Snow days SHOULD be made up!

 Unpopular opinion.

We've been making up snow days as long as I can remember. When I was a kid, I remember going to school on Saturday. I remember going past the last scheduled day. I remember lengthened school days, all to make up time lost to snow days.

One thing we know for sure. Very few kids ever learned anything on AMI days. Heck, our school would not allow teachers to cover any new material for the same number of days we missed when kids came back from AMI days so they could catch up on the work they were supposed to do on AMI days! (Yes. What was the point of AMI days?) We also know that practically everyone bemoaned the fact that AMI days meant no more real snow days, even though most kids didn't do a lick of work while they were gone on AMI days. We KNOW these things!

Now people are complaining that we have to make up the days. (Even though most schools have snow days built into their calendars and don't even know yet exactly how many days will be made up.) Now people are calling for not having to make up the days. Now people are demanding AMI days again. Shoot! The Michigan House of Representatives just ok'd a bill that makes it okay to not make up snow days.

If we don't make up the days, if we declare inclement weather days don't have to be made up, then we are declaring that school doesn't matter. We're saying that what kids are learning at school isn't important, so it doesn't matter if they are there or not. It doesn't matter if teachers teach or students learn if we don't make up the days.

School should matter! What we are teaching kids should matter! If school doesn't matter, if what we teach isn't important enough to make up, then what is the purpose of spending so many billions of tax dollars on it every year?

When I was a kid, school mattered. Parents wanted their kids to learn more than they learned as kids. People wanted better for their kids than what they had. Education was a way to climb up out of any hole. Learning mattered. School mattered.

Instead of demanding no make up days, let's demand that school matters again. Let's make what we teach meaningful enough that missing it really does make a difference. Let's make education matter again! Let's provide kids today the same quality education that I received as a child at Sylvan Hills Elementary, Lakewood Junior High, and North Little Rock Northeast High School! My education mattered! What I learned was important!

Let's teach kids what they need to know and teach them to think and solve problems. Look at the world around us! We need problem solvers more than ever! Most kids aren't learning to solve problems at home today. Heck, they're not even learning to tell time or count change, both of which I learned before I ever stepped foot in a school.

Let's make school important enough that people believe snow days MUST be made up, or else their kids are missing essential stuff they need to know.