Snow Days...Are they really worth it?

Usually when I complain about how things are going at work, I get the rolled eyeballs and the "yeah right" response, mostly because my day job is being a teacher.  With the weather forecasts being what they have been lately (including another threat of the white stuff tonight), I present to you the hypothetical rant of a general working person who does not enjoy the same time schedule of the average teacher (I never did actually have this exact exchange with anyone...just so you know). 

"How can you (you being teachers) have it so bad?  I mean, seriously...you get Summers off, every holiday you can possibly think of, your day ends at 3:30, and at even the slightest hint of snow, everybody gets cold feet and closes school for the day.  I (being the generic day job worker) have to dig my car out of the driveway and risk my life on a 1/4 inch of ice whenver that happens because my boss needs me there at 7AM"

While I will admit, the Summers off bit is a nice perq (although it really isn't all that long if you think about it), the subject of this post today is the last bit of that rant: snow days.  My opinion on the snow day is not necessarily shared by the majority of teachers in this blogosphere, but here it is anyway. 

Snow days stink.

Now, every now and then, I'm not gonna lie, I turn the radio on in the morning and find out that the public schools have called off for the day, I roll back into bed for the next couple of hours with a little smile on my face.  Then I wake up and reality sets in.  I'm the kind of guy who likes to plan ahead.  Others are day-to-day people.  I like to plan my week out in advance.  Most of the time, what I plan isn't what I actually do, but at least I give myself an idea as to where I'll be going in each of my classes.  I run copies, write tests, grade labs, whatever.  Old Man Winter decides to unleash the fury, all of that gets messed up.  Instead of getting my work done at school, I'm shoveling a driveway or cleaning off my car (yes yes, everyone else has to do that too AND go to work that day).  Bottom line is I end up getting a wasted day. 

Now, I am certainly not advocating that schools do away with snow days and force kids to suck it up and walk to the schoolbus on icy sidewalks or whatever the case may be.  I understand the concern, and when you deal with kids, you always err on the side of caution.  That's why most school systems build snow days into the calendar in the first place: it snows and there will be days when kids don't come to school because of inclement weather.  Nevertheless, that does not mean that schools always make the right decision.

Case in point, September 1999: Hurricane Floyd (not a snow day, but you'll get my point).  I was a junior in high school and Floyd dumped about a foot of rain in Maryland on Thursday.  That's a lot of water.  As a result of all of the flash flooding, most schools cancelled.  Fine.  They also cancelled on Friday.  I expected to see in the news still lots of flooding and cars washing away down a river.  In fact, Friday was sunny, dry, we saw no hint of water anywhere, and the kids were all getting cabin fever.  So we decided to play football in the neighbor's yard.  Sorry, kids, but there was no reason why you shouldn't have had school that day.  As a result, you may get an extra play day, but the teachers lost two days of planning and productivity with the kids, and now have two less snow days in the calendar for when the inevitable blizzard decides to come.....like in 2010!

Ah yes, the blizzard(s) of 2010.  A grand total of 7 days of school lost due to snow (including 5 in a row).  It's not like we had anything we could do about it.  My street didn't even get plowed after the first round, throw another 18 inches on top of that, you get the idea.  By the end of that week, even the kids were itching to get back to normal.  I had to give assignments via email so they could have some resemblance of an education.  Those are days of productivity you can't get back, even if you decide to tack on days to Spring Break or the end of the year or wherever.  That interrupts the rhythm of a classroom (yes, classrooms can have rhythm).  We work on projects, read articles, stay up on current events, and it's much harder to do when not in the classroom setting.  Kids might even forget your face...and we wouldn't want that now would we? 

Anyway, if any of you decide to take up the noble cause of teaching (if you havn't done so already), keep in mind this.  All that snow may make you bug-eyed and ready to bust out the sleds and skis, but there is no cure for cabin fever other than an honest, hard days work.

We can talk about that Summer vacation bit later. 

As I prepare for what might be coming tomorrow...oye vey.  Who am I kidding?  Give me sun, 90 degrees and a nice burn and I'm happy :-).