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If the city of St. Louis Park gets three feet of snow or if the temperature reaches -30 degrees without windchill or any other condition causing it to be unsafe for students to come to school presents itself, BSM will take an “online school day.” However, unlike infamous snow days, an online school day is certainly not a day off for students or teachers. It is simply a way for students to keep up with their classes while at home trying to relax and enjoy a day off. The school will often notify students and their families the day before or very early the morning of that there will be no school for the day, but most students will just check their Twitter feed and see if Sue Skinner posted anything about the school day. In my opinion, online school days are a waste of time, useless, and only create stress for students and teachers.

Although having an online school day saves the school from adding on another day at the end of the year, the disadvantages outweigh the benefits of school at home. First of all, in order to find out if we have school or not, students still have to wake up at their regular time to check their emails for an update. When I think of a day off, or canceled school, I imagine sleeping in and waking up and getting out of bed at my own leisure. That’s not the case with online school. Having to wake up at 6 a.m, having school or not, is not a good start to the day. I think that if we are projected to get a bunch of snow overnight or reach temperatures not safe for students, we should be informed about school the night before.

Another reason why online school days are horrible to have is that students are almost guaranteed to be assigned work to complete for every class. Since all classes are canceled but it’s still considered a regular school day, teachers feel the need to give their students work to do that day. If they don’t, it’s almost the same thing as giving them a free day in class. Having homework, notes, or studying to do in every class is well over the average homework load on a usual night. That just puts stress on students knowing they have a pile of work to do in every class and have it prepared for the next day. It completely destroys the opportunity to enjoy a day off from school and have a relaxing day at home.

It’s the same case for teachers. They have to find something that students can work on at home that’s related to class, which is way easier said than done. Without the student-teacher interaction and class time for the teacher to give instruction and give lessons, how can they assign work to the students that they will be able to complete without any help? Having online school only creates stress for both students and teachers. In my eyes, an “online school day” defeats the purpose of a day off from school and most of the time students are assigned busy work, almost adding up to more than the usual amount of homework.