Pro/Con of Snow Days

There’s a certain feeling when you’re young and waking up in the winter- the cold biting at your toes as you climb to the window. You open your blinds, and there it is; the snow is lining the ground, shimmering and reflecting into your eyes. If it’s more than five inches, well, that means it’s a snow day. A day for relaxing, playing in the snow until your cheeks are red, and warmth as night falls.

Snow days are exciting for everyone involved in the school system: teachers, students, and parents alike. They are a well-deserved break, and normally, are put in place so that people would not have to drive to school in dangerous conditions. Now, due to the introduction of zoom and online learning, it would be possible to do away with the concept of snow days. Because of this system of online learning, if there would theoretically be a situation in which a snow day would have to be implicated, it wouldn’t be a real snow day. Instead, it would most likely be a day of online learning. It is possible that it could be asynchronous, but even so, the existence of this system would expect teachers- especially teachers with kids- to put together a lesson plan that functions online, with zoom or asynchronously.

This isn’t a fair expectation, because when teachers receive the news in the morning, it’s difficult to get together something that is productive and not simply busywork. A snow day should be a mental health day, because it is a well-deserved break from the normal flow of the school year. A day such as a snow day would be much better utilized as a mental health day for teachers than as a school day out of the classroom. It should be a mental health day because snow days present the opportunity for teachers to get that time they need without leaving an in person class with a substitute teacher. Mental health is extremely important for everyone, especially teachers. If a teacher does not have good mental health, it is detrimental for their students and everyone surrounding them. A lack of good mental health can prevent productivity in the work space, and with no breaks to preserve their mental health, they may be unable to perform to the capacity that is required.

In addition to the mental health a snow day provides, it also brings joy to the students and teachers who are able to experience it. The snow day is enacted to keep everyone safe because the roads are not suitable for travel, and it brings the community together in their state of being apart. It brings back feelings of isolation similar to those in COVID, but now that we have experienced in person school, it feels best to have a snow day because it does not feel like the online learning we experienced.

Although it does add additional days to the end of the school year, it does not extend it enough that it significantly inconveniences classes. In conclusion, snow days should be treated as they have in the past, despite zoom technology- because they give everyone in the school system a small joy and a small break from the usual school year.