{"id":122,"date":"2015-01-07T08:04:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-07T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/01\/my-kids-are-gleeful-at-a-day-off-school.html"},"modified":"2015-02-24T23:21:57","modified_gmt":"2015-02-25T05:21:57","slug":"my-kids-are-gleeful-at-a-day-off-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2015\/01\/my-kids-are-gleeful-at-a-day-off-school.html","title":{"rendered":"My kids are gleeful at a day off school"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Me, not so much.<\/p>\n

Now, thankfully, we don\u2019t live in an area where they close schools at the first snowflake, as was the case for my brother\u2019s family in Oklahoma, where they simply have no plowing or salting equipment. \u00a0But, as I imagine is the case for the majority of kids in the Chicago area, the forecasted windchills of as low as -30 have cancelled schools, both for my older son, at a public high school, and my younger boys, at a parochial school. \u00a0(Actual current conditions are -3, with claimed windchill of -24.)<\/p>\n

And for us, this is an irritant, but can be managed with my existing work schedule, and is easier than the days I\u2019d miss work when one of them had to stay home from day care, in the past. <\/p>\n

But: \u00a0as far as my younger boys\u2019 school is concerned, I have a hard time imagining that there\u2019s any kid who would genuinely be obliged to walk to school, and be inappropriately dressed for the weather. \u00a0Parents who make the effort to send their kids to a tuition-requiring school are also capable of driving them if needed, even for those who don\u2019t do so ordinarily, and in any case have the sense to ensure that they dress warmly. \u00a0I suspect that a fair number of families will be at the sledding hill later today.<\/p>\n

For my older son\u2019s school (the one with the two worlds<\/a> of middle-class kids and Mexican immigrant kids), I can easily see that there are quite likely to be kids who do walk to school every day, have no other option but to walk to school, and may indeed come without being properly dressed for the weather (not so much due to a lack of hats, gloves, and warm coats as a lack of a parent enforcing the wearing of such).<\/p>\n

But this is again an issue of risk, and recognizing some risks but not others. \u00a0After all, the schools can easily see the risk of \u201cwhat if a kid gets frostbite or hypothermia on their way to school?\u201d (though, let\u2019s face it, it\u2019d have to be much colder and the walk extremely long for this to happen, as opposed to just being very unpleasantly cold), or, in the case of a snow day, \u201cwhat if a kid is in a car accident on the way to school?\u201d or even, \u201cwhat if a kid, walking on the street because sidewalks aren\u2019t shoveled, is hit by a car?\u201d <\/p>\n

Is this a significant risk? \u00a0Presumably they don\u2019t even have the data to assess this, if they\u2019ve been closing schools so consistently in the meantime. \u00a0But who wants to be the one to break away, leave school open (even with a statement of \u201cit\u2019ll be an excused absence if you can\u2019t come\u201d), and risk a lawsuit?<\/p>\n

And yet at the same time, there are also real risks and harms to closing school. \u00a0Sure, not for middle-class families with middle-class jobs and understanding employers, or with a stay-at-home mom who\u2019s happy to take the kids to the sledding hill. \u00a0But how many kids in poor families just get left at home unsupervised because mom has to work, one way or the other (and most likely, there isn\u2019t a dad around in any case)? \u00a0And how much harm does this cause? \u00a0\u2014 either from kids left at home at young ages and not able to take care of themselves properly, or older kids getting themselves into trouble? \u00a0But these dangers aren\u2019t taken into the equation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Me, not so much. Now, thankfully, we don\u2019t live in an area where they close schools at the first snowflake, as was the case for my brother\u2019s family in Oklahoma, where they simply have no plowing or salting equipment. \u00a0But, as I imagine is the case for the majority of kids in the Chicago area, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[58],"class_list":["post-122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-family"],"yoast_head":"\nMy kids are gleeful at a day off school<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Me, not so much.Now, thankfully, we don't live in an area where they close schools at the first snowflake, as was the case for my brother's family in\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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