Snow Day

“It’s a snow day!”

Do you remember waking up to those magical words? An entire day, covered in white, was out there waiting for you. Waiting for sleds and snowball fights and snow forts that would fill the hours ahead of you. You would eat breakfast as fast as you could, put on your snow pants, jacket, mittens, hat, and boots, and head out into a winter wonderland of fun and no schedule. At some point, you would head inside to have lunch and, undoubtedly, a cup of hot cocoa. And then, you were back outside for more fun in the snow.

This year, in my school district, we did have a day when it was deemed unsafe to travel to school because of deep snow and icy roads. Did we have a snow day? We did not. We had a plan in place for situations like this. We returned to total distance learning for the day. I set myself up in my basement. I logged in to Zoom, and I met my students in their kitchens, basements, or bedrooms to do school. We followed our schedule. We didn’t miss a beat. We did our work. And at 3:40 PM, my students were able to go outside and play in the snow until it got dark—around one hour later.

When I asked my students the following day if they had played in the snow the day before, most of them said no. They had homework. They didn’t have time.

Over a foot of snow had fallen on our town, but the children hardly enjoyed it.

We, as schools, have gotten very good at shifting and pivoting from hybrid learning to distance learning and back again. We have learned so much over the course of the last year. We are proud that we don’t ever need to miss school. Not even for the longed-for snow day.

Is the snow day a thing of the past? Is it gone for good? Have those words—snow day—lost their magic?