HOW HAS THE PANDEMIC CHANGED SCHOOL

Photo by Joshua Kaminski

Students wear masks walking in the hallways. Masks, social distancing, and more lenient work requirements are among the many things that have changed in schools during the pandemic.

For Better or Worse, Pandemic Changes School in Many Ways

BY JOSHUA KAMINSKI

Staff Member

The Covid virus first appeared in