Snow days. The days all Goffstown High School students used to dream of. Waking up at their usual time to see if there was a message by either the school or their parents about the kind of day they will be having. Eyes widening as smiles grace their faces when they see the confirmation on the screen, the day ahead will not be spent in school. It’s a day they don’t have to care about their appearance if it matters to them, being able to stay in their comfiest clothes. 

Most students would go back to bed, others would go about their mornings being asked to help around by their parents, few–or a little more than–would venture out alone or with friends and make a day out of the snow, a few would get called into work as a plow. Regardless, everyone would be happy about not having to go to school.

It is because of that, it’s no surprise that most students aren’t very happy about snow days being turned into remote days. Though there is still relief in the fact that no one has to drive in the dangerous snowfall and can get away with participating without showing face.  

Now with remote days, everyone wakes at the usual time, maybe even a little later if they predicted the outcome for the day, but most times they can’t fall back to sleep in relief. Instead, they have to go into PowerSchool and then Schoology to determine the times of each class ‘zoom’ meetings. If they still have no idea what times those are, they have to email all of their teachers to get the times and hope that their power doesn’t go out or the internet isn’t spotty due to the snow. 

While some students have a fine time learning by themselves, that’s not everyone. Kyla Pothier a senior at the school says “I feel remote days don’t help us learn anything.” an opinion different to Kiley Morel, another senior who stated she “didn’t mind them,” before she changed her mind later saying “actually I agree with just plain snow days, no one cares if we have to make it up,” though one shouldn’t assume everyone agrees. 

That would be another reason remote days continued, “remote days are really just a way for the school to count it as another day.” Penny Annis, another senior, stated. Students and teachers alike know why we have snow days, but it’s difficult to be glad about it when there are indirect stresses added on top of class meetings. Teachers having to tend to their own children, students watching siblings for parents, power outages, spotty internet, students that work as plows either have to not work that day or put on the meeting while plowing–a dangerous idea.