It’s an open and closed case – schools can’t win
By Ray Hanania
This week’s arctic chilled weather raised an important issue about schools and our society.
Schools across Chicagoland suburbs closed on Wednesday and Thursday when temperatures dropped below zero. The wind chill was predicted Wednesday to be minus-35 degrees, although it was higher.
That’s pretty darn cold, though.
On Friday, even though the temperatures were just as bad, or worse, schools were opened. The temperatures were still in the single digits, and the wind chill was subzero.
So why were some schools closed one day but opened the next, and the weather was the same?
Our schools may be more about baby-sitting to help working parents, than they are about educating our kids.
Admit it.
Schools opened Friday because parents were griping that having children at home makes it hard for them to work. It cut into snow days and will extend the school year into summer vacations.
I get it. It’s a real problem. Working parents often have no other options. Who will watch the kids while school is closed? Do they take days off from work and lose benefits?
Although it did seem strange to me that while schools couldn’t open, community centers could, providing activities for the kids. Does that make sense?
Some people will argue school closings really have to do with the power of unions. Others will say its politics, trying to keep parents happy when in fact you can’t keep parents of school kids happy at all.
If kids don’t do well in school, parents blame the schools, not themselves, or their kids. The lives of parents with school children are built around their children’s school schedule.
When I was a kid – a true cliché – I went to school regardless of the weather. I walked to school 12 blocks, four times a day. In the winter. In storms. They closed schools during the 1967 Blizzard, but only because the snow was so high no one could walk. Trudging (Chicago-ese for walking in heavy snow) through the streets literally was like climbing K2, the deadliest mountain and only second highest to Mt. Everest. (I learned that in school.)
Yes, we walked to school in any weather, including blizzards. Why can’t kids do it today? They all take busses. Their parents drive them the few blocks. I see it because I drive my son to school every morning. My wife picks him up. Kids are spoiled. They stay awake for hours playing Xbox, but can’t stay awake five minutes to read a book.
I actually feel sorry for the school officials. They don’t know what to do to make parents happy. If a kid gets bad grades, it’s the schools fault. If the kid is a genius, credit the parents’ genes.
Someone should explain all this to Mother Nature. But I don’t think Mother Nature really cares, especially in this ugly season of Global Warming.
PARIS MASSACRES: I don’t know anyone who is not outraged by the brutality of the killings in Paris last week. Terrorists massacred 12 people at a satire newspaper office that has published photos attacking Islam. I think the cartoons are disgraceful, and racist, too.
But I think the terrorism and killing is even more shocking and more wrong. But don’t paint an entire religion based on the actions of three criminals. Every Muslim I know condemned the killings. Many Christians I know condemned “Muslims.”
That’s sad.
Don’t blame an entire people for the actions of a few.
Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him at [email protected]. You can find his columns in the Des Plaines Valley News, the Southwest News-Herald, the Regional News and the Palos Reporter newspapers.
Blogger, Columnist at Illinois News Network Online
Ray Hanania is senior blogger for the Illinois News Network online news site. He is an award winning former Chicago City Hall political reporter and columnist who covered the beat from 1976 through 1992 (From Mayor Daley to Mayor Daley).
In 1976, he was hired by the Chicago community newspaper The Southtown Economist (Daily Southtown) and in 1985 was hired by the Chicago Sun-Times and covered Chicago City Hall for both. In 1993, he launched the “The Villager” Newspapers which covered 12 Southwest Chicagoland suburban regions. He hosted a live weekend Radio Show on WLS AM radio from 1980 through 1991, and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM and shows on WSBC AM in Chicago and WNZK AM in Detroit.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate and his column is feature every Sunday in the Saudi Gazette in Saudi Arabia. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star, the News of the World, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, and Aramco Magazine. His Chicagoland political columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald and Des Plaines Valley News on several Chicagoland blogs including the OrlandParker.com and SuburbanChicagoland.com.
Hanania is the President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.
His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at:
[email protected].
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It’s an open and closed case – schools can’t win
By Ray Hanania
Schools across Chicagoland suburbs closed on Wednesday and Thursday when temperatures dropped below zero. The wind chill was predicted Wednesday to be minus-35 degrees, although it was higher.
