Shame on you, Concord School District. Shame on you, interim Superintendent Kathleen Murphy. Shame on you for not announcing a snow day last Thursday as we saw two feet of snow blanket the city. Shame on you for denying Concord students, including my twin third-grade sons, the joy that is a snow day.
Despite calls from Gov. Chris Sununu for school districts across the state to cancel classes on Thursday and allow children to enjoy the first major snowstorm of the season, Concord schools remained open. So, while snow was falling at historic rates outside, Concord students had their faces buried in iPads and Chromebooks, devoid of any live interaction with others or any physical exercise.
Anyone who grew up in this region will likely fondly remember snow days. Like Christmas, the joy of the day often started the night before, when you watched the news to see just how much snow we were expecting, and when. You went to sleep hoping the forecasters got it right and you might wake up to a sea of white outside your window. In the morning, your parents came in not to wake you up to start getting ready for school, but to share the good news that school was canceled and you could stay in bed. Or, maybe you woke up to immediately turn on the television or radio to hear those lovely words, “Concord School District – Closed.”
Snow days, at least in my house growing up, started with my brother and I shoveling the walkway so we could get to the garage to get our sleds. Or maybe we might be ambitious and walk around the neighborhood to see if anyone wanted to pay us to shovel their walkway or driveway. It was hard work, but the five or 10 dollars we got for our efforts seemed like hundreds at the time. In the afternoon we would walk to White Park, where we would meet friends, and seemingly hundreds of others enjoying the day, to sled down the huge hill. This was before the city, and its lawyers, decided to plant trees on the hill for the very purpose of discouraging sledding.
After a long day of sledding, we would walk back home, cold, wet, and tired from the day. There is perhaps no better feeling than shedding your wet clothes in front of a warm woodstove while your mom makes you hot chocolate. If I close my eyes, I can still taste the marshmallows and feel the warm air on the backs of my legs.
Concord school students did not get to experience most of that on Thursday. No, instead I woke them up at 7:30 so they could get on a Zoom call with their classroom teacher.
Despite very reliable internet access in our home, both boys were frequently kicked out of the meeting or complained that their screens, like the temperatures outside, were freezing. I spent the day trying to assist them with their third-grade work while also trying to accomplish everything I needed to do while working from home.
After every call, the boys raced to the front door to see how much more snow had fallen and ask the simple question: “Can we go outside?”
From what I could hear of the myriad Zoom calls throughout the day, the most important thing my boys learned on Thursday was that our weather comes from the west. Of course they spent the previous night watching the impending snow storm coming mainly from the south. When we were finally able to get outside, at about 3:30, that is when the real learning began.
Faced with snowdrifts in excess of four feet, my kids learned the benefit of teamwork when trying to accomplish a large and difficult task. Clearing the walkway is easier with three people sharing the work instead of one. The suggestion that we start a shoveling business and charge the neighbors $5 per driveway turned into a lesson in economics and the value of our time. Shoveling out the neighbor’s mailbox that had been plowed in was a civics lesson in the value of being kind to others. Shoveling before we got to go sledding was a valuable lesson that you often need to work before you can play. Figuring out that the cold air made for fluffier snow than we got during the last storm was a valuable science lesson. Comparing the heights of various snow drifts and figuring out how many more inches were in one than the other was a terrific math exercise. And finally, trying to sled in the light snow turned into an impromptu physics lesson to figure out that hard packed snow has less friction than its fluffy counterpart.
Indeed, there was plenty of learning to be done during Thursday’s storm. And it did not need to be done with faces buried in screens. It could be accomplished outside in the fresh healthy air with rosy cheeks and big smiles and snow-covered boots.
Not one student would have suffered academically if Concord schools chose to close on Thursday and the kids kept their electronic devices turned off for the day. To the contrary, I think a day outside having some fun is exactly what our children, and their teachers, need at this time.
In this year in which our children have suffered so much, and missed out on so many opportunities and memories, the Concord schools should have taken a day off on Thursday to allow our kids to be kids. The governor suggested that was the correct path, and at least one school district in the area, the Kearsarge Regional School District, did the right thing and gave kids and teachers a much needed day off.
Concord should have done the same. Shame on you.
(Michael McCormack lives in Concord.)