As if it weren't obvious,
teacher's pray for snow days too. Yeah, yeah, yeah, "You won't be saying
that in June..." Actually, yes I will. I will shout it loud and proud that
I needed the snow day way back in January so as not to harm myself or someone
else. By June, I don't give a rat's rear end what the kids are doing. Sure,
sweat will be pooling in unmentionable places as I correct whatever b.s. exam I've
created or monitor whatever movie I'm showing, but no one will have lost a life
or a limb because I avoided going postal in January.
The teacher who says that they
always plan as if they are having school is not being honest. Just like any
other superstition or moment where we think we control the universe in some
way, teachers actively believe they have these powers. My power was the book
bag, which was constantly 5-15 lbs of paper because I am an English teacher and
I procrastinated with correcting. At the hint of a serious storm, which I
monitored extensively throughout the day via Boston.com, I would begin a
dialogue with myself. "If you leave the bag, you won't have school. It's
Murphy's Law that when I have a whole day to correct (which I never used for
correcting) I will have left my excessively large pile of papers at school.
Damn. If you take the bag, you won't correct anyway and you'll still have
school. Chance it! Take a risk for God's sake! Leave the bag!"
All day, off and on, between
conferring with other teachers and telling the kids we would have school
"so bring your books home", my dialogue would continue. "If you
aren't going to correct, why even bother lugging it home? Your shoulder has
been bothering you remember, and you'll just leave it in the car anyway! No one
is going to break into this room and steal the rank book or the cheap, old
laptop they gave you to keep safe in a desk that has no key."
Sometimes it actually worked. When
it doesn't and you dragged yourself into school, dampened and flat haired, you
found that the kids who need to be there the most were not there. Why would
they be? It's snowing! These are the same kids with the same parents who demand
their kid's IEP be followed to a t, but refuse to enforce homework or attendance
rules. As a matter of fact, these are the kids who don't even need the stinkin'
IEP. It was just easier to fight for the school to ease up on their lazy angel
than put forth any effort helping them at home... but I digress.
What these kids need is my Auntie
Joyce. Auntie Joyce lived with my three cousins in Arlington Heights, aptly
named for the hills the homes were situated upon. My cousin Paul swore it was a
snow day. My aunt didn't believe him. He swore up and down that they had no
school. No dice, he was going. My aunt sent him, up a hill, struggling through
unplowed side walks and streets, to school. He went alright and when he got
there the doors were locked. As if it wasn't bad enough that he was up at an
ungodly hour on a snow day and was forced to go to school because his mother
didn't believe him, HE HAD TO WALK BACK HOME! No cell phone for calling or
texting kids, just pure, old fashioned I can't &%$*#$ believe this turn
around and go back the way you painstakingly came.
This a dilemma when deciding if I
want to leave teaching or not...the hidden perks like snow days. The time I
"couldn't get my car out" when working at a financial services
company wasn't met with the same snow day enthusiasm as I'd experienced as a
teacher. There are days I want to do many self depricating acts while teaching,
but truly, nothing, and I mean nothing, beats a snow day. The only thing that
does is a second snow day immediately following the first.
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