With warmer weather becoming more frequent and spring right around the corner, it is nice not having to worry about bringing out the snow blower and shovel like we did so many times last month. Hopefully, we can say goodbye to the snow until next year (or at least until December). But this begs the question: When the snow does come again, will we have those good old “snow days” that we had in past years, or will these snow days be replaced by Zoom days?

It seems to have been a long time since any student has had a snow day. In February, the snow fell quite hard, but because of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, schooling was not affected as most students were attending virtually on Zoom. 

At least, that was mostly the case for Shippensburg because in-person classes didn’t resume until Feb. 22. With classes being held on what would’ve been snow days in a normal year, I can only imagine that most students probably weren’t thrilled about this. I mean, come on, you want kids to log onto Zoom when there is perfectly good snow outside ready to be played in?

I think that snow days have more of a meaning for students in elementary through high school than they do for college students. If you are in elementary school, a snow day means a day of sledding and fun while high school students may use it as a day for sleeping in. For college students, on the other hand, snow in general can be a massive inconvenience. This is especially true for commuter students who may not be sure if classes are going to be called off in the morning when they take to the road to drive to campus. I can only imagine how annoying it would be to drive all the way to campus only to realize class had been called off by a professor or that the university declared a snow day. 

Having the option to “Zoom” into class may benefit commuter students if they are unable to make it to class because of road conditions.

Now, I do believe that snow days are a perk of growing up. It was always great getting that call from school late at night saying that we would all be off tomorrow. But ever since the coronavirus struck, we have all become increasingly knowledgeable of how to use Zoom to conduct school. Maybe it would not be the worst thing —especially for college students, who are paying a substantial amount of money to attend classes — to have the option to Zoom during future snow days. I know this may not be the most fun thing to do on the days when it snows, but it beats losing a class that you are spending your hard-earned money on.

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