Only a Grinch Would Take Away Snow Days from Kids in Central New York

Today, my son's school district in New Hartford called a snow day - even though they could have asked kids to simply log on. I'm so glad they did.

A lot has changed for all of us in 2020. From Zoom meetings, to face masks, to learning what a "positivity rate" is. Perhaps no environment has changed more than schools. Kids are learning on line, at least some of the times, sports have completely changed - and let's not even get started on how crazy things are for teachers, from online classrooms to insane levels of stress. It isn't easy on parents either. We're all searching anywhere for a shred of "normal," a small taste of how things "used to be" before COVID - and snow days are one of those things.

Yes, we could take this extra day to keep kids learning - but why should we? Is one more lesson more valuable than the everyone's mental health? There's something about unexpected free time that feels so much more...free. One day to give a taste of normalcy, and to give an unexpected reprieve from the stress is the right thing to do.

I'm glad kids got the fun of hearing their school district called on the radio, or scrolled across the list on TV - and breathed a sigh of relief. Snow days are a small part of the fun of being a kid. I'm glad that's one thing that didn't get taken away this year.