As It Happened6:25This 12-year-old girl from Colorado is on a mission to bring back the snow days
When 12-year-old Emily Beckman’s teacher asked her to name the “greatest human invention,” she replied: “Snow days.
So when she heard that her Colorado school district had changed its weather cancellation policy to turn some snow days into actual learning days, she decided to fight back.
“You sleep until, like, 10 in the morning when you’re tired, and you read books and cuddle with your pets, go out sledding. [and have] snowball fights,” said the Colorado Springs 6th grader As It Happened hosted by Nil Kӧksal.
“And when you come back, you get hot chocolate and marshmallows and whipped cream.”
Emily’s online petition asking Academy School District 20 (D20) to fully restore “traditional” snow days has garnered more than 3,000 signatures in the past two weeks.
D20 did not respond to CBC’s request for comment, but has spoken to us he told Chicago Public Radio again the Denver Gazette newspaper that the district is “committed to constantly reviewing feedback and adapting to meet the needs of our students, staff, and community.”
The epidemic shift to online learning
The transition to online classes during inclement weather is no different for Emily’s school district.
According to a study conducted by Education Weekschool news magazine in the US, 39 percent of the country’s school districts stopped weather cancellations for e-learning in 2020, when pandemic shutdowns meant online classes were the norm.
Other Canadian school districts have adopted similar policies, although they differ from state to state.
Ontario, Alberta and Manitoba all leave it up to school boards to decide their own policies. Several in Ontario have reduced snow days for virtual learning, including Waterloo, Londonagain In Toronto. In January, when the storm hit southern Alberta, some schools outside of Calgary switched to online classes.
Nova Scotia, meanwhile, says it continues to cancel all classes when the weather calls for it. And when a hurricane hit PEI in February, many schools were closed.
School districts across Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley have announced closures due to the snowfall Wednesday morning. During the snow day, many went to local parks and hills to spend the day skiing and building snowmen.
According to the Denver Gazettethe D20 also changed its snow day policies in August 2020. Under current rules, the first two weather cancellation days of the school year are regular snow days, while any subsequent ones are virtual learning for middle and high school children.
Emily’s school — Discovery Canyon Campus — was already closed for several days during the storm earlier this month, meaning there will be no more snow days this school year.
Online learning, he says, is by no means magic.
“Now I have to get up at the time I usually go to school and unfortunately I don’t sleep. It has also made sure that my microphone is working and my camera is working,” she said. “And when I come in, we usually have to do a mic check and it takes 10 minutes to be there.”
‘We have to start a protest’
Emily says she and her friends were crying about the snow when the pipes burst: “You know what we’re doing? We should start a protest.”
“And so we do,” he said.
His request, hosted on Change.org, reads as follows: “We ask children to grow up too fast in the name of efficiency. We often forget how basic childhood experiences such as playing in the snow, skiing, building a snowman, or helping the old neighbors shovel their development”.
He aims to hit 5,000 signatures.
The school district, on the other hand, argues that by switching to e-learning after the first two snow days, schools can better plan ahead and ensure they don’t have to extend the school year to meet their academic needs.
Emily says the district already has six days built into its calendar, and we should get them back. If it goes beyond six, he says, e-learning may be an option.
Not only is that more fun, he argues – it’s healthier. References to his request a 2018 study from the American Academy of Pediatrics which states that playtime is essential for children’s emotional, physical and mental well-being.
And, he says, it’s good for workers.
“All my teachers agree with it, they say they like the idea that they will have an extra day to participate in work or play in the snow,” he said.
The spirit of an activist
Emily is not one to take action when she thinks something needs to change.
“Sometimes when we are in third grade, we like to play tag or dodge the ball [gym class]the boys were really aggressive, and my friends and I thought that was wrong for them to do,” she said.
“We protested for a month until it was like, ‘Hey, if you guys stop protesting, we’ll be nice and considerate.’
He hopes he can convince the district to rethink its policy, though he admits they may not bend as easily as the Grade 3 boys.
“We, like, we won’t be too much of a loser and we’ll just, I don’t know, maybe try again in a few years and try to do better with the regular e-learning days,” he said.
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