I’ve commented on this to a few friends recently; it seems that as the winters get milder, our reaction to any degree of inclement weather is becoming hysterical. It’s becoming routine now for school buses to be cancelled for weather that no reasonable person would define as dangerous. Indeed, I would suggest that school bus cancellations probably increase the danger to students. The children will probably end up being driven to school, or somewhere, and they are in vastly more danger in a car than in a bus; a school bus is just about the safest mode of transportation you can ride in.
It’s not just buses. We’re now getting EXTREME COLD WEATHER ALERTS for anything that hits -10, which is, lets be honest, historically a pretty routine temperature to reach in winter. I actually heard an announcer breathlessly note that “skin will freeze in ten minutes” in -10 weather, which is utter idiocy; if that were true then every person who took a walk or a run when it was cold would have serious frostbite. I couldn’t believe an adult would say something like that.
When I was walking about half a mile to a bus stop in the early 80s these sorts of temperatures were perfectly expected and a little snow was no big deal. The entire time I took a bus to school in elementary school, a span of four years, the bus schedule was changed once to account for weather. In case you think I’m just being an old coot, I actually looked up a random range of days in Winter 1982 for my hometown, Kingston:
Day: Mean, Low Temperature
February 2: -8, low -18
February 3: -1, low -2
February 4: -4, low -7
February 5: -13, low -20
February 6: -11, low -20
February 7: -9, low -15
February 8: -6, low -15
I mean, this was just normal stuff. Now people go positively apeshit. I’m not sure why this phenomenon is happening, but it does seem to be inversely proportional to how much bad weather we actually get. We had a formal storm warning the other day for an expected **two centimetres **of snow, an amount that I wouldn’t even bother to shovel off a driveway.
The obvious reason for this is that the seriousness of weather is subjective and relative, based on a comparison with the “normal” as experienced by a particular society at a particular time.
For whatever reason, our winters appear to be milder than they used. Thus, the basis of comparison has shifted. If it was -10 every day for months, no-one would find -10 weather of much concern; if it only happens very infrequently, suddenly it appears extreme because people are not physically or psychologically used to it.
I have to respond to this because buses only get cancelled in Ottawa if it’s going to be really bad, like thick freezing rain bad. I think there have been two cancellations this winter, and both for that reason. Otherwise, in Ottawa, we’d be cancelling buses every other week for snow.
(The last 3 winters have been low for snow accumulation, but I’ve had school bus-taking kids since 2001.)
I must say, I am surprised at the number of children who require a bus to school nowadays. Like RickJay, I walked over a half-mile to school in my elementary schooldays; and we did it in all weather–there were no schoolbuses in Toronto. Further, we did it four times a day: to school in the morning, home for lunch, back after lunch, and home after school.
I only recall school being cancelled once, and that was due to an ice storm that dropped power lines throughout the city. They were worried that us kids would be in danger walking to school over fallen live power lines. I was about seven years old at the time; school was never cancelled subsequently.
But there were never any schoolbuses, no parents drove their kids to school (we all walked or rode bikes to school), and we did it no matter how cold it was. We may have dressed like astronauts, but we made it to school and back, four times a day, every day; in all weather conditions–including temps from -10C to -20C, or lower on occasion.
I love the idea that our head of state is playing hockey! Does Queen Elizabeth play any sports? (I realize that she is our true head of state, but I doubt she ever did anything like this.) Does Mr. Obama do anything like this? Mr. Putin?
Our head of state heads out to play what most people recognize as our national game. And knows how to play it, too!
It’s for kids who may manage to walk to the school or get dropped off by their patents - the school has to be open so they can come in from the cold. You wouldn’t want them to be locked out I’m a blizzard.
And there was a typo; it should have been ‘veuilliez’. I think.
I’ve resumed learning French by going to a French meetup group in Newmarket and merely attempting to speak it. I was inspired by the language-learning philosophy of Benny the Irish Polyglot, who says that you should just dive in and make all sorts of errors and learn that way.
Edit: I can understand most of what I hear, and am doing surprisingly well attempting to speak it. Though I need a lot more vocabulary, and don’t even think about some of the weirder verb tenses…
Having been put into French immersion for years, I can assure you… it doesn’t work for a lot of people. Actually learning some of the systemics might be a good idea.
It’s a fact that the best way to learn a language is to speak it with other people, preferably people who are fluent in it. Learning vocabulary and grammar helps, of course, but I don’t think you can ever become fluent in a language if you’re only using it in a classroom environment. I mean, all Canadian children learn the other official language for years on end in school, and how many actually get fluent? (Of course, it helps if you actually have a use for the language you’re learning.)
This said, it’s true that most people are scared of just jumping into speaking a language they’re not fluent in. It’s human nature, you know you’re going to make mistakes and possibly look stupid.
Now Benny’s probably a special case, but mostly because he’s a lot more committed to learning the language of the places he visits than most travellers. If you don’t have the drive he has, his method may not work.
It’s also a fact that children and adults learn languages differently. Immersion is one of the best methods, but it is not the only method, and for the adult learner what is most effective really can vary quite a lot.
Of course speakinjg the language is necessary, but the quote to which I replied stated that the best way is just to speak it. I’m sorry but I just don’t believe that the best approach to learning anything is ever that simple.
They cancel the buses but not school itself?
