What’s up with schools and the current trend of preemptively canceling classes for the threat of inclement weather? For fear of sounding like my dad, they never cancelled classes due to the threat of bad weather when I was a kid. I remember once, it was 385 degrees below zero, with a dark side of the moon wind chill, fifteen feet of snow, and the bus still showed up at the end of my driveway at 7:30 AM. There were times where our school grounds looked like a Siberian winter landscscape and we didn’t cancel classes. The entire school was once entirely drifted under and the superintendent walked directly from a drift onto the roof of our two story school. Our principal only delayed classes until 10 AM. ”Bring the kids in. We’ll get the front door plowed open. Don’t worry about them. They don’t need fresh air. We should get the windows cleared by noon.”
Nowadays, six flakes hit the road and we call off a week of school to be sure roads will be adequately plowed and no more snow sneaks onto Super Doppler. Heck, we cancel school for wind, rain, sleet, ice, wind chills, and virtually any non-seventy degree day weather. I don’t know if this is because more parents squawk now if some freak occurrence would cause a bus to slide on wet pavement into a light pole? Principals don’t want the school board up in arms or face a lawsuit because of a minor tragedy. Even if the situation was nothing worse than a fender bender and absolutely no one was hurt in any way, everyone would be up in arms today.
I understand that our current state of the world is partially to blame for this. There are more families with two working parents, a single working parent, and many other situations where kids could be left alone if school was called off mid-day. We don’t want to bus kids home, leave them unable to get into their houses, and shivering on their front porches. Of course we don’t want that. Calling off school preemptively allows parents to better plan their day and allow someone to be home when the kids are off. I get it. It’s just strange how quickly things have changed.
Does this mean we were tougher then? The generation before me had parents and grandparents who went to small schools where multiple grades all took classes in the same room. The place was heated with a wood stove and kids could get frostbite right there in the school house. You fought through. You endured. I used to work seven days a week at my grandfather’s farm when I was a kid and I can still hear one of our conversations: ”Grampa, I can’t work today, it’s raining.” Grampa would respond, “You won’t melt.” I pictured myself burning up like the Wicked Witch of the West and he’d tell me “It won’t kill ya.” That was our standard then. If it didn’t kill you, it made you stronger. Fight through. Gut it out. Nietzsche would have made a great principal at my school. I think my grampa new him personally.
Today, everyone gets a trophy at sporting events. There aren’t winners and losers anymore. Motivation, for us, was to not be a loser and to try to win. Today you’re rewarded just for showing up. I think we should show kids that the world will hold them to a higher standard. Just because you grace your employer with your presence by coming to work doesn’t really mean a lot. Your employer will probably expect you to do something when you are there. And, the higher level at which you achieve in your place of employment, it follows that there will be higher job satisfaction, feelings of self-worth, and job security to boot. I believe in building kids’s self-esteem and making them feel calm, centered, and focused. But they shouldn’t fear achievement. It’s what made America great. Believe in yourself but also work to develop a skill and be great at something. Strive to be the best, or at least, your best. The world will be better for it. And, so will you.
