School cancellations a real puzzle

To the Editor:

Kentville School cancellations due to 'weather' seem to be almost unrelated to weather.

For example, on Friday, Feb. 2 the weather was fine, but school was cancelled; on Monday, Feb. 5, in spite of localized whiteout conditions early in the morning, school was open as scheduled until 11a.m.; on Tuesday, Feb. 6, with salt applied to very cold blowing snow, many streets were slippery (slippery enough for a school bus to get crossways of Masters Ave at about 2 p.m.) and school was open. But on Thursday,

Feb. 8, children were sent home at 11 a.m. in calm, mostly sunny weather.

This apparent random relationship does not mean that those who decide whether or not to cancel school are incompetent or using a dartboard. It does suggest to me that something is not working right. Something is out of whack.

Perhaps the management unit is too large. Perhaps busing decisions made on a school-by- school basis would better fit conditions. Or perhaps the areas that are served by individual schools are too large.

Perhaps the entire system should be put under a microscope and adjusted as indicated before we progress further in the wrong direction.

It’s interesting that, in these days where the trend for amalgamation of schools continues, the better performance by students is associated with the smaller schools. To which the apologists for large schools protest that the comparison is unfair because those better schools are smaller. Well, yeah.

Being born at a good time and in a good place, I had the good fortune to receive my early education in a small country school. In my view, there is no better environment for learning how to learn, how to think, how to make the most of limited resources and other basics of education and life.

Yours truly

David H. Webster

Kentville