“Snow Day” a hard call voice from Wilkes-Barre citizens

What happened to Doppler radar? I want to know that.

All we hear now are American models and European models that prove to be correct.

Not that Doppler radar was so impressive. I remember the scene for the first time that it seemed to us to say that it was raining or snowing at the moment. In other words, it replaced the good old hand out of the window.

I also remember that as a child I had my own version of Doppler Radar. It was the street lamp on the corner near my house.

At night they could see whether it was only snowed directly under the street lamp. I was actually pretty good at predicting snow tubes in this way. The size and density of the flakes came into play. Also time of the night.

Of course there were no text notifications at the time and the television channels also listed school closings. At that time, school closings were the domain of the local radio. And in the 1960s it meant warm, the powerful 590.

However, my street was trustworthy enough that I usually went to bed quite confidently whether there would be a school the next day.

Unfortunately there were usually.

This had a lot to do with the fact that most children went to school at the time. School buses served outside areas, but that only made a small number of students. The rest of us came to school on foot, and it took a lot of snow to keep our hike too tricky.

At that time we were also a much less disputed society. Superintendents were less likely to make a snow days based on a possible lawsuit.

I don't remember that there is ever a late start. It was either the day of school or the snow day, nothing in between.

Nowadays I don't want to be a school or college official who calls the snow day. It is a classic damn if you are damn if you are not able. The “rule” is actually a child's play: at some point on the side of caution. But a snow day or a late start leads to such a chaos in the life of an average family. It is difficult to get out intact, no matter what happens.

How about a possible solution? Let's stop sending children to school in winter.

Summer from school made sense 100 years ago when children had to help on the family farm. But in 2025, what is the point except maybe tradition?

The case can also be done for more than nine months for a school year. It is a much more competitive world than the 180-day school year. But apart from that, wouldn't it make sense to share in the summer vacation with maybe six weeks in winter and the remaining six in the summer? Sure, it gets hot in summer. But probably not hot enough to cancel school.

The advisory editor Ed Ackerman writes the Optimist Blog on Wednesdays and Fridays. His column, the optimist, is published every week in the Greater Pittston progress.