Two Tuesdays ago, I drove to Chapel Hill to pick up my daughter. That’s because UNC had shut down. So had UNC-Greensboro, where I work, as of noon that Wednesday. Lamenting these decisions on Facebook, I pointed out that my cellphone predicted a 50/50 chance of scattered thunderstorms (Wednesday) and a.m. showers (Thursday). A.m. showers, oh my!
Of course there was a hurricane in the mix. But my cellphone, which knows about such things, predicted that it wouldn’t really affect the Triad until that Friday at the earliest. And my cellphone was right: Friday was windy, but hardly school-closing weather. Thursday was a nice day for a bike ride.
So was closing campus — either campus — on Wednesday and Thursday a bad decision? That’s a tough question, and two recent books address some important issues involved.
I take it as probable that the closures derived, at least partially, because somebody’s children were at risk. The history of childhood is complicated, but it’s a fair generalization that the perceived specialness of children has increased over time. Puritans, for example,…
