Are eDays a snow day solution? (Editorial)
More stories from Lauren Pantleo
Snow days come with an exhausting price
With weather conditions worsening and school frequently cancelled, winter is here. Not having to come to school is great news to most students, but it comes with a price: it takes days away from our breaks to make up for the lost time.
Carlisle Area School District, however, is looking to adopt a new plan, an eDay (also known as a Flexible Instructional Day), to replace those makeup days.
“Essentially a day lost to inclement weather would be replaced with instruction delivered through online, offline, or a combination of the two,” said Stephanie Douglas through an email sent to a few teachers.
Students would have a time period in which to complete their assignments, in case they did not have access to materials at home.
EDays are currently in the process of being accepted into, or declined from, CASD curriculum by the State Department of Education. In Pennsylvania, it is not uncommon for there to be harsh conditions. If eDays were adapted by this school, students and their families wouldn’t have to cancel their vacation plans due to lost days.
In addition, because teachers would have planned the eDay lesson in advance, we would be continuing our discussions or lessons from the previous lessons.
Many schools in the U.S. have already incorporated a form of eDays into their curriculum. However, there are some cons to eDays.
It may be harder to have deep class discussions, and it may be harder to contact your teacher if you have any questions. In addition, some students don’t have internet at home, and with bad road conditions, it isn’t safe to drive to the local library. That being said, students do have time to make up their assignments.
EDays would be beneficial to students. Having to make up days due to weather that we can’t control gets annoying. I would much rather stay home and work online, rather than having to go to school over break. If you are planning to go somewhere, you don’t have to worry about cancelling it to make up a lost day.
Whether or not Carlisle High School will add eDays, too, they are something to consider.
What do you think about adding e-days into our curriculum? Let us know in the comments below!
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Lauren Pantleo is in 10th grade. Her staff position on Periscope is Perspective Writer. She does track and was a competitive swimmer. Lauren enjoys music...
unknown • Jul 10, 2020 at 3:24 pm
I think E-days are bad
kiley • Mar 27, 2019 at 8:23 am
i think that they are bad.
Katie Mackow • Apr 7, 2015 at 9:13 am
I like the idea of an E-day to an extent. While it is nice to consider it a day of school, I’ve always enjoyed snow days where you can count on doing nothing. I think E-days should be a last resort after we’ve already had several snow days.
Connor • Apr 7, 2015 at 8:18 am
I like the idea of an eday, it’s really helpful to students especially if someone is travelling. I had to drive back up from Virginia on an eday so I was able to get most of my work done then, but if we had had a make-up day I would have missed a bunch of work that I would have had to make up.
Alyssa Barnhart • Apr 7, 2015 at 8:17 am
I think edays are nice to the extent that we don’t have to make up snow days, although there are many downfalls. for the kids who are not self motivated how are they supposed to do their work? also, snow days are apart of the winter season in schools. you are living in Pennsylvania, if you don’t like snow days go somewhere else.
Laura Ferriman • Feb 25, 2015 at 8:20 am
I really like the idea of eDays. We all love snow days and having off, but no one likes making them up. I think eDays are a great thing because on days we have off due to the snow, we have the opportunity make up the work on our computers with the lessons are teachers provided us with. I am sure a lot of students would prefer this option over having to make up a day that is part of our spring break or summer.
Meg McMurdy • Feb 3, 2015 at 1:47 pm
I don’t agree with the whole e-day thing. I think snow days are vital to the winter season of school.
Madeline Winn • Feb 3, 2015 at 10:20 am
I think that e-days are a great idea! I really hate having to make up school on days we were supposed to be home. This Feb 16, which was just named as a snow make-up day, I had already planned to be out of school on a college visit. If the e-day system were already in place, I wouldn’t have to worry about the stuff I will now miss while my peers are in school and I’m away.