Snow days are something that have been cherished by students since the early days of American education. The feeling received by the news of a snow day is standard among most people, even if what you spend the snow day doing is different. As a small child, maybe you went sledding outside. Now, maybe you would rather watch TV or play video games. Snow days also provide a much needed break within a rigorous schedule. Many students in high school don’t have much free time due to schoolwork, extracurricular activities, and sports. The free time that comes with a snow day can allow a student to relax and possibly catch up on work. Regardless of how a person spends their day off, I believe that doing zoom calls at home is not good.

The snow day distant learning program used during January 7th was extremely inefficient. Most teachers didn’t even have a zoom class. Choosing to take attendance and end the call. The zoom classes that were done were not good because it was difficult to learn from a computer screen. I thought that we had learned from last year that it is very difficult to engage and learn from the computer screen. In some cases it is possible, but sitting at your computer for six hours does not work. The 45 minute breaks were just as useful as the classes themselves. I would much rather just get through the calls and be done by noon. Especially when some teachers give assignments that run after the slotted class time. It is hard, in my opinion, to effectively learn using zoom calls no matter the scenario. Especially when it is a blizzard outside and the last thing you want to be doing is more schoolwork.

I would rather take added days at the end of the school year, than more distance learning days. Snow days are something that is special to students in the northern United States. I think of it as almost reparations for having to deal with 15 degree weather for half the year. It is something that I personally look forward to.

SuperIntendent Balke has already explained via video this year that GHS will continue to have distanced learning days on snow day cancellations. This is something that I strongly disagree with. I firmly believe that having a day off during a snow day can not only give students a well deserved break, but even allow them to do better when the schools open back up. Bringing back real snow days is something that the school should consider.