The Mid-Ohio Valley is in the midst of a powerful polar vortex. Seven snow days have already shortened our school year. While getting unplanned days off school allows great opportunities for students to relax, have fun, or catch up on schoolwork, the extra days potentially eating into summer break are hard to get through.
Non-traditional learning was a primary means for education throughout the COVID-19 years. During quarantine, this allowed students to continue fulfilling educational goals despite being home. Since iPads are county-wide, students have the ability to keep up with schoolwork and learn outside the classroom. Simply returning to holding Microsoft Teams meetings and posting Schoology assignments on snow days would keep our school year from spilling into summer.
Summer break has possibly already lost two days and, while being off school through the winter feels great in the present, once we’re in warm weather, it’ll be hard to have those extra days. Worse, the quality of education we will actually receive on these final days will be far worse than if we worked through non-traditional means on snow days. Especially in high school, the final days or even week of classes typically have little to no assignments or lessons and are, therefore, very unproductive and boring. Attendance is usually bad due to students, who hardly have classwork, being much more likely to skip. Since the last days of the year are cutting into what was previously summer break, attendance will be even worse than usual at the end of the school year. Many families plan vacations the first week of break, causing their students to miss any extra days of school that are added onto the calendar.
Seniors, many of whom have plans for college following graduation, may be affected the most from an educational standpoint. Since college is a possible path, it’s undeniably better off for seniors to be as academically prepared as possible. Graduation is always set at the beginning of the year and the date doesn’t shift no matter what. As a result, seniors don’t make up snow days. This means that college-bound students aren’t receiving the full education they need in their senior year if school is closed for weather. It can be argued that, since many students wouldn’t attend online classes or complete assignments on snow days, the quality of education on non-traditional days would be just as bad as the days added onto the summer. However, lessons and assignments will actually be available on non-traditional days, but they wouldn’t in summer. A student choosing not to attend online classes or complete “snow day” work posted on Schoology could simply have work to make up as if they were absent on a normal school day.
Despite the clear benefits of non-traditional learning, there are many drawbacks as well. While some students would choose to skip online meetings just because they don’t want to bother, many can’t participate. Wi-Fi routers are expensive and often not a priority for struggling families. Although Wood County’s Board of Education has attempted to make the internet accessible to all students, the price, rural homes, and troubles with hotspots have proved this solution to be faulty. Due to this, many students can’t find a viable iPad connection and, therefore, can’t participate in online classes. Many teachers also have similar problems with accessing Wi-Fi and are unable to host their classes from home. To address this, teachers may have to come into their school buildings to conduct class remotely. If the poor weather or quality of roads means students can’t be in school, teachers shouldn’t leave their homes or drive, either. If a teacher isn’t able to have an online class, then students aren’t getting their necessary education.
Just because there’s a scholastic snow day doesn’t mean parents will be off work and home to assist their children. Although older students like high schoolers know how to log into online classes, younger students don’t have that ability. On snow days, working parents typically take their child to daycare or leave them home with a hired babysitter or older sibling. All three scenarios have significant issues. Daycare workers won’t have the time to focus on one child’s needs, and schoolwork is not usually the highest priority. A babysitter might not know how to help a young student log into an online meeting, and that’s assuming the babysitter is aware that there are classes in the first place. Some young students have an older sibling that is able to stay home and watch them. However, since many older siblings are students as well, it will be harder for both to complete the necessary schoolwork. Younger siblings will require attention to log onto their classes and get the help they need with schoolwork and, in turn, the older sibling won’t have time for their own responsibilities.
Most students wouldn’t skip a beat before arguing that snow days shouldn’t be changed to non-traditional learning days. Though there are multiple problems with non-traditional days, it can’t be denied that there are many positives to them as well. Overall, the pros and cons are relatively equal and both opinions are valid.
