Snowdays are an essential part of childhood development. Many people who live in areas where it snows have core memories from snow days. Waking up to surprise snow days is a feeling like no other. A break from the constant stress of schoolwork improves mood for both students and faculty. The Atlantic article, “Snow Days May Never be the Same” stated that “40 percent of school districts have replaced traditional snow days with remote-learning days, while only 20 percent have preserved the days off.”

Online learning changed the way many schools do snow days. Across New York snow days are no longer days of relaxation and opportunity to play in the snow. Snow days are now digital learning days. IHS student Cam Townsend said that snow days are beneficial. He said, “It’s important for kids to have days off, and to be with their families on weekends.” Many studies have shown that unexpected days off of school benefit the mental health of students. Catching up on sleep is also beneficial and improves mental health. The cleveland clinic organization said that 87% of people who are looking to improve their mental health say that sleep helps to improve it.  For young children they need time in their day to play. Getting outside and playing is important for their brain development. Digital learning on days where there is too much snow to go to school replaces widespread mental health days. 

Due to the coronavirus pandemic remote learning was mandatory for a period of time. We now have the opportunity to live normal lives again so do we still need to use zoom for school? Principal Mr. Mitchell of Ipswich High School said that he thinks “that after 3 snow days we could consider doing online learning so we don’t have to be in school deep into June but it’s more up to the Massachusetts Department of Education if we’re allowed to do that.” 

Some students feel they focus more when they are at home. Traditional classrooms can be distracting at times. The sound of a water bottle falling or neighbors having side conversations can distract somebody from doing their work. Staring at the snow through the classroom windows is also a big distraction. If students work from home on snow days they have more control over certain distractions. 

Not only do students need mental health days. Teachers also need them.Cam agrees that “A lot of them (Teachers)  seem like they’ll benefit from a day or two off.” People of all ages benefit differently from days off. Some teachers fear that their students will fall behind as a whole if there are too many snow days. Teachers also have summers off of work, so when there are too many snow days the summer break is shorter. 

Students cannot be expected to be their best if they have to learn on a day they hoped to have off of school. There are additional problems with online learning.. Mr. Mitchell, the IHS Principal, said ““Online learning on snow days could be inequitable because not everybody has the same access to the internet, and often when it snows there are power outages too.”

Continuing to work on assignments and learning would benefit students and teachers time in theory. However, mental health days are essential to students’ focus. Spending snow days as days of recharging is a better use of time than staring at a screen for hours. Ipswich Public Schools should keep snow days as days off for everybody because everybody needs a day off sometimes.