With a slight stretch and a yawn, I woke up and my eyes met the ceiling once again. I started to remove the covers when a sudden gust of chilling wind entered the bed, uninvited I might add. Shivering now, I took a quick look out the window and was met by a fresh thin blanket of snow. Realizing that there would be no school, I happily walked back to my warm covers when I saw my phone screen light up. Looking at my latest message, my expression changed immediately. Sighing, I fell backwards on my bed sheets; too depressed to get back in. Inclement weather assignments. “It won’t be that bad”, I thought to myself. “Will it?”

As far as snow days are concerned, there are definitely benefits. However, one clear advantage for many students would be an extra day of rest and refreshment. With many high schoolers burnt out from all the daily stress and work, it’s always nice, even necessary sometimes, to have a day to recharge their batteries. Not only extra time for rest, but additional time to finish complete unfinished assignments. Even if extra inclement weather assignments are assigned, it is significant to have an entire day to work instead of only 6 hours after school. Tedious and time-consuming assignments mean most high schoolers tend to get less than the recommended amount of sleep every day. The beauty of online learning days is that the school district does not have to lose days from summer vacation in order to make them up.

However, there are very clear drawbacks as well when it comes to snow days. For instance, because snow days cut into teachers’ schedules and a precious learning day is lost, teachers often have to pile additional teaching and work from the snow day onto the students as well as the work and lessons for that particular day they return from school. Even worse, if the teachers try to have the students learn the lesson independently but are confused, they will require the help of their teacher which can become difficult, even with communication through email or Itslearning.

“Teachers usually are forced to send us busy work with no real learning value, because ‘they have to,’” said sophomore Samuel Hempen.

Because of communication issues, some teachers feel they must assign “busy work” or review, which actually burdens the students’ time. 

“Snow days seem to be not only just offering more busy work, but also stealing precious time for us to work on the real assignments when we get to school,” said junior Praneet Kedari.

Overall, online learning days or “snow days” can be frustrating and seem unnecessary. In fact, to some people, it can be a complete waste of time. However, the fact that a complete day is given to students to do whatever they want is still a significant benefit that cannot be ignored. Still, despite the complaints and praises from the students, the idea of online learning days seems to be trending in the nation’s schools and the usage of technology for personalized learning might expand more than ever before. Only time can tell if its disadvantages or advantages will decide if it becomes a permanent solution in all schools.