Challenging Education Practices is not offensive

A rebuttal to my “Snow Days” op-ed appeared today:

Oakland Press: Snow Days provide quality time for all (02/15/08)

In it, teacher Doug Hill describes snow days as “gifts meant to be opened and enjoyed.”

Unfortunately he forgot to provide a gift receipt! :-)

Doug disputes my cost estimates, and that’s fine. The stuff he sites might generously represent less than 10% of the overall budget. So, instead of a daily cost of $860,000, it might only be $774,000. But the exact daily costs don't change the premise. Even reducing my estimate by 10% still leaves a big number.

And as far as his other concerns over my article, well, that’s why they call them opinion pieces and not news stories! Data or not, snow days do impact the economy either through lost wages or lost productivity. Mr. Hill even cites a few examples when he points out how teachers get paid on snow days, but other district employees like Para-Educators, food service workers, and bus drivers do not.

In the end, I think the talk about budgets, productivity, or projectile vomit is really chaff, and the heart of the matter is that Mr. Hill and “the entire teacher profession” feels offended.

That’s a shame, because schools today are facing tremendous challenges, and this serves as a clear example about how difficult it is to examine any aspect of education without someone feeling offended. Somehow the school culture has evolved to a point where the slightest suggestion that we evaluate past practices or seek improvement gets twisted into “an attack”.

Let’s look at what I said:

“Even if district superintendents feel compelled to close school, there’s no reason district employees shouldn’t still report to work. Schools are forever claiming they don’t have time for planning, collaborating, professional development, or “record keeping”. Bad weather days could easily be used for these purposes.”

Mr. Hill reacted with:

“While many are able to leave their work at the office when the clock hits 5 p.m., teachers are not among that group. I take great offense with the connotation of teachers lazing around.”

I never said teachers were “lazing around”. In fact, I didn’t even say “teacher”; I said schools (meaning administrators and boards), which don’t ask or expect all teachers to report on snow days. I am well aware that many teachers work very hard, and I’m sure some were working that day (either at home or at school). I know some come in early, and some stay late on a daily basis. It’s unfortunate that Mr. Hill was quick to jump to the wrong conclusion.

What I did indeed say was that district employees – yes, meaning all teachers – should report to work. The rest of us – even those with cushy 9 to 5 jobs – are expected to report to work when it snows. I’m still not sure why suggesting that teachers should report to work would be considered “offensive”.

To provide a little perspective, I wrote that piece after sitting in a meeting where I had heard that implementation of a very promising software tool – Pearson Benchmark & Inform – was progressing at what I felt was a disappointingly slow pace. (Before everyone jumps at that comment, let me emphasize that teachers are using it, and seem excited about using it. The problem I see is that it sounds like two years from now less than half of the core curriculum will be online for all grades. Teachers seem enthusiastic about the tool, and I clearly see its value, so in my opinion I think it should be implemented faster.) I was told that one of the challenges faced by the district was the limited opportunities they have to pull together groups of teachers for large blocks of time to design common assessments, conduct training, do data entry, etc.

With a little advance planning, I see no reason why they couldn’t focus on Pearson-related tasks on a snow day. Or, they could have some Professional Development sessions. In general, schools need to figure out how to do more with less, and examining how to possibly make a more “official use” out of snow days should not face immediate rejection, and it certainly should be labeled as “offensive”.

Basically, I see this as a much larger discussion. Schools have a limited number of instructional hours, and a limited amount of “official” teacher hours. I think choosing to cancel any of them should be a big decision. The fact that students can miss – so far – four days of school without impacting their education merits a discussion. That’s a fair question, and it’s sad that it needs to be delicately worded so as not to offend anyone.

My beef isn’t with teachers… it’s with a system that doesn’t tolerate discussions about these and other issues.

==> Mike.


I’ve pasted below the full article in case the link doesn’t work.


Snow days provide quality time for all

Like many of my fellow teachers, I read Rochester Community Schools Trustee Mike Reno’s recent guest opinion “Snow days waste money, insult parents” and walked away, well, insulted.

Reno managed to misrepresent the district’s daily expenditures, offend an entire profession and make assumptions that are neither true nor can be substantiated.

True, the Rochester Community Schools’ annual budget is roughly $155 million, and if you divide by 180 days, you’d have a daily expenditure of approximately $860,000. The trouble with his math, however, is that you can’t simply divide by 180. There are many tasks vital to the day-to-day operations of the school district that are necessary 365 days per year.

Further, when school is not in session, substitutes for teachers, para-educators, bus drivers and custodians aren’t paid. Nor is any bus fuel consumed, and the building utilities aren’t running at full capacity. It could therefore be said that a snow day actually saves the district money.

When he states “there’s no reason district employees shouldn’t still report to work” on snow days, he managed to offend an entire profession. While many are able to leave their work at the office when the clock hits 5 p.m., teachers are not among that group. I take great offense with the connotation of teachers lazing around.

On one of the snow days Reno has issue with, I spent the better part of two hours printing — on my own printer — and stuffing my report cards. Once completed, I went about the task of getting plans ready for the coming social studies unit. Those were four-plus hours that would’ve taken place following the school day — at the expense of my family. I know I was not alone in my endeavors to get caught up from home.

Reno also made several assumptions that can’t be substantiated.

A snow day “negatively impacts our local economy”? Where is his data to support this? There’s no way to quantify this statement with any form of data. If we’re simply making assumptions without support, I’d fathom to say a snow day actually boosts the local economy. Suddenly, high schoolers everywhere are earning money as baby-sitters, movie theaters and malls see an uptick in net revenues, and I’m willing to bet a few more pizzas are delivered.

Perhaps the biggest assumption he makes is that parents must scramble at 6 a.m. to find child care. Darn right they do! And it’s a real pain, too. How is this different from walking into little Billy’s bedroom at 6 a.m. and having him projectile vomit all over the place? It’s not! As soon as you make the decision to become a parent, you make the decision to have a Plan B. I have one, you have one and every other parent in the world has one. If you have children, you have a Plan B and a snow day should be no more stressful than any other day.

Finally, he says a child’s education is too important to give a day away on a snow day. On this point I agree. I invite all parents to embrace these days and enjoy some of the amenities a day like this can offer. If and when the roads become safe, take a trip to the library and read with one another, go to one of our area’s many wonderful museums and expose your children to the exhibits they offer, or turn off the TV and video games and spend time with your children.

No, Mr. Reno, snow days aren’t wasteful or insulting. They’re gifts meant to be opened and enjoyed. As we struggle in this nation to maintain “family,” a snow day offers six hours of uninterrupted togetherness and a chance to reconnect with our loved ones.

Doug Hill is a fourth-grade teacher at Long Meadow Elementary in the Rochester Community Schools district.