Last Wednesday, 22 January 2025, we had a rare snow day in South Carolina. It turned into two (as of the time of writing) days of virtual/distance learning, so yours portly got to enjoy a couple of quiet days working from home (something that the schlubs at the federal government won’t get to do anymore—ha!).
When The Age of The Virus first began, I really welcomed virtual learning, mainly because I was experiencing an extreme level of burnout. For the first time in my career, I felt like I could focus simply on teaching, instead of fulfilling all of the tedious little other requirements of the career. Even if kids were tuning out online, they were doing that anyway during class, and it was a welcome reprieve from what was becoming a very overwhelming profession.
Now, I am far more skeptical about virtual learning. A small minority of students thrive with the self-paced, independent, self-motivating nature of it; most students, however, struggle with that kind of latitude.
Aside from the damage distance learning can to do to young learners, however, there’s another, less tangible side effect: the death of the snow day.
The Portly Politico 