It’s a shame that Zoom School is still a thing.

Days before winter storm Fern blew into the Northeast, most school districts announced Monday cancellations. A few, however, announced distance-learning days. Before schools emptied on Friday, they directed students to pack their Chromebooks, so everyone could dutifully log in to class from their snow-bound homes on Monday.

During the pandemic, distance-learning programs ranged from pathetic to barely passable, even after months of practice. Teachers struggled to create impactful or compelling plans, and students struggled to stay focused or interested.

Learning suffered — and that’s not just the perspective of parents, students and teachers who lived through it; there is ample evidence to back that claim.

So why is distance-learning still the default setting for some districts?

On the plus side, they don’t have to make up a snow day in the “summer”? But the negatives are overwhelming.

Instead of enjoying the giddiness of a true “snow day!!”, students are forced to wake at their normal time, connect to a dubious learning environment and stare into a computer screen for hours. It’s a waste of time for most students, many of whom half-listen to their teachers as they scroll through hours of social media interactions on their phones with friends. It’s a lost day of learning, reducing the 180-day school calendar to 179 plus this.

For today’s elementary school students and parents, who never experienced pandemic-induced distance learning, there is no rhythm, no familiarity with the program. For one day, they have to adapt to a strange, weird system, packed with confusion. Make no mistake, distance learning is a burden for parents of students at the younger grades, and it becomes a distraction as they deal with their own storm-related challenges at work and home.

The burden extends to teachers, who instead of enjoying their own “snow day!!” excitement, must whip up lesson plans and do their best to hold the attention of a highly distracted population for hours, while ignoring their own storm-related challenges at home.

Distance-learning was a semi-useful system at the peak of a global pandemic. It has no place in a normal educational program. It is inadequate for most students, utterly useless for special education students, a distraction for parents, and an unnecessary burden for educators.

Bravo to the school districts still allowing the beloved snow day (Barrington, Portsmouth, Little Compton, etc.). Unfortunately, too many believe that distance-learning can replace the real thing. It cannot. Districts like East Providence, Bristol-Warren and Tiverton should have learned that lesson years ago.