so happy that I was able to experience that before technology took over snow days.
Jo Scott
My freshmen year at SLU we had one snow day when it snowed about 3". I can't tell you how disappointed I was the day it snowed 6" and classes weren't canceled because it was the day of the career fair. That was the only snow day I've had in college. My point is, I feel for these kids; give them a break! On the other hand, technology has made it possible to do work, and a day at home doing homework is better then a day at school doing work.. maybe. This doesn't relate to this post but, I found out my 8 year old nephew is now doing some of his homework online and it was surprising. It seems that pretty soon they're going to be typing up work in elementary school just as we are now.
ReplyDeleteI'm from rural New Hampshire. Despite the fact that we had a review system in place where they could not even think about canceling school unless it was a foot or more of snow, we often had about 14-20 snow days a year. As a result we went to school until the end of June most years. While I think this is a great alternative to keeping kids in a classroom into late June, I wonder what they are missing by having "E-days". Besides the thrill of the snow day- isn't part of the education kids get in school supposed to be about socialization? To me that is a key part of the education system, to be amongst people your age learning the same things as those around you. Maybe for a place with less snow these "E-days" would not be a big deal, but 2 weeks of them might be detrimental
ReplyDeleteI could not imagine not having a snow day in elementary, middle or even high school! :) I loved snow days, you could sleep in, then go sledding or have a snow ball fight, and finally go back inside for some hot chocoa! They were some of the best days, but we never had soo many that we had to go past our normal school ending. What would normally happen is we would go a day later before Winter Break or lose a day of Spring Break. I do however agree that if you are having more than 3 or 4 snow days, the "E-days" sound like a good idea (except for those kids without internet access at home). What would they do if a kid couldn't access the internet during the snow day?
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