Today is Snow Day No. 11

Today we are embarking on our eleventh snow day of the school year.  And that means our kids are going to be seeing their last day of school pushed from May 16th to somewhere around June 2nd.  I guess it's understandable that most parents are upset that our kids have to makeup these days which can't be avoided.  Mother Nature is a beotch, you know.  Making up snow days really doesn't bother me as much as I'm worried about how it affects the learning process.  Are kids going to recall what they were last studying by the time we get back in class?  It goes without saying that I'm really shocked and saddened by some of the comments left on the school's facebook page.  I don't know why the school allows people to leave comments, I'm pretty sure you can turn off that option in your facebook settings.

Anyhoo.... someone left a comment stating that our state requires 1,050 hours of school each school year.  Hmmmm.  Last night I went to the school's website and printed a copy of the school calendar and then dug through the kids school papers to find their school handbook.  According to the handbook, my kids elementary school day begins at 7:45 and ends at 2:35.  Do a little math and that makes the school day 6 hours and 50 minutes long.  There are 175 days of school scheduled this year.  If you do a little math (175 x 6 hours 50 minutes) my kids are scheduled to be in school for 1,195.8 hours this school year.  Do a little more math (1,195.8 - 1,050) and you will see that my kids are at school for 145.8 hours a year that aren't counted toward their education.

WTF?

Of course, a very helpful person (on FB) pointed out the fallacy of my logic.  You see, that additional time above 6 hours a day that our kids are in school is not counted toward "instructional time".  Nope, lunch, recess, and any time spent in the halls is not counted toward their school day.  I'll have to throw in another WTF here.  You'll have a very difficult time convincing me that kids aren't learning something during these, I don't know what to call them, down times?  I feel confident saying that kids are being "instructed" to sit down and be quiet while they eat their lunch, and to walk in a line and be quiet while in the hallways, and to act like something besides barbarians while running around on the playground.  Instructional time begins the second my kids get out of my car in the morning and ends the second they get back into my car in the evening.

Now, I'm guessing that this additional 50 minutes of each school day is a necessary evil and we are all powerless to have a say in the matter. But, if my child must be present from 7:45-2:35 in order to be counted as "present" for the school day, that entire school day should count toward the total number of time required for the entire school year. Am I crazy for thinking this?  I think not.  And I'm really curious to hear what the Governor's office will say to the inquiry I sent this morning.

My kids have been in public school for just the past few years, but I find myself continually wishing for the confidence to home school them.  Sadly, I never wanted to grow up and become a school teacher.  Just the idea of being in a classroom day after day with thirty or so angelic little faces is enough to give me hives!  But, I can't shake the thought that school is no longer really about learning, it's just about punching a time card and meeting a quota.  And, that just doesn't seem like a good way to do business, if you're business is to educate young minds.  Thoughts?

After Thought:  I just have to mention that I have a very strong dislike for the use of hand sanitizer over good old fashioned hand washing. In the past, I assumed the argument pro-sanitizer would be that there simply isn't enough time for good old fashioned hand washing. Well, now that I know there's fifty throw away minutes in each and every school day, I must say I think there is plenty of time in the school day for good old fashioned hand washing. Next year, for every bottle of sanitizer I'm asked to send, I will be sending a bottle of hand soap and a roll of paper towels instead.

Hand Sanitizer, I Do Not Like Thee

I can't remember exactly when hand sanitizers became all the rage.  Was it before or after the bird flu hysteria began?  I just can't recall.  Remember the good ol' days when the doctor actually washed his hands when entering the exam room.  Boy, those were the days.

If  I've said it once I've said it a thousand times.  Poop is poop no matter how much hand sanitizer you put on it.  Right?  And the CDC pretty much agrees with me.  See that photo?  See the bold line that reads "not as effective when hands are visibly dirty".  Yep, something to think about.

How many of you can honestly say that after leaving the playground your kids hands are not "visibly dirty".  And I don't want to think about their hands when leaving the bathroom.  I've heard enough horror stories about what kids leave in the bathroom to make me loose a months worth of sleep.  Seriously, talk to your school janitor, you will be scarred for life.

Now, take a closer look at the label on your hand sanitizer.  I was quite surprised to see a Drug Facts label just like you find on a bottle of medication.  Did you ever think of hand sanitizer as a drug?  Neither did I.  Now, take a closer look at the label on your hand soap.  No Drug Facts label?  Yea, my soap didn't have one either. 

I did a little online snooping and the CDC and Mayo clinic agree that hand sanitizer should be used when soap and water are not available.  I'd guess that 99.99% of places frequented in America have both running water and soap.  So why is hand sanitizer the go-to option in most situations these days? 

I began writing about this topic months ago, around the beginning of the school year, so imagine my surprise when a google search for the best iron-fortified cereal led me to a really great parent resource from a pediatric doctor's office with a page devoted to none other than hand sanitizer vs. hand washing!  Sue me, I was tickled pink.  There's actually a lot of really great information on their website, I'm very impressed and wish they were local for us.  But, back to the hand sanitizer debate. 

Hand sanitizer is equivalent to 124 proof alcohol.  Wow, just wow.  And how many bottles were you asked to send to your child's school this year?  Parents, shouldn't we be worried about this stuff?  It's passed around like crack, I mean candy, in the classroom, readily available to every child in a school, and is absorbed right into your child's delicate skin.  Wonder if you can get a contact buzz that way?  Could we be turning our children into alcoholics because thinking about the long term effect of hand sanitizer use? 

And did I mention that it probably won't kill that pesky virus that's always going around your child's school?  Antibiotics aren't the only thing germs are immune to, obviously they aren't afraid of hand sanitizers either.  Think about all of your children's sick doctor visits lately.  Do you hear more and more often that your child has a virus and antibiotics just aren't going to help?  But, do you know what might help?  HAND WASHING with real SOAP and WATER!!!

I do realize that hand sanitizer is leaps and bounds faster than good ol' fashioned hand washing.  Keep in mind that faster isn't always better.  And I concede that the illnesses which have kept my kids home from school, thus far, this school year would not have been prevented by good ol' fashioned hand washing.  But, this is the last week of November, right at the beginning of cold and flu season, and I believe the spread of communicable illnesses would be lessened by good ol' fashioned hand washing.  Don't you?