Postcard from the Principal’s Office: #6

The only day I’ll celebrate you not being at school.

Back in December, as schools were heading into their winter breaks, I shared how we should not be overly exuberant when looking forward to breaks away from school. If schools do school right (okay, if the staffs do right by the kids and each other), schools should/must be sanctuaries for all kids, all the time. Because learning is hard, learners make themselves vulnerable by risking showing others what they know and don’t know. This is true not only in the classroom hopefully with a compassionate teacher who has created a culture within the classroom that promotes safety in vulnerability, but also in other areas of the school: recess, playground, lunchroom, office, library, principal’s office. The highest degree of learning occurs when kids feel safe in their surroundings. Sanctuaries are safe places. Schools MUST be sanctuaries.

And all kids need to be there, and ideally love being there. As I wrote in December, it should kind of be a sad time when kids cannot be at school. We saw the full impact of this during the Covid shutdowns. We see it heading into weekends, and holidays, and summers, and anytime a parent intentionally takes a child out of school for whatever reason. Students do school, period. THAT should be THE main focus for any family with children of school age. It should be a VERY big deal when a child doesn’t attend school. Too much is lost that can never be gained. There should always be a sense of sadness and disappointment when either the child isn’t at school or when school is out of session.

With one exception.

SNOW DAYS!

In my neck of the woods two weeks ago, winter finally hit, bringing with it our first significant snowfall with temperatures in the 20’s and teens. Any adult who is associated in some way with schools understands quickly that “significant snowfall” means “the school schedule is impacted” in some way. If the school isn’t delayed or cancelled, it’s not significant snowfall. Even though I’ve been retired away from being a salaried educator, I still follow the districts in my area when it comes to “snow days.” There is no reason for me to do this other than it remains exciting knowing kids will be waking up only to learn school has been cancelled for the day. If you experienced this growing up, you do not need me to explain this to you.

The week prior, my old school district cancelled school for three out of the five days—and schools had a two-hour delayed start on a fourth day. Setting aside the fact that salaried individuals (like principals and some custodians) are still expected to be at school, snow days are the only exception to my rule of not celebrating non-school days.

In other words, there is no such thing as a bad snow day from school!

Snow days are unexpected, all-inclusive, fun, exciting, joyful, thrilling, and an opportunity to go to school anyway with a group of your friends to either engage in massive snowball fights, build snowmen and snow forts, or to slide down any hills that might be on campus. Days after significant snowfalls at my recent schools always showed evidence that many kids and families walked to school anyway to play! Just as they should.

Yes, cancelled days like those must be made up later in the year, but for most humans associated in some way with school, snow days are GREAT DAYS!!!

“Most humans….” There are some who aren’t most.

True story from our snow week. I was in the grocery store heading out to my car when I overheard an exasperated mom share, presumably with a friend, “I need a break from my kids! I was supposed to have yesterday and today all to myself but then, you know, the school district went and did what they did (ie cancelled school). My kids are driving me crazy.”

If you’re a parent, maybe you can relate. And if you can relate to this, you’ve forgotten what it was like when you were a student and woke up yourself to a snow day. So for the children of that mom, and likely for many more students whose parents had their own schedules adversely impacted, and thereby cursing the snow day and/or the school district, I wonder what their snow days were like? If all they did was stay inside and play video games and tell mom “I’m so bored,” then what a waste of snow, eh?

Snow should never be wasted. Especially on what should have been a school day.

Around these parts, it doesn’t take much snow to impact the school schedule. Folks who are from places like Minnesota, or Alaska, or the Dakotas, laugh at us. “THAT caused schools to be cancelled? We don’t even call that snow!” And obviously millions of kids never get to experience the thrill of snow days because they live in a, sadly, too warm of climate. But here, we can always trust that during most winters, schools will have snow days at least for a day or two—I think the most school cancellations I experienced in one school year due to snow was around 8 to 10 days (not consecutive, but adding those 10 days on to the end of the school calendar made many a school folk nervous due to pre-planned summer vacays).

All teachers and kids know there is no such thing as a bad snow day. For some parents, that may be debatable. For this principal, it was the only day I would celebrate in front of kids when kids could not be at school. Every other day, I wanted them to be in a place we tried hard, every day, to make sanctuary for them. I wanted them to be where they knew the adults they came to loved them. I wanted them to be…with me. And if it snowed while we were AT school…. Ah, THAT’s a whole other post. Because then, more magic can happen—if only the staff at school realized the opportunity being granted to them to make some incredible memories.

Always and Ubuntu,

~ k

Photo by Ethan Hu on Unsplash