Snow Day

I could not believe it before Christmas when schools in the UK were closed for 'Snow Days'. In all my 35 years of being either a student, parent or teacher this has NEVER happened to me. I missed out on 3 days off and have to admit I was gutted. Since we arrived in NY State in August people have been warning us about how cold it will get and how much snow there will be. Up till today there have been 2 occasions when we possibly could have had a snow day but one was in the holidays and one was a Saturday. Today FINALLY it has happened. And it was wonderful. I was night-before-Christmas excited last night and kept waking in the night to check the weather and dreaming there was no snow. At 5 am I couldn't wait any longer and turned on YNN (Your News Now!). There it was across the bottom of the screen, Schenectady School District....CLOSED. I went straight back to sleep. Today has been spent playing in the snow with Sian, snoozing, watching Law and Order SVU, cleaning and generally being ecstatic with happiness. This cozy little condo is a lovely place to be when it is cold outside! The decision to close schools rests with the Superintendent of the school district. I can't think of an equivalent person in Hull but I am sure whoever it was would find it very difficult to make a decision like that,which would close every Primary and Secondary in Hull. In England when bad weather causes schools to close people complain like crazy. Over here it seems to be understood that schools are there to EDUCATE children not to babysit them while the parents are at work / in the pub. Why should anyone, child or teacher, put their life at risk to travel somewhere when it is not essential? Snow days are built in to the school year so no learning is missed. Such a sensible way to go on.