Following the holidays season, the weeks of the school year can start to feel very monotonous. The occasional in-service or holiday off can break up this monotony, but they often don’t offer enough of a break to allow students the proper time to refresh. Making the year longer to allow for more breaks isn’t feasible (nor favorable), so a nice alternative to allow for time out of school while still making progress in classes is the use of Flexible Instruction Days (FIDs) and asynchronous days.
After every snow day (or other school cancellation), when the thrill of getting a momentary break settles, many are left to wonder when the day will be made up–and many dread the answer. Whether it is removed from a break or chalked onto the end of the year, it’s no secret that spending previously-scheduled-off days in school is, at best, an annoyance. In recent years; however, instances where days need to be made up have become less and less common with the introduction of FIDs and asynchronous days, during which students complete school work remotely.
The main opposition to these days lies in the increased phasing out of snow days. While this can be seen as removing a classic childhood experience, it doesn’t completely remove the feature. Especially in the instance of asynchronous days, kids still have the opportunity to enjoy the winter weather without having to cut into their summers. Asynchronous days and FIDs give the opportunity to maintain productivity while still offering long-lasting childhood memories to students.
In addition, these days can offer some relief to teachers. Whereas, with snow days, teachers may be left having to entirely rewrite their plans for the foreseeable future, FIDs and asynchronous days can make it easier for teachers to stick to original plans with fewer adjustments.
However, there are still limitations to learning virtually, as there are currently only five days of virtual learning allowed in a school year per state legislation. Rather than extending the school year with snow days, there should be a change in the number of virtual days allowed in a school year. Allowing for more virtual days would keep the year’s progression on track while still accommodating the unexpected turns of the weather.
