Rodolfo Peon once foretold that “for those of us who live in a sunny and hot desert, a cloudy day is sometimes all we need to clear our minds…” School has become the overwhelming heat these days for most students this year. In addition, e-learning has become an add-on to the stress that people already endure. Not only has this become an addiction, but e-learning has turned into a replacement for the possible upcoming snow days. Although some people believe that e-learning is essential to make up for in-school learning on snow days, we believe that snow days should be free to do productive things, makeup school work, and for students to have a relaxing day off.
It looks like there are possible outcomes of snow days in the future. The school has stopped giving us 2-hour delays, and e-learning days are set in stone this year to replace our snow days and 2-hour delays. Despite e-learning being fundamental in the replacement of bad snow storms, we think that snow days should be free of schoolwork and not days for e-learning. Recent choices by the MCCSC school board are coming from a good place, but they are not looking out for our best interests in terms of mental health! Students need time to unwind and enjoy the fluffy snow outside instead of being forced upon their glaring screens to do schoolwork while the snow deliriously melts away.
E-learning is an extremely ineffective way for students to learn. It would be much more productive to learn concepts in person than to half-learn them over a Microsoft Teams call. Personally, we find in-person learning to be a delightful experience in comparison to groggily waking up at dawn like you are a 19th-century British peasant forced to do child labor in a textile factory. Subjecting minors to this treatment is inhumane and indespicable.
While on the topic of productivity, it is important to note that just because the school wouldn’t take place on snow days does not mean that students would not be productive. Snow days would provide an amazing opportunity for students to catch up on tough schoolwork. This would allow them to return the next day and give full attention without straining about any homework left over from the previous day.
Additionally, there aren’t many snow days here in Bloomington so we would only be missing around 3 days of school that would need to be made up for at the end of the year. Normally, we’ve had a few bad winters in the past, but very little is sacrificed in order to gain happiness and productivity.
If you look at productivity statistics comparing e-learning to in-school teaching, you would see people perform way better in person. Studies from the World Economic Forum show that on a scale of 1-10 for a student’s average experience during e-learning, online schooling has been marked to a 5.
While in-school learning can cause an overwhelming amount of stress, snow days can be very beneficial for recovering mentally. Having snow days can also allow students to go out and get fresh air and participate in many activities exclusive to winter, like sledding, building snowmen, and having snowball fights. Since students are forced to get up so early nowadays, getting extra sleep is also important.
We believe that it would be beneficial for snow days to remain as days off for students, instead of being turned into e-learning days. Students often need a break to rest and come back to school performing better, especially now that 2-hour delays are no longer given. The inclusion of school days also doesn’t take too much from the summer and it is a well-earned tradeoff. Ultimately, snow days should stay free of e-learning, as it would benefit everyone.
