Monday, December 20, 2004

1. It’s wicked cold out there today. Wind chill around -10F. Shiver.

We had a short snow squall yesterday that didn’t amount to much - a patchy dusting in places. Nothing on the roads. And yet…

2. Schools are closed in Prince William County today. ECD had to be in early this morning, so I was going to take care of getting Nee ready for school. After walking Annie, I went up to get coffee and she told me that schools were closed.

ME: You’ve got to be kidding me.

ECD: Nope. (She then gave me instructions for getting Nee to the sitter next door, which was much easier than getting her ready for school, but still...)

ME: As a taxpayer with no kids, this drives me crazy.

And there ensued a mini-debate about the merits of school cancellations and the responsibility of the school board. The main responsibility of the schools is to educate, not to accommodate parents’ hardships with childcare if they work (we were discussing the merits of the 2-hour delay, which might have made more sense, but was equally unnecessary). It’s the responsibility of parents’ to deal with childcare. And how is getting to work late better than not going to work at all for a lot of parents who don’t have regular daytime childcare lined up?

So later, while I was driving in, ECD called to see how it went.

ME: Fine. Nee was happy.

ECD: Maybe they closed schools because of the cold.

ME: If that was a valid reason for closing schools, then no one in the northern tier would go to school at all in the winter.

ARGH!