Snow closures are epidemic in the Puget Sound area this year. Zach has had 5 snow days this year – on a straight day for day replacement basis, that moves his summer release day from June 19 to June 26.

As a former Alaskan, the snow day and late start panics we see here are fairly ludicrous. In Alaska – where admittedly we had far superior snow removal service, and major roads could be handled overnight – we really didn’t have a snow day unless we got over 12″ or so in one night, or a really bad, heavy glaze of freezing rain. School buses ran all winter with chains as a matter of routine.

Here in the Puget Sound, if there’s a half inch of snow, the sky has fallen! Cancel school, close roads, stay off the highways unless you absolutely must be there! The concept of abandoning your car by the side of the road because the roads are too bad is just beyond belief to me – although I suppose if you’re stuck in traffic for so many hours you run out of gas, you don’t have a whole lot of choice other than to go fill a gas can and try again.

So back to schools… now our end date for school this year is nearing July. I never understood why North Kitsap schools had such a late end date to begin with – Anchorage schools had the same start date, after Labor Day weekend, but got out two weeks earlier. Even Bainbridge has the same start date but gets out a week earlier.

One of the issues mentioned in press coverage of the school closures is the impact on the snow days on students’ ability to prepare for the WASL. When did education become all about teaching to the standardized tests? I’m not sure that’s what No Child Left Behind – of which I am NOT a fan – was all about, but it’s the end result! I am sorely tempted to keep my sons out of school on standardized testing days just to hold my own little private protest. I care about learning, first and foremost! Then the acquisition of life skills is second, learning to think and problem solve, achieving decent grades, and performing decently on college admission tests. Our kids are graduating poorly prepared to compete in the global economy with the Japanese, Koreans and East Indians – and teaching with the WASL as primary objective sure doesn’t help matters.

The governor is proposing a waiver for closure days in declared storm disaster areas on storm related closure days. That’s just one or two days, though. The North Kitsap School District has approved holding holding half-day school on 3 in-service days and is now discussing cutting into spring break to keep an earlier summer dismissal date. In-service days are no loss to parents, who are absolutely fed up with the proliferation of them – they are completely out of hand and from what I understand, outside of quarterly grading/prep days, not all that useful to teachers. Spring break, though, is another story, as many families and teachers have long-standing pre-existing plans. I would imagine parents would go ahead with their plans and just pre-excuse their children, but teachers would not have that option.

I think it’s time to question some assumptions about education – as parents, as students and as teachers.

Parents: The halls of Bart Simpson Junior High from 8am-3pm, September through May, are not the only time and place your kids can acquire learning, and in a future school model, will not be. Schools will be a combination of group classroom activities, parent-guided learning, experiential sessions like observations & internships and online, virtual and distance learning activities. Parents and students will have to take ownership of the learning experience, but will be able to open the door on a world of options – any elective, any language, any direction will be theirs to explore.

Students: Christmas, spring and summer break, as well as a six hour school day, are not birthrights. Learning is your job. It’s the way the real world works! Many other countries have never observed that calendar and they’re turning out graduates that are years ahead of America, educationally.

Teachers: In-service days, spring and summer break, six hour school days and the traditional classroom model are also not guarantees. Teaching students to sit down, shut up, and perform like trained seals on standardized tests is surely not what you went to college for six years to do! I know – I taught for two years – and chose not to continue because the profession was in general so demoralized by its own powerlessness in the face of administrative and parental indifference. (And because I didn’t want to work in a closed-shop union profession – but that’s a topic for another rant!) Let’s work together to turn out graduates who have not only acquired knowledge in all critical subject areas but can also can think and problem solve and apply that knowledge to their their future professions – and their lives.

This whole required days in school – and summer release date – question is really secondary to the underlying issue of our American assumptions about the institution of education. Does it exist to punch a timeclock and serve standardized tests – or can we actually teach academic and leadership excellence? I think it’s time to ask that question, rather than blindly figure out how we can follow the letter of the law.

As I write this, my son is getting ready for today’s delayed start of school, two hours late because of anticipated icy road conditions. It’s actually 38 degrees in Poulsbo, the sky didn’t fall and no one is in a ditch, but kids throughout North Kitsap got to sleep in anyway.