In speaking with friends over the past couple of days and all throughout my decade-long tenure as a Potomac student, I’ve found that one quality is consistent across the entirety of the student body: we can’t stand snow days.

Potomac students, all the way from kindergarten to senior year, are particularly driven and passionate about their studies. We often ask ourselves, “How is it that our administration is teaching us to use the weather of all things as an excuse for a lack of discipline?” There being snow outside (or any sort of uncomfortable weather) does not mean we cannot or should not continue to pursue intelligence; do we come to school on Saturday just because the weather is especially nice? 

The administration claims that we can continue to learn through “asynchronous” work (although they elect to abbreviate this term to “async,” as if we’re illiterate fools). Still, everyone knows that this work is ineffective. Sure, we can read the classics and study mathematics by ourselves–any common nincompoop can–but it is not truly learning unless we are able to discuss it with our peers. The Socratic method is essential to our learning, and it is not fair to take it away from us. It seems that these days, some people would prefer it if we did not even know who Socrates was.

We are told that snow days are a matter of safety; supposedly, students are unable to navigate adverse conditions, and bus routes cannot run. To this, I respond, who was supposed to teach us to push through adversity? Who was supposed to show us how to be safe? Who was supposed to teach us to be independent and able to get ourselves to school without the help of a bus driver?

Maybe at a school with less academically-inclined students, there could be some excitement over the prospect of snow days, but at Potomac, there is only dread. Potomac students are not outside having carefree snowball fights and joyfully sledding down hills; we are inside working doubly hard to make up for the learning that has been torn from our grasp. After three days of hard work, I am fed up with all this nonsense.

In the end, we as students have no choice but to make our voices heard. Without student protest, this corrupt administration will indefinitely continue their scheme to take away our education. I, for one, do not want to see a future in which Potomac students are no longer the erudites they are now, and I am willing to give my all for this cause. 

Here is my message to the administration: unlock the doors because I will be in the Upper School tomorrow at 8:15 a.m. no matter what you say!