By JORDAN GREEN, Editor-in-Chief
Is this it?
Is the end of the snow day?
When blizzards, subfreezing temperatures and heavy snowfall inundated the Sooner State last month, schools and colleges statewide didn’t cancel classes – a time-honored tradition from which students have long reaped the benefits.
Instead, they conducted classes in virtual formats – a practice we’ve become all too familiar with during the coronavirus pandemic.
I was sitting in my dormitory room on Valentine’s Day when I got the email announcing Northwestern Oklahoma State University’s switch to virtual instruction. The day suddenly became anything but lovely.
Snow days are one of the aspects of school that students look forward to the most. Waking up on a Monday morning and finding out that school is canceled for the day is, for many children, an exhilarating and liberating feeling.
Snow days are filled with fun, friendship and quality time with families. When I was in elementary school, my dad, my sister and I would take our sleds to a nearby playground and build a ramp out of snow at the bottom of a hill. We’d climb to the top of the hill and race to the bottom, launching off the ramp and landing – often face-first in a fit of laughter – into the fresh snow on the ground.
As we grew up, we found other ways – faster ways – to sled. We’d drive four-wheelers in the snow and hook our sleds behind them, zipping around pastures and up and down roads. Oh, the joy was endless.
I know I’m not the only guy who has fond memories of snow days. Now that I’m in college, my friends and I still love to go sledding. Truth be told, most college students do. And I think we always will.
Snow days give us the chance to embrace the beauty of nature, both environmentally and interpersonally. Playing outside in the snow is healthy; the physical activity is good for the mind and the body. And being around our friends supports our mental health. We all need companionship.
Snow days are blessings. To take them away is a curse.
Since the pandemic began nearly one year ago, students and educators have used virtual learning methods to carry out instruction. By keeping students at home and out of the classroom, school officials hoped to reduce the spread of the coronavirus.
The weather, however, is not a rapidly spreading virus that may endlessly grip the world. It goes away. By the time you read this column, the inclement weather will be long gone. You might even be wearing a short-sleeve shirt outdoors.
A few snow days here and there will not hurt our educational outcomes. We’ve had snow days ever since people started attending school. Snow days are some of the most memorable parts of childhood – and we shouldn’t quickly abandon them.
But here’s something that can hurt our educational outcomes: an over-reliance on virtual instruction.
Virtual learning has its pitfalls. Not all students have equal access to the technology needed for virtual learning – especially minority students, many of whom come from poorer socioeconomic backgrounds, statistically speaking.
In rural areas, internet access – or lack thereof – is also problematic for many students. Getting an internet signal in and around Alva, Oklahoma, can be a challenge. And as we learned during this horrible winter storm, technology can all too often fail. The power supply in this part of the country was nearly exhausted. Without electricity, there can be no online school.
Building a system of education that relies entirely on technology – which, as we’ve learned, can be rendered useless during times of inclement weather – seems like a recipe for failure. We found this out the hard way.
The solution to these problems is to keep doing something we’ve done for hundreds of years. When the weather is inclement, call for a snow day.
We won’t have to worry about unreliable internet access and fragile technological infrastructure.
Instead, we’ll just be outside, having good, clean fun that can improve our health outcomes, foster our creativity and strengthen our interpersonal skills.
We will always have plenty of time to learn. But we won’t always have time to enjoy special moments with friends and families, sledding down hills and making precious snow-angels that will forever be ingrained in our minds.
For every day that we’re sitting in front of a computer screen when the ground is covered in snow, we lose the chance to make lasting memories, spend time with loved ones and relish in the spontaneous joy we’re given when class is canceled.
The pandemic has already robbed us of much of what makes life fun. Let’s not let it cancel the snow day.