According to the Sprague superintendent's office, school was canceled because of the cold wind chill, and officials don't want children standing at the bus stop to be exposed to frost bite.
First of all, frostbite is not a virus. One gets frost bite from being exposed to the cold for prolonged durations. One exposed to the cold can develop frost bite. So, if the bus gets at the stop at 07:20, get to the stop at 07:15. Five minutes in the cold will not cause frost bite.
Locally, it was cold (8 F) as well and there were twelve school delays or closings. We are turning our children into pusillanimous automations who will grow up unable to cope with any adversity, challenge, or anything that requires effort. The superintendent is engaging in pusillanimous behavior as well; I sense fear of lawsuits is trumping the concern for the children. Some parent doesn't properly clothe a child and the child falls ill, the school will get sued and some feeble-minded lawyer will take and some equally stupid judge will listen to the case.
I have never known anyone to ever get frost bite during the transportation time from home to school; whether by walking or waiting at a bus stop and I, myself, walked to school almost all 13 years I was in public school.
Dumbing down our educational system is bad enough but turning kids into wimps is just another practice that we are all going to pay for in the coming years.
I firmly believe that "pusillanimous" is the true origin of the five letter word that begins with p and has two s's in the middle and is a synonym for coward.
[ 3 comments ] ( 2939 views ) | permalink
Archives
