Snow Days Are Cancelled, and That’s Just the Beginning

For multiple months students and teachers have adjusted to online classes and virtual learning. With all the challenges and problems associated with online learning, it has always been the better alternative to no school at all. This has been great for our current time; it gave us the option to go to school from anywhere, even when we cannot be there for safety reasons. That being said, school officials have realized that this can be the case even without a pandemic. If the students have some reason for not attending school, why not have them attend remotely.

There is no longer a need for a day off with online learning due to inclement weather; instead, students can use online resources to attend school for the day. New York was the first school district to implement this, but as the snow starts to find its way into northern cities, it is expected that many school districts will follow suit. This is where sorrow begins. Students won’t have the ability to practice the childish superstitions of putting a spoon under their pillow or flipping their pajamas inside out in the hopes of a snow day. No longer will they have the experience of waking up early to sit and watch the news broadcast intently, hoping that maybe the name of their school will scroll past on the very bottom of the screen. They won’t know the joy of finally reading the notification that their school has decided that they cannot commute safely and instead decided to give them a snow day. It will cause them to miss out on hanging with friends or going sledding before enjoying a warm cup of hot chocolate and hoping the day will never end.

Although that in itself should be a sad enough thought, the truth is that the snow day is just the beginning of the cancellations. It will only be a matter of time before the hybrid classroom setting allows students to log into class remotely if they are sick. No more the days of a teacher calling out, “Bueller? Beuller? Beuller?” Instead, a weak muffled voice will be heard from the computer, “Here.” Soon if a young classroom has a student come in with lice, to prevent an outbreak, it might make sense to have school from home for a week until parents can treat it.

Worst of all, once everything is said and done, school officials will realize that with the number of times students are actually online, why even send them to school in the first place. Education is a business as well. Private and public schools could all decrease their budget significantly if, instead of paying for a building and utilities and maintenance to run the facility, they would be able to buy every student a laptop.

Although this is a greatly exaggerated narrative, is it that hard to imagine what is happening in 5 or 10 years as technology improves? A glowing screen could easily replace this dystopian idea of what was once an excellent place for students to share ideas and grow through classes and lunch table debates on a desk in their bedroom. And to think it all started because schools got rid of the snow day.