On Being Responsible - Thursday, February 03, 2011

Toronto has just been not-hit by a major snowstorm. The media fanned the flames (enough, it turns out, to melt most of the snow before it arrived!) and for the first time in 10+ years schools were closed.

This amazes me; Toronto is no stranger to snow storms. We don’t have it as bad as all the other places (Calgary, Montreal etc.), but three or four times each winter we get a serious dump that takes a day or two to clear.

The most obvious question asked was “ Did Schools have to close ”, with the memorable quote ““the walking conditions and driving conditions weren’t great” for families or teachers.”.

This blog is about Logic.

If the weather is really cold, really hot, or really wet, I’ll postpone my trip to the store across the street and try to survive without a yellow pepper for a few hours.

If the weather is really cold, really hot, or really wet, I’ll agree to postpone my breakfast meeting with David Sappleton; we were only going to goof off for an hour and chat anyway.

But closing the schools means several things, amongst them:

(1) Another day’s education missed

(2) Class schedules disrupted

(3) Some parents miss a day’s work, at the least, they don’t attend the project meeting downtown

(4) (add your own)

For why?

Why not leave 15 minutes early? The rest of us do. Take public transit for once, instead of moaning about the 3-hour drive.

What really ticks me off is that the School Board (in my example) is making a decision on behalf of the parents and teachers.

Who better to educate children about dealing with a storm (heat-wave, downpour etc.) than parents and teachers?

And yet, parents and teachers quite cheerfully abdicate their responsibility to MAKE RESPONSIBLE DECISIONS and treat the school board as a parent!

Wrong!

Go to school. Get to work. Be an adult, not a child.

And yes, it means you’ll have to drive more carefully, leave a little earlier, get home a little later.

It’s called living a life.

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