My children’s school district had a two-hour delay this morning because of inclement weather. I’m sure there are older people in our community grumbling that in their day, schools would never have let a couple inches of wet snow hold them back in any way. I’m sure that’s true. It does seem that we grant snow days (or remote learning days) or delays much more readily than we did even when I was growing up. But I don’t think that’s a bad thing.
The idea that we should never allow Nature to alter our behavior or get in the way of our desires is a very American one. It seems we put more and more effort into preemptively salting and brining more and more roads more and more often, whenever there’s some chance of snow or ice in the forecast. We’ve been so intense with that approach that it’s contaminating our drinking water, as well as threatening local ecosystems1.
But why are we so insistent on sticking to an arbitrary schedule? Obviously there are some situations where that matters: a nurse or doctor or other healthcare professional providing necessary medical care, shift workers where shutdowns of operations would have serious consequences (e.g., power plants or some manufacturing) and the previous shift needs to be relieved for safety reasons, some food-related jobs where spoilage could occur or the process requires a schedule. But otherwise, if the local grocery store opens two hours late, or your package or mail is a few hours later than usual (or a day late), it’s generally not a problem2. Furthermore, many jobs can be done remotely, particularly if it’s just for a few hours.
Many of the challenges a two-hour delay creates for parents would be alleviated if we simply encouraged businesses to do the same. That would give road crews more time to clear the roads. It would reduce traffic on the roads for those people who do need to get to work (employees like those mentioned above, as well as emergency personnel, and the amazing people who service our infrastructure3), making their commute safer as well as reducing the load for first-responders.
Having a two-hour delay still allows kids to get to school and get most of a day’s education. (This is also very important since we’ve made schools a bulwark against hunger for many students–canceling may deprive some students of the only food they get in a day.) It gives the students (and teachers, etc.) a bit more sleep, which is especially positive for teenagers4. And it’s always good to have the opportunity for an unscheduled break–an opportunity to catch one’s breath (metaphorically) in this increasingly frantic world we’ve created for ourselves.
We should have two-hour delays more often.
- There are any number of articles about this. You could start reading here. ↩︎
- Yes, I know there are exceptions–medication comes to mind. Thank you for thinking of them. You’re very smart. Other exceptions–like getting fired from your job–are legitimate concerns but are very much man-made. ↩︎
- I’ve long felt that people like utility crews, especially those who work on our water mains and sewer lines, are extremely under-celebrated. Maybe I’ll write more about that sometime. ↩︎
- This is associated with a larger systemic failure, and I will write more about that soon. ↩︎