You’d have to be living under a rock (or not on Facebook,
Twitter or Instagram) to not know about the snow on the East Coast right now. Aside
from the many pictures of snow-covered everything all over social media right
now, there are many snippets of conversations that turn into long threads about
the issue over the missed days of school. Because this is my blog, and because
I can, I’m going to offer my opinion on this, and I will be speaking (with
authority) as:
·
a parent
·
a single parent
·
a parent who works outside of the home
·
a parent of an only child*
·
a parent of a young child not old enough to stay
home by herself
·
a parent who works at home**; and
·
a school bus driver.
*I have two children that are eleven years apart. My older daughter
is 21, with a job and her own life and not home much anymore. Basically, each
one grew up as a single child.
**I’ve been a single parent for most of each of my daughter’s
elementary school years, working outside of the home (first in an office and
then as a bus driver) until last year. This is my first winter as a
work-at-home parent.
Snow days are a hassle from the get-go. Just the snow itself
can be a big pain in the ass. As soon as it’s realized that the snow may be
substantial enough to interfere with school, parents of young children go into
overdrive trying to figure out what they are going to do with their kids when
they go to work, because most of us have to still work. For single parents this
can be excruciating, because sometimes you have to make that choice between
work and your kids—and you know what you have to choose. Either way, there is
worry and guilt (and a potential loss of pay). We are all over the internet and
television, wanting to find out what our city’s decision will be—needing to
find out as soon as possible so we know what arrangements we will have to make.
We may cheer when our kid’s school finally cancels--but that is not because we
are happy about it; we are happy that we know
so that we can make our plans. Our bosses don’t like getting calls right before
work saying we can’t come in—but if the schools wait that long to tell us, sometimes
we have no other option.
As a parent who now works from home, I am grateful that I
don’t have to go through that frustration every snow day anymore. But I do
still have to work, and it is much harder when the kids are home. And (especially
over multiple snow days) when you have an only child at home and you have to
work in your bedroom office with the door shut to block out the noise of the
TV, you feel guilty for feeling like you’ve shut the child out (parent guilt is
always fun). If you live in an apartment with no back yard, your kid cannot go
play outside unless you stop work to take them out. Same choice: kid or work;
same guilt.
This was our third consecutive week with snow storms and
multiple snow days (and we are looking at another storm the day after
tomorrow). After the first week with my daughter being home on my two busiest
work days, I made sure to have a friend snowed in with us for the last two
storms so she wouldn’t be alone the whole time and I could work a little easier.
So, snow days are a huge
pain in the ass. I really do hate them.
However, when it
comes to schools closing:
In spite of the way snow days really interfere with my
schedule, I would rather them close.
I guess that’s the bottom line, but I will explain further.
I absolutely hate how long we have to wait to find out
whether or not school is cancelled (and, believe it or not, bus drivers don’t
always get notified first). And I understand why we wait. The schools don’t
want to make the wrong decision and then worry about losing the “allowed” snow
days they have and have to worry about extending the school year in June. I
have to admit, I think there is a little anal over-concern about getting in exactly
180 days. But that’s my opinion.
We live in an area that is known to have weather conditions
like this—not every single year, but it’s not so uncommon that we don’t know we
have to make arrangements for them (hence, the “allowed snow days”). Yes,
sometimes the school systems make what seems to have been a ‘bad call’
occasionally that has cancelled school when it didn’t turn out to be necessary
(hindsight, anyone?), but that shouldn’t affect them from making a ‘right’ call
on another occasion—but it does because of the worry of losing those days,
which is a damn shame. I drove a school bus route regularly for eleven years,
and vividly remember driving on days we shouldn’t have been. And I thank the
Universe that those days didn’t get really ugly.
The schools shouldn’t have to be under the pressure they are
to not ‘waste’ those days we have allotted for special circumstances. There is
really no such thing as a ‘bad call’ when it comes to cancelling school because
no one—not even our meteorologists—can accurately predict the weather (although
that has changed significantly for the better since 1978). Cancelling school
because of bad weather (even predicted bad weather) is a matter of safety. For everyone. Everyone who lives
near anyone going to or from school anywhere; drivers on the roads during bus
routes, drivers who encounter school busses or school children in their paths.
People who drive mostly highways to work and notice how
well-plowed the highways are often make snide comments about the roads being “fine”
and “why aren’t the kids in school? This isn’t bad!” first have to realize that
bus routes don’t normally drive highways; they are driving the roads that may
not be cleared as well.
·
Side streets never get the attention that the
main roads get first and the busses are all over those side streets.
