Friday, 3/1

You know Stacy, you may have a point.

Part of yesterday's blog dealt with the fact that schools were closed (for some) for the first time this year. I included a picture of the little snow we received, which prompted daily blog reader Stacy of Marquette to wonder if they close schools a lot quicker than they used to.

I'm kind of curious about that myself..

Now, I'm sure most of this is clouded by both time and memory, but I seem to recall going to school in conditions much worse than what we experienced yesterday. I remember walking to school in howling winds blowing massive snowflakes around, winds (that seemed) much stronger than the gusts that actually closed schools yesterday. I remember walking to school in big snow drifts. And I remember walking to school once with something to drink, and having that drink become partially frozen during the time it was exposed to the elements. So when I hear that schools have been closed because of a little snow and a little wind, I can see why Stacy might scoff and utter a phrase that's more of a joke than it is serious...

“Kids these days”.

Yet even while some (older) people may scoff at schools being closed in conditions they find borderline, I certainly do understand why administrators do it. After all, safety of their students is their number one concern, and in an age of litigation at the drop of the hat, helicopter parents, and increased safety standards, they're just doing their job. And they're doing it well; after all, I don't think anyone would mind if the people in charge of safety erred on the side of caution, which is I'm sure what local school administrators did when they canceled classes yesterday.

Times change. And standards change. Reasons for keeping schools open when I was a student no longer exist, much like leaded gasoline, political compromise, and a stable planetary climate system no longer exist. Just because things are different than they were years ago doesn't mean they're better or they're worse. They're just different. And if schools need to close on days when, when I was a kid, they'd have stayed open, that's life. That's progress.

And that's just the way it is.

Have yourself a great weekend!

(jim@wmqt.com)