Storm days need not be snow days

March 14th, 2008

Imagine another typical winter morning, a morning where blinding snow is whipped into a frenzy by howling winds, where visibility is limited, safe travel is unlikely, schools are closed, and no buses are running. It is a snow day—but it is anything but typical.

There was a time, before this age of safety first, when responsibility’s ugly cousin liability didn’t reek like wet boots over everything we see and do. Snow days used to be reserved for the worst of storms, when the roads, the ditches and the fields all looked the same. White. Today we err on the side of caution, and hold children home from school at the slightest sign of a storm. It doesn’t even have to be a storm anymore. Since the new year began, local students have enjoyed a day away from their desks for a snow day, an ice day, even a fog day. What students were doing home last Wednesday is anyone’s guess. Perhaps, with all that sunlight and bright blue sky, children were in danger of snow blindness. It is not the first time buses have been cancelled on a marginal storm day, and it certainly won’t be the last.

The problem is obvious. The people in charge of school cancellations are getting up way too early to make sensible decisions. Snow day storms often level off by midday. If everyone was encouraged to sleep in, weather wouldn’t be nearly as bad, and the world would run a little better. If the school day started at noon, students and teachers could get to class more often. Kids could sleep half the day away, which is something they might enjoy anyway; and working parents would no longer have to scramble to get supper ready, because school would get out at six. Of course, this is only a partial solution to the problem.

For the benefit of all young people, I assembled a top research team, and determined there are far more winter storms in the months of January and February in Canada than occur in July and August. Take a look at the data. It speaks for itself. You couldn’t make it up if you tried.

As snow days begin to pile up, students run the risk of falling behind due to missed time. This would not happen if classes were held in the summer, and “summer vacation” stretched from Christmas through to March break. Imagine how happy our young people would be if they were home all winter, eating junk food and playing video games, which is something they might enjoy anyway. Their days would be free for such old-time favourites as ice fishing, snow shoveling, icicle tasting and flagpole licking. Conversely, classes all summer would get them out of such arduous tasks as mowing the lawn, taking the dog for a run, or swimming in the pool.

Just think of how happy children would be every July, staring out the classroom window at sun-dappled fields, knowing the weather was not going to hinder them from receiving an education. Sure, there is always the risk of a storm in August, but only the tallest kids would have to worry about being hit by lightning, which is something they might enjoy anyway. Whatever the solution, we recognize that this is Canada, and snow days are a part—a big part—of our lives.