doug — off the record

I don’t know about your neck of the woods but this past week around here has been crazy with snow, ice, and everything that goes with it. I know that we have the weather stations covering it 24/7 with all kinds of details. Throw in the fact that roads are covered from all over the province including the “new to me” Municipal 511 service and we can easily see how everyone is affected. Prior to this, I was a 511ON type of guy. Now, with two monitoring services, I’ve got it all!

So much detail, cameras, information, construction notices, road closures, …

The information is so rich compared to “back in the day” where if it snowed, we turned the radio to CKNX in Wingham to see if buses were running or if schools were closed. I’m sure that option is still there for those in Huron County but it’s so much quicker and immediate when you’re connected.

As I was walking my daughter’s dog this evening with the wind and snow whipping at us, I reflected upon snow over the years.

If you’ve ever monitored Huron County in the winter, you know that it gets clobbered with snow at times. Certainly, it’s been hit hard this past week and my mind went back to high school in the 1970s. There were many times when snow and wind did its thing to us. I remember one particular storm (can’t remember the exact year – maybe 1973?) when our town was really hit hard. We could have just stayed home but why do that when we could go to the school? After all, many of us were fortunate enough to have snowmobiles.

There wasn’t a full complement of students who made it so regular classes wouldn’t work but we had a bonus during this particular storm. In Phys Ed at the time, we were taking square dancing! Yes, square dancing – swing your partner round and round… So many of us just went to the school to dance! Looking back now, I can fully appreciate what the teachers were doing to keep us engaged. We just thought we were getting away with something – going to school and not doing English or Mathematics or Science or …

Years later, I was on the other side of the desk. Word was that our board never closed schools no matter what the reason. If you couldn’t get to your school, supposedly you had to check in at your closest school for the day. Sure, there was winter in Essex County but it pales in comparison to the rest of the province. It made sense for schools that were located in communities; most of the students and teachers could just walk. My school was a bit unique in that we were as rural as it got. Most of the students were bused but some were still close enough to walk.

And walk some of them did.

As a student, I didn’t fully comprehend what teaching a subset of a full class meant. Our policy was that the show must go on. We didn’t give any spares. In Mr. Peterson’s computer classes, we always had something on the go and so we could do active hands-on computer things. I could name names of students who walked and used the time to work on computer projects. Some were actually assigned but so many had their own personal projects in process. They appreciated the extra time and many did get excused from other classes to come down to the lab to work on things.

It wasn’t as glitzy as square dancing but it was the best I could do.

They don’t teach you these things at the Faculty.

Then comes this week. We do live in a different world. We have much more insight to the weather on its way. You don’t wake and rush to the window to look outside with the hope that the world is covered with snow. You knew it in advance. You now look just to confirm that there are no buses. Around here, it’s https://buskids.ca/.

So, what could you do? This image I discovered on Facebook says it all!

In a connected world, classes could indeed go on. Perhaps use the skill set developed during the pandemic? But does it?

It just seems to be a shame that Snow Days activities could indeed be so different and so academic, if planned. There’s just something extra special and memorable about doing things other than academic activities.

Shouldn’t a good Snow Day just be a fond memory of growing up?