The best feeling when you wake up on a cold snowy winter day is to see a notification saying that school is canceled due to snow and ice. Having a snow day is such a perfect excuse to “bed rot,” refresh your room, and take a day to reset. I personally love snow days, the feeling of it being all cold, icky, and snowy outside is the perfect feeling when it’s all cozy and warm inside your home.
However, while snowy days may feel good at the moment, they are of no benefit in the long run as students’ much needed summer break is shortened due to the made-up school days. Virtual days, similar to the ones that occurred during quarantine times back in 2020, should be brought back for good to change this outcome. With the substitution of these days into the calendar, students could be able to complete their assignments safely inside their home via electronics, materials, and devices they have at their home during this time.
These days could then count as school days, and reduce the amount of days students have to go into the summertime. While the concern of students without at home power is a valid question, these students could just be attended to when school is back in session, as the vast majority of students have accessible electricity compared to those without. However, past hotspots have been used by the county and state to accommodate these individuals. If plans come back into play certain hotspots like these could be distributed to these homes in order to ensure successful virtual schoolwork for everyone, despite internet/electricity troubles.
Another concern of students not properly learning or doing their assignments at home is also a good reason to be opposed to the idea of virtual days. However, students who truly care about their academics will make efforts to complete their assignments without supervision and those without care towards their academics won’t. This is how it goes inside the school buildings anyways, so there really isn’t much of an excusable difference.
Overall, the option of virtual schooling makes snow days feel dread free, and enjoyable as well as productive most of all. The only downside to snow days is the icky lazy feeling they give when there’s absolutely nothing to do, so having a bit of a construct to one’s day as usual as well as the dread of not having to make it up is gone, a decent solution can be found. Personally, I believe that there is truly no other way to have a greater alternative to the traditional snow day that benefits all students than to bring back virtual days/asynchronous days not only for good, but for the greater good of all students and staff as well.
