I’m in the path of totality, and I’m really thankful we have a planned in-service day where school is cancelled for our kids. I’d much rather they be home with me, my solar telescope, my pile of eclipse glasses and the homemade shadow boxes we’ll make, rather than under the “supervision” of their teachers.
Meanwhile, The Pascal Memorial Elementary School is closing just in case the eclipse is a result of angry gods.
It probably isn’t–but what if it is?
This has a bit more detail.
The timing of the event, approximately 2 to 4:30 p.m., is particularly troubling because of darkness at dismissal times, which could frighten students and create safety issues with cars arriving to pick up children, according to HDSB associate director Tina Salmini.
IOW:
Given that it’s early April in Ontario, it will probably be overcast that day anyways.
It depends entirely on what tasks they perform. My mother was a schoolteacher and PA days didn’t seem to end early.
This. That’s immediately where my mind went. Plus some (at least perceived) risk of vehicle accidents (buses!) since it appears from my cursory reading to be occurring during after-school time in at least some areas. “Let’s just avoid this whole thing, we have the inservice day, it won’t hurt.”
But it’s actually an inservice day so teachers are expected to be in school.
I guess I don’t see what the deal is. They’re not “cancelling” school, in that they’re not giving kids an extra day without education because of this. They’re just shifting an existing day off. It’s in April and it’s still January so there’s plenty of notice. I’m sure some parent’s schedule will be messed up but it’s probably helping more schedules from parents who wanted to see the event. On balance, MORE kids will probably be in school overall since the number of kids who would have stayed home for the eclipse and then stayed home again for the original inservice is going to be greater than just stayed home because of eclipse.
They can say it’s because of blindness risk or darkness or angry gods or whatever… it’s still a net positive to move the inservice day to eclipse day.
If a teacher takes leave on an inservice day (or if they, just spitballing, take off early enough to watch some celestial event in its entirety), it’s much less of a logistical hassle than if they take leave on a day when students are there.
True. No need to get a sub, etc.
Just would sound weird to say “We’re moving this teacher inservice day because the teachers are going to skip work on that day”
Exactly. I’m tentatively accusing the district of very mild dishonesty, of the “we don’t want any hassle” variety. But I freely admit I might be wrong.
Why skip work though? When we has the 96% partial eclipse in Denver we simply went out in the parking lot for 30 minutes to view it. Only teacher that took the day off was the former astronomer that went up to Wyoming to view totality with all of his astronomer buddies.
You guys shoulda gone to see total. I’m telling you, it’s not at all the same experience.
This, absolutely. Without totality you haven’t seen an eclipse. If you have 99% you get 2% of the experience.
Agree with this. I once told a friend that a partial eclipse is like a partial orgasm. He really liked that analogy.
No, I was addressing the people who were complaining about canceling school, just like the ones in my story.
I actually lived through the event Carly Simon sang about when she sang, “Then you flew your Lear Jet up to Nova Scotia to see the total eclipse of the sun,” in “You’re So Vain.” It was 1972, it happened on a Saturday, and I was in Toronto, which was predicted to get 80% totality.
We kids at school were warned of the dangers of looking at the eclipse. We were taught how to construct devices that would allow us to watch it safely (usually, made from shoeboxes). We were warned not to “smoke glass,” or do other similar things that would supposedly protect our eyes. Again, it happened on a Saturday, so the school could do nothing except warn us of the danger.
Regardless, a lot of us took a quick glimpse anyway on that Saturday. I did, and I sure remember seeing a chunk of the Moon in front of the Sun. But very briefly.
Go away.
I mean, you’re absolutely right. And I’ve said the same over in the eclipse thread But don’t rub it in. 
Still, there’s a chance of clear or semi-clear skies. I have hope.