·
Busses are also rather large, and do not bend in
the middle; making turns on corners onto streets that haven’t been plowed wide
enough is a lot harder than you making the turn in your baby SUV.
·
When snow is piled high on the corners it
affects visibility all the way around, and a bus driver cannot always see if
there is even room to make the turn.
·
Those unplowed or less-plowed side streets also
mean that coming to a stop might end up meaning a permanent stop when the bus
gets stuck with its wheels spinning (but school busses don’t stop a lot, do
they?).
·
Too much snow prevents kids from having a safe
(and visible to other drivers) place to wait for their busses.
·
When school busses leave in the morning this
time of year, it can be a little darker in the mornings, interfering with
visibility. Black ice is almost completely invisible in the dark, isn’t it?
·
When all of the sidewalks aren’t plowed, kids
have nowhere to walk except the not-wide-enough streets. They interfere with
regular traffic. This puts more cars on the roads when parents have to drive
them.
--I have to interrupt here with a pet peeve. To all the
joggers out there: is it really that necessary for you to be out on the streets
jogging under these conditions? Shouldn’t vehicles have first dibs on the
streets? You have other options for exercise. Cars have a hard enough time
passing you on the street when there’s snow everywhere. Busses and large trucks
have it even worse; if we have no room to allow for the required 6-foot
distance between you and the vehicle when passing you, we are forced to follow you. Please be fair and stay off
the roads.
The whole idea of calling a snow day (or bad weather day) in
advance is safety. We try to teach our kids to err on the side of caution, yet
we blow that out the window by how we show that what appears to be more
important than the potential safety of people is the 180 days of school rule,
or not having to extend the school year. It is only an inconvenience to extend the school year, and one that doesn’t put
anyone at risk. Sure, driving a full (especially if you know our town), un-air-conditioned
school bus with 70+ hot students sucks, but it is a lot more fun than driving
70+ students in full winter gear (not high school kids, though; fashion always
wins over weather), carrying instruments (we are fortunate enough to have a great
music department) and book bags that are bigger than they are, while fish-tailing
at every single stop (or not being able to make it down certain streets, or not
being able to turn a corner, or not being able to see a child who isn’t where
he or she should be). Which inconvenience is worse? Having to extend school in
June, or having an accident in the winter? If we really want our kids to learn
that safety is more important than inconvenience, we have to show them. All it takes is one nasty accident to make a
difference, right?
Which one of you wants to make the sacrifice to make that
difference?
I have a suggestion: Teachers plan their curriculum ahead of
time, right? (And I don’t think this would over-tax the already sometimes
under-appreciated teachers). Would it be possible that the schools could arrange
some type of online program (or on-public-access-tv) that would allow the kids
to stay home on the bad days and still get lessons, and/or even homework? If
the curriculum is even roughly planned in advance, then there has to be an idea
of what would be taught during the winter. Packets could be made up in advance
and given out to the parents at the beginning of the year (or online
information if printing is too expensive) that have lesson plans, that can be
accessed on the days kids can’t go to school. Lessons can be videoed in
advance; if you don’t use them one year, you can use them the next (and they
can be used more than once). Schooling is about educating the kids, not just
having them check in somewhere for 180 exact days. We should worry about the
education, and not the actual in-school time. This would ease the school’s pressure
of worrying about going over the amount of snow days, allowing them to make a
judgment call based on safety. We say it’s better to err on the side of caution,
but we don’t practice that. We should. And we should ease up on the pressure
for the schools not to call snow days
because of inconvenience.
My best friend Donna is a nurse (and it’s her daughter I
usually ‘borrow’ during snowstorms). She is also a single mother whose schedule
gets messed with on snow days, but her job is important. So many people have jobs that are really a matter of necessity,
or life or death. The people who are responsible for snow removal of any kind,
the electricians, the gas companies, the police, firemen, ambulance and
tow-truck drivers, healthcare workers, transportation drivers—their workload
doubles during this type of weather. The roads should be cleared for them first. When the schools have to make a
decision to close or not close schools, these essential workers should be part of their consideration, including whether
or not it may be a good idea to keep more people walking and driving out of their way.
I’m not saying we should be afraid of a ‘little’ snow; I’m
saying that keeping our kids in school later in the year is not as important as
some are making it out to be. We have more at our disposal in technology that
we should be able to come up with acceptable alternatives when needed. The
schools should be able to make a call without fear of reprisal if they make the
‘wrong’ one, and without that pressure they should be able to make it in a timelier
manner, which will make any inconveniences a little less inconvenient.
And a shout out to you essential
workers (and I’m sorry if I neglected to include anyone): THANK YOU!
