MY HOMEWORK? EL NINO ATE IT

Students in our public schools tend to view certain events through the eyes of youth. For example, a snowstorm isn't a headache for highways. It's a reason to stay home from school.

How many youths have longed for Mother Nature's assistance on cold, dreary winter mornings? The same snow that keeps schools closed, of course, is no reason to stay indoors. There are snowmen to build, hills to be sledded down, forts to erect for neighborhood snowball battles.

Alas, all is for naught when the winter is mild. And this past winter has been so tame that school districts must now figure out what to do with the snow days built into their annual calendars. Some have provided for longer spring breaks. Others will finish classes earlier than planned.

Meanwhile, there have been mutterings from the mouths of snow-deprived students. El Nino seems to crop up a lot. Will the Pacific weather monster now join the ranks of the infamous dog that eats all that homework?