Snow Day 2021 (Updated)

     I wrote this post before checking to see whether or not schools were closed. Good old Ridgewood closed them and gave every student enduring online schooling a break for a day.

   

 

 

     Just when I couldn't think of another thing which the Internet hasn't disrupted, we had a snow day. In the NYC area we ought to receive between 12 and 18 inches of snow. This was plenty good enough for a snow day when I was growing up but now with people working from home and schools online, there is no stopping to admire the flakes. I think we learned as much sometimes on a snow day as we did when we were sitting in classrooms. 

      It wasn't just sledding, snowball fights, and shoveling snow. Though those were the best parts. There was the waiting by the radio for your town's school system to announce they were closing. In our house it was always the radio, not the TV which we used as proof of no school for the day. I guess we could have walked next door and knocked on the door of Willard School and asked but they didn't have the drama of waiting by the radio. The TV wasn't fast enough and was playing to a much wider audience than the radio stations were.

      When the good news finally presented itself there was the rush to get dressed and go see who else in the neighborhood was up and active. Usually we cleared our sidewalks first then maybe some sledding on the hill at Willard. Depending on the type of snow there might be a snowball fight or a snow fort built. Lots of things to keep young minds active, just like being in school but with better choices.

     I realize the pandemic will likely be over by next winter and in-school instruction  will return. But I can't help but feel sad for the kids who have been robbed of a snow day. Who's to say they won't eliminate snow days entirely, now that at home schooling is possible on those days when the roads are made unusable by an arctic blast and a foot of snow.  That would certainly be a loss.