Snow and ice days cause wailing and gnashing of teeth in School 3.0

As I breezed the Twitter stream awhile today, I noticed a number of people from various reaches of the United States hailing that their school had already been announced CLOSED on Jan. 6 due to inclement weather – snow and ice!

Just one example:

Well well my former Michigan co-workers already have school closed for tomorrow. They r deep n snow! Their bragging has begun lol [emphasis mine]

Like you maybe, I’ve heard about strange rituals like children wearing pajamas inside out and flushing ice cubes down the toilet to encourage the elements to delay or cancel school.

So, of course, I cannot help but wonder:

What would make school so great as a learning-and-engagement community that teachers and students would actually be sad, devastated even, when school was canceled for inclement weather?

Screen Shot 2014-01-05 at 3.34.39 PM

We should design for that emotion! For that desired user experience!

And if school canceled simply provides more time for people to do other things that get neglected “due to” their professional/school lives – hence the excitement about the cancelation, then we could learn from those insights, too! But I imagine that’s not all that’s at stake. How ’bout you?!

[Selfish blogger’s note: I so wish hundreds…thousands of people would fill the comments with examples of what school would/could be like that would make them sad if it got canceled due to weather. And then I wish we would make those schools happen more!]

+ + + + +

RELATED POST FROM THE PAST:

CHANGEd: What if schools factored in experiment days like snow days? 60-60-60 #6

CHANGEd: What if schools factored in experiment days like snow days? 60-60-60 #6

When scheduling, many schools factor in “snow days” – days that won’t be re-calendared for inclement weather cancellations. What if schools factored in experiment days like snow days? We could plan for radical pilots and seemingly outlandish learning designs to test various hypotheses. We could learn by doing and negate the argument, “We have too much to cover.” Call ’em…”grow days!”

CHANGEd: What if…60-60-60 Project Explained