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The NEU (the largest teachers' union in the UK) has called for rules that would cancel classes anytime temperatures reached 26° (79° F). As a relatively primitive society with little or no air conditioning, one would expect denizens of the UK to be inured to “extremes” like that. But days above 25° are rare in the UK (7 to 9 per year on average) and occur almost exclusively during the summer holiday, so the proposed rule seems a bit superfluous.
It was probably driven by the fact that this year set the UK national record for days above 30° (86° F) at 35. And so the dying climate change cult got a brief reprieve.
In my area (Washington DC Metro), we average 105-110 days above the proposed UK classroom max. But we also have A/C, large refrigerators with ice makers and other advantages that backward people rarely possess.
I attended grades one through four in a parochial school located in Miami, Florida, many years ago. There were no air conditioners in the classrooms. Temperatures were rarely below the dreaded UK max.
Current Miami average temps:
Not only did my fellow students and I achieve literacy and computational skills on pace, but I do not recall the heavily robed nun teachers ever complaining. In fact, I do not recall ever seeing a nun use a hanky to wipe a sweaty brow. If they did, it was not in front of us. Kinda like USMC DI’s at Parris Island who surreptitiously change shirts and do other things to convince trainees they do not sweat. Tough ladies, those nuns.
It seems incongruous that the descendants of fellows in heavy woolen uniforms who established an empire by marching into tropical areas should feel the need to retreat to the fainting couches at 26°C. And sad.
Discussion (14)
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We make up for it in the US by cancelling schools whenever there's a hint of snow - or snowfall greater than 1/32" . . .
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I keep my house at 79 degrees during the summer because I feel cold if the temperature is lower than that. Anything below 85f is fine by me.
Cold weather? A whole different problem.
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A Vermont transplant to the Virginia DC suburbs told me that he did not disagree with the overcautious local snow policies because (a) nobody in the area has properly fitted vehicles or emergency gear for winter and (b) the population includes some truly terrible drivers under icy conditions. Best to suck it up and lose 2-5 school days than to power on and sustain likely significant losses.
A few years ago, after schools in MoCo MD reopened a day or two after a sizeable snowfall, a kid was killed because sidewalks were not cleared and covered with what snowplows pushed up and he had to walk in the street to get to his bus stop. Seemed like were more snow days for a couple of years after that and I figured that the people making that call felt the weight of the decision. I do not envy them.
People in Fargo or Burlington adjust to semi-permanent snow accumulation. Not people in MD, DC or VA. Better to send the government workers home than wait for some idiot to needlessly skid into a major pileup.
The other factor is that unlike Fargo or Burlington, southern temperatures that dance back and forth at the freezing mark make for very mixed, changing substrates. Even New Englanders can have trouble with that.
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Noel Coward weeps.
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Even Vermonters still planted where they sprouted have that same philosophical approach to the general problem of social conditions that fall short of the utopian (like snow-related accident rates above zero per year because of a small minority failing to live up to social expectations like driving safely).
The central political authorities (which are invariably referred to as "we"--it sounds more democratic) must forcibly lower social standards. Close schools on days when the children's parents would rather have them open, in this case.
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