As many students have realized, it’s snowed a lot this year. There seems to be a weather warning every week. What students also know is that snow days this year are all virtual at NPHS. The similarities between virtual days and snow days are seemingly uncanny, but if you looked a little closer, you would notice that virtual learning days and virtual snow days are not the same thing. 

In theory, doing virtual learning as opposed to getting the day off would seem like a win-win. Kids get to learn and the extra snow days are added into the breaks. Seems fair enough, right? However, even though having virtual learning for snow days seems like an equal trade, it’s not.

Virtual learning in itself is flawed. There are many distractions at home, and technology issues can affect students’ ability to learn. We know that, that’s why NPHS has decided to use a hybrid learning schedule. This way students can get a fuller education while also being safe during the pandemic. When it’s all virtual, however, both A and B days are not getting a full learning experience. This in itself doesn’t really affect a student’s education, but all these virtual days can negatively affect students’ mental health.

I wouldn’t put it so far as to say that having no snow days devastates students, however, snow days were once a long coveted break kids got from the day to day. It was an amazing and unique experience to wake up, look outside your window, and realize it was snowing. For five days a week, every kid gets up, goes to school, goes home, and does homework. It was nice to wake up and not have anything to do. Furthermore, playing in the snow on a snow day was a staple in most students’ lives, but with virtual learning, you’re stuck staring at the snow from inside the house until dismissal. I’ve woken up with the blinds down, and didn’t realize it was snowing until at least the fourth period. It feels like the disruption of a sacred tradition, and it takes a little bit of magic out of winter.

 Snow days should be snow days: days in which kids can relax and have fun playing in the snow while it lasts. School days should be school days: days in which students can learn without having technological issues or distractions (such as snow that you can’t jump in) keeping them from learning to their full potential. Seeing as there is still a cache of snow days in case the wifi or power cuts out, it makes more sense to use them on snow days instead of adding them to breaks.

It’s ironic how the one year we get snow after snow after snow, we no longer have snow days. While this may be sad considering that many towns around us are getting days off, let’s try to be positive about this. At least now we don’t have to worry about losing days off break.

For more information:

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/no-more-snow-days-thanks-to-remote-learning-not-everyone-agrees/2020/11\

https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/24/snow-days-distance-learning/