Do you remember the thrill of snow days? Waking up to a MCPS notification, sleeping in ’till noon, and seeing the white snowflakes congregating on the window sill? Well, I used the word “remember” for a reason, as Superintendent Jack Smith plans to replace those days and similar ones with virtual learning. 

Somewhat recently, the superintendent of MCPS, Jack Smith, expressed hopes to make snow days a thing of the past, using virtual learning to bypass these unpredictable off days. This is due to the MCPS district having been virtual since March 17 of 2019.

These mandatory virtual days aren’t all that they seem. Once school returns to normal, schools won’t be providing any of the virtual learning tools they are now. Unless the schools buys or have the parents buy a device capable of accessing such tools, the student will have no way of joining in.

I believe that not having snow days is bad for a few reasons. The first reason being that these snow days are getting fewer and far between nowadays due to global warming and the earth not getting as cold as it used to (around here anyway.) 

Another reason is that students both young and old, hoped and longed for these days, as they were some of the few breaks that a student could get early in the year, giving them a de-stressing day, or a day to catch on any late or missed work. 

It’s tough for me to get that excited for snow days now with all the shoveling I have to do, but I want the younger students in this county to have the same memory I had; The child-like wonder of playing in the snow and getting a break off of school, with no cares in the world. 

It’s understandable that the schools would want to do this so students wouldn’t have to make up days in the summer or miss valuable school time. It just doesn’t make much sense from a morale standpoint. As these missed school days can be huge for students’ mental health, we urge Superintendent Smith to reconsider.