Hello and welcome to Snow Day #6 here in my northern New Jersey town. Sadly, our school system accounts only for 4.
We parents are not amused. Many of us are attempting to work from home while the kids play hours of Xbox. (Some of us already work from home and don’t get snow days, but anyhow….)
So, how is it that our kids aren’t “schooling from home” today? One New Jersey school district did just that, holding their first “virtual school day” during last Thursday’s snowstorm. And you know what? It worked.
Pascack Valley Regional High School managed to avoid having a day taken from their spring break (we’re up to two now) by holding school online. Reports The New York Times, each of the 2,000 students in the district’s two high schools and all of the teachers have laptops provided by the school. Most kids have Wi-Fi at home, so they were able to log in and get the assignments from their teachers.
Some kids watched educational YouTube videos and joined in online discussions. What’s more, their laptops blocked most social media sites and disabled instant messaging. What’s more, if the kids didn’t do the work, it would be recorded as an absence, says News 12 New Jersey.
It’s up to the state to decide whether the day counts as a school day or not. I say they should. And I’d like those laptops for my kids, and I’d like them to stop playing Batman Dark Knight or whatever it’s called, and complete an assignment or four from their teachers.
No doubt it’ll come down to money: Taxpayers aren’t going to pay for laptops for every teacher and student in the state. But if someone does the math, I’d bet the cost of adding school days to spring break or in June would make it all worthwhile.
And parents like me who are trying to work from home while the kids are trapped inside will rejoice.
