A Typical NON-Snow Day

I'm so annoyed I don't know where to begin. Here in Chicago we had a snow storm that started at about 3:00 yesterday afternoon and stopped at about 11:00 a.m. this morning. A lot of snow accumulated, probably about an average of 6 inches in the city. That's a lot of snow in a short period of time. Now I am completely aware that I have chosen to live in Chicago where it will snow - a lot. I am also aware that I work for a public school system that NEVER EVER closes. EVER. We would need a hurricane to close the public schools here, which would be interesting since the only body of water we border is a lake.

I understand that schools have to stay open for many reasons:

1.) Education is important.

2.) Thousands of kids rely on the schools to feed them breakfast and lunch. If they didn't come to school, many of them may not eat that day. (Sad, isn't it?)

3.) Parents have to work and this may leave children home alone unattended or it may cost an unfortunate family a day's wages.


HOWEVER...1/3 of my class was absent today, so I didn't teach one new thing. Not one. What's the point? I'd just have to reteach it on Monday. But this is not even what pisses me off. What pisses me off, Mayor Daley and Arne Duncan, is that you expect teachers to go to work and kids to come to school, yet don't even bother to ensure that the roads around the schools are given ANY attention in regards to snow removal. In my 20 mile commute, the street my school is on was the worst street I drove on in the 1.5 hours it took me to get to work today! I *barely* was able to make it thru the parking lot (because god forbid CPS takes care of that even).

It's unacceptable, but typical. I don't know why I let myself get all riled up about it. Everything in public schooling (and probably any urban public institution) is like this: all talk and no action (or money) to back it up.