Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. For the last 10 minutes or so of the show today, we're going to lighten up, certainly in comparison to that, and come back to one of the things that's going on in New York City today, differently from elsewhere in the region with respect to the show. It's that New York City kids do not have a snow day per se. They have a remote learning day because of the snow.

We're going to open up the phones for anybody involved right now to tell us how it's going. You probably haven't done remote school in a while. 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692. As a reminder, New York City ended its traditional snow day system during the 2022/2023 school year. Here's Mayor Mamdani yesterday announcing that schools will be remote, not closed, today and acknowledging what a bummer that is.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani: I know that this may disappoint some students, so if you do see me, feel free to throw a snowball at me.

Brian Lehrer: Ha, ha, ha ha. Even though that snow that fell didn't pack very well. Maybe that was his defense mechanism. So to those of you supervising remote learning today or maybe some kids who might be on lunch break, how is remote learning going? Do you miss having a snow day or not really? How does remote learning compare to being in school? Is it easier or harder? 212-433-WNYC, 212-433-9692.

Let's take your reports on remote learning and also your feelings about it. Some schools were worried about connectivity issues, I see, thinking thousands of students logging on at the same time might cause a problem. Any issues so far this morning? For anyone listening right now who's participating, parents or students, we can take your calls on what's going well and what's going not so well. Maybe some of you are listening to the Brian Lehrer Show as an educational moment with your kids at home, hearing about what's going on in Minnesota as a public affairs lesson or anything else. 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.

According to CNN, which did some reporting on this, some parents are just going ahead and opting out of remote learning today. These parents say they just want to give their kids a fun, old-school snow day experience like they had. Maybe that's you, and you called your kid in sick or getting them out of remote learning for the day some other way. What's the plan? What are you doing? 212-433-WNYC, 433-9692.

I will note that some school districts elsewhere are not doing this. I was looking at Newsday, of course, Long Island's newspaper, with the list of school districts that are closed in Nassau and Suffolk Counties. I did not see one that was open, to be perfectly honest. I did see some Catholic schools and at least one charter school that were open today, meaning open for remote learning, but basically the schools on the island are, for the most part, closed.

A lot of New Jersey as well. Many North Jersey school districts had already made the call for a snow day today, with some also planning delayed openings for tomorrow. That's according to northjersey.com. Here's Mikie Sherrill, the governor, making that announcement here on WNYC.

Governor Mikie Sherrill: Largely, we are having a traditional snow day here in New Jersey, which I admire online learning as a parent who went through COVID with my four kids. Still a little bit of PTSD from there, so I'm happy to give families a little bit of a break.

Brian Lehrer: Governor Sherrill rubbing it in to New York, I think. Did you hear that in her voice? "Largely, we're having a traditional snow day," she said with a little chuckle, "in New Jersey." There are rules for this that Mayor Mamdani says he's required to follow, which is why it's remote learning in New York City today. They have to have 180 school days in a school year. I guess there are limited alternatives that the system considers worse alternatives for making up a snow day today, so they have remote learning.

All right. Who wants to call in and tell us how it's going? I see we have one second grader, I think, calling from Ditmas Park. Leo, hang in there. We're going to get to you and our other callers and texters right after the break. Stay with us.

[MUSIC - Marden Hill: Hijack]

Brian Lehrer: Brian Lehrer on WNYC. Now to your remote school day stories. If you're in the New York City public school system in any capacity, beginning with Leo in Ditmas Park. Leo, you're on WNYC. Hey there.

Leo: Hi.

Brian Lehrer: Hi. How old are you?

Leo: Seven.

Brian Lehrer: What grade are you in?

Leo: Second grade.

Brian Lehrer: Where do you go to school?

Leo: I go to school at P.S. 139.

Brian Lehrer: You like it?

Leo: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: How's your snow day going, your remote learning?

Leo: It just ended. It felt really quick.

Brian Lehrer: Oh, they just had a half a day.

Leo: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: What'd you do?

Leo: I got to show my class my pet gecko.

Brian Lehrer: You have a gecko?

Leo: Yes.

Brian Lehrer: Are you in the insurance business? No. That's a joke you probably don't get. Tell us about your gecko. What's your gecko's name?

Leo: His name is Spotty.

Brian Lehrer: Why Spotty?

Leo: He [unintelligible 00:06:29] and also he has brown spots.

Brian Lehrer: Nice. I guess you held Spotty up to the camera. Did you get any reaction from anybody?

Leo: Yes. My teacher thought he was really cute.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] It sounds like you liked your remote school day okay today, huh?

Leo: It was not as fun as I thought it would be.

Brian Lehrer: Oh. Why did you think it would be fun?

Leo: I thought since it was remote, it would be really exciting.

Brian Lehrer: Leo, thanks so much for calling. I think it's back to regular school tomorrow. How do you feel about that?

Leo: It's going to be a little worse.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] Leo, thank you very much. Good luck out there. All right. Leo in Ditmas Park. How about that? Jess in Manhattan, you're on WNYC. Hello, Jess.

Jess: Hi.

Brian Lehrer: Hi.

Jess: We just heard your other caller. We have three children here on computers, and we had a lot of technical difficulties, but they also were looking forward to the remote day, thinking that they would get to play outside all day, but with parents working, we can't actually take them outside. My son here, who's in fifth grade, wants to say that it was fun doing gym on remote.

Speaker 5: Much fun, but the connection was terrible because of the snow, I think, and it was glitching the whole time.

Jess: In any case, it did remind [unintelligible 00:08:22] the original COVID time, and we were happy to be off of it and looking forward to school again. [laughs]

Speaker 5: Yes.

Jess: Thank you.

Brian Lehrer: I was thinking of Leo, who's seven years old. He's too young to have COVID PTSD. Wait, Jess or Jess's kid, how do you do gym at home? Do you have parallel bars in your house?

Jess: No. They were just doing push-ups.

Speaker 5: Jumping jacks and jogging and stuff like that.

Jess: My seven-year-old also likes seeing all his friends' rooms inside, the pictures of their rooms, but other than that, it's been hard for the parents. I can tell you that.

Brian Lehrer: I'm sure that it has. Jess, thank you for checking in. Listener writes in a text, "I know how New York City kids feel. Everyone at my job now has the capability of working remote. Where we used to get a snow day, we now have to work remote. No more such things as a snow day, even for that grown-up." All right. One more student before we run out of time. Sebastian in Manhattan. Hey, Sebastian. You're on WNYC.

Sebastian: Hello.

Brian Lehrer: Hello. How old are you?

Sebastian: I'm 11 years old.

Brian Lehrer: What grade?

Sebastian: Sixth grade.

Brian Lehrer: Where do you go to school?

Sebastian: I go to Columbia Secondary School.

Brian Lehrer: How do you like the remote learning day?

Sebastian: I think that it was pretty fun. My school originally had a day off today, so I got to say hi to all my sister's teachers and her friends at school.

Brian Lehrer: Besides saying hi, what else did they do? Was there any instruction, or did you also have jumping jacks at home? What'd you do?

Sebastian: Well, today I worked on a short story that I'm writing, and right now I'm making biscuits. Earlier today I told a joke to my sister's math teacher.

Brian Lehrer: Uh-oh. We have 20 seconds. Can you repeat it?

Sebastian: Did you hear that the CEO of Ikea just got elected Prime Minister of Australia?

Brian Lehrer: No.

Sebastian: The first thing that he has to do is build his cabinet.

Brian Lehrer: [laughs] Thanks, Sebastian. Thanks to all of you for your snow day calls. Bye. Stay tuned for All Of It.

Sebastian: Thank you.

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