Opinion articles provide independent perspectives on key community issues, separate from our newsroom reporting.

Letters to the Editor

Have school on eclipse day

Fayette County Public Schools should reconsider the decision to close schools on Aug. 21, the day of the total solar eclipse. It is a profound, teachable moment. It will be years before there is a comparable moment.

Rather than no school, students could be there learning about the solar system, Galileo and Copernicus, and the mechanisms behind an eclipse. And the nice thing is that at the end of the school day, students could walk outside and see what they have been studying.

My guess is that students would remember the day for the rest of their lives. They might even appreciate how exciting, even useful, astronomy, history and science can be. I hate to see the school system miss such an amazing educational opportunity.

Edward Kifer

Lexington

This story was originally published August 11, 2017 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Have school on eclipse day."

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