Thu 01/15/2009 3:01 PM

school gets canceled; get over it

We've had a crazy winter here so far - a lot more snow than usual and some ridiculously cold temperatures. And as a result, school has been canceled a few times. If I hear one more person say, "These kids are going to be in school until July!" I just might scream. Seriously, do you know how many days of school would have to be missed to actually extend the school year into July? Summer vacation is a long break; does a couple of days really make that much difference?

Maybe it's because I grew up in a school system with a superintendent who was almost brought up on charges for endangering students by refusing to ever cancel school, even when all surrounding districts had, but I have an opinion of parents who bitch about school being canceled, and it's not a nice one. My opinion is that these people are more concerned about free babysitting than the safety of their child. God forbid they should have to actually parent for a day, or (gasp) pay for a babysitter instead of the city doing it for free. Then they try to cover it up by saying they're only upset because those missed days are going to be added to the end of the school year. Like I said, do a couple of extra days really matter when they're going to be out of school for close to three months? Is making sure you fly away on your family vacation the day after school lets out more important than keeping your child safe and healthy?

Do you really think they cancel school because they want to? Do you think they want to be working those few extra days in June any more than your child wants to be in school? Of course not. They cancel school to keep your children safe, and the fact that school officials are more concerned with that than parents are is pretty sad. Do they sometimes jump the gun a little bit? Sure, nobody's perfect. Do they sometimes cancel for weather that never comes? Yes. But isn't it better to be safe than sorry?

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3 comments/trackbacks

comment: from Dana

I'm not in disagreement with your subject here at all...I just want to point out that public school is so NOT free. There is tuition.....it's call annual property taxes! Before I married Stan and had step-children it used to piss me off to no end all the school bonds & levies passed here because that meant my taxes went up and I didn't even have kids. I don't feel quite that way right now since I do now have kids in school. Don't think the system is fair...especially when they do so many things in spanish for the migrant community...those would be RENTERS who are not footing the bill, but that's a whole 'nother rant! I have to pay $75 for my kid to play a sport...and then they CHARGE ME admission to go watch them play! So technically, homeowners with kids have to "pay double" for babysitting if school is cancelled! Unless someone knows how to control the weather....get over it...snow happens...but can we please cancel WORK too??? Why do I still have to risk my life to get to work?? Ok....I'm done for now!

Thu 01/15/2009 3:27 PM

trackback: yes, child care is expensive from confoozled.com

I want to add something to my rant from yesterday about school cancellations. I know that with the economy the way it is right now, to have to unexpectedly pay for a day of babysitting or lose a day of work can be quite the financial hit...
read the whole article

Fri 01/16/2009 10:17 AM

comment: from ed

heh. i always laugh about the school closings here. Growing up in Yellowknife, NWT Canada, the schools only closed if it was -70C with the windchill. and the windchill had to be sustained for atleast an hour.

Only once did my school *almost* close. we were in the libary in grade 8, counting down the minutes till they would shut the school down. needless to say, after 45 minutes, the wind died right down, and it was school as usual. so when the schools close here cause of 4 inches of snow, i laugh and laugh

Fri 01/16/2009 10:26 AM

school gets canceled; get over it

3 comments/trackbacks

comment: from Dana

trackback: yes, child care is expensive from confoozled.com

comment: from ed

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