That’s pretty darn cold, though.
On Friday, even though the temperatures were just as bad, or worse, schools were opened. The temperatures were still in the single digits, and the wind chill was subzero.
So why were some schools closed one day but opened the next, and the weather was the same?
Our schools may be more about baby-sitting to help working parents, than they are about educating our kids.
Admit it.
Schools opened Friday because parents were griping that having children at home makes it hard for them to work. It cut into snow days and will extend the school year into summer vacations.
I get it. It’s a real problem. Working parents often have no other options. Who will watch the kids while school is closed? Do they take days off from work and lose benefits?
Although it did seem strange to me that while schools couldn’t open, community centers could, providing activities for the kids. Does that make sense?
Some people will argue school closings really have to do with the power of unions. Others will say its politics, trying to keep parents happy when in fact you can’t keep parents of school kids happy at all.
If kids don’t do well in school, parents blame the schools, not themselves, or their kids. The lives of parents with school children are built around their children’s school schedule.
When I was a kid – a true cliché – I went to school regardless of the weather. I walked to school 12 blocks, four times a day. In the winter. In storms. They closed schools during the 1967 Blizzard, but only because the snow was so high no one could walk. Trudging (Chicago-ese for walking in heavy snow) through the streets literally was like climbing K2, the deadliest mountain and only second highest to Mt. Everest. (I learned that in school.)
Yes, we walked to school in any weather, including blizzards. Why can’t kids do it today? They all take busses. Their parents drive them the few blocks. I see it because I drive my son to school every morning. My wife picks him up. Kids are spoiled. They stay awake for hours playing Xbox, but can’t stay awake five minutes to read a book.
I actually feel sorry for the school officials. They don’t know what to do to make parents happy. If a kid gets bad grades, it’s the schools fault. If the kid is a genius, credit the parents’ genes.
Someone should explain all this to Mother Nature. But I don’t think Mother Nature really cares, especially in this ugly season of Global Warming.
PARIS MASSACRES: I don’t know anyone who is not outraged by the brutality of the killings in Paris last week. Terrorists massacred 12 people at a satire newspaper office that has published photos attacking Islam. I think the cartoons are disgraceful, and racist, too.
But I think the terrorism and killing is even more shocking and more wrong. But don’t paint an entire religion based on the actions of three criminals. Every Muslim I know condemned the killings. Many Christians I know condemned “Muslims.”
That’s sad.
Don’t blame an entire people for the actions of a few.
Ray Hanania is an award-winning former Chicago City Hall reporter. Reach him at [email protected]. You can find his columns in the Des Plaines Valley News, the Southwest News-Herald, the Regional News and the Palos Reporter newspapers.
Ray Hanania
In 1976, he was hired by the Chicago community newspaper The Southtown Economist (Daily Southtown) and in 1985 was hired by the Chicago Sun-Times and covered Chicago City Hall for both. In 1993, he launched the “The Villager” Newspapers which covered 12 Southwest Chicagoland suburban regions. He hosted a live weekend Radio Show on WLS AM radio from 1980 through 1991, and also on WBBM FM, WLUP FM and shows on WSBC AM in Chicago and WNZK AM in Detroit.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media;In 2009, he received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. Hanania has also received two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild, and in 1990 was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
Hanania’s writings have been published in newspapers around the world. He currently is syndicated through Creators Syndicate and his column is feature every Sunday in the Saudi Gazette in Saudi Arabia. He has written for the Jerusalem Post, YNetNews.com, Newsday in New York, the Orlando Sentinel, the Houston Chronicle, The Daily Star, the News of the World, the Daily Yomimuri in Tokyo, Chicago Magazine, the Arlington Heights Daily Herald, and Aramco Magazine. His Chicagoland political columns are published in the Southwest News-Herald and Des Plaines Valley News on several Chicagoland blogs including the OrlandParker.com and SuburbanChicagoland.com.
Hanania is the President/CEO of Urban Strategies Group media and public affairs consulting which has clients in Illinois, Florida, Michigan and Washington D.C.
His personal website is www.TheMediaOasis.com. Email him at: [email protected].
Latest posts by Ray Hanania (see all)
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