February is a month when most of us are tired. We slave away with dozens of assignments, hoping for a day off at some point. And then, suddenly, we get a massive snowstorm, and with it, a snow day. Instead of going to school, we get to relax, play in the snow, and worry about school a little bit less.

Yet, recently, when we had a snowstorm, instead of not having school altogether, we simply have school at home through Zoom, which many of us would have done anyway. This raises the question: are snow days dying?

To some, this may be an obvious no. eLearning days are only temporary, right? Just a way to keep us in school during the pandemic, and they’ll go away once this all ends.

But think about this logically for a second. This past year has proven that we do have a functional way of attending class, even if we can’t physically be at school. So why would we not use this method when there’s too much snow?

We can also go back even further, to before COVID-19 even existed, and find that this possibility existed long before then. A couple years ago, GCHS had an eLearning day on an SAT testing day, for students who weren’t taking the SAT, with this being intended to test the waters. 

“There’s a cost associated with Zoom, and I don’t know whether the school district will think that’s worth spending money on,” said Principal Dan Landry. “What I do think is that kids and adults have gotten pretty good at using Zoom, and I can see the benefits of carrying on with it.”

So it’s safe to say that true snow days aren’t likely for this district, and presumably many others, in the future. But is this necessarily a bad thing? It could be argued that snow days can mess up schedules and shorten students’ summer vacation on top of that.

However, a sudden day off is oftentimes just what students and even teachers need sometimes during the school year. Losing a couple of days of summer won’t matter in the long run–you get an extended break in the summer months either way, but you don’t get as many opportunities to break up the stress and exhaustion of the early semester.

It’s also a shame to think that future generations might not ever get to experience snow days. These special events have offered all of us many wonderful memories, which might just be completely absent for future children.

eLearning days may replace snow days in terms of the roll that they fulfill, but they will never replace the magic of snow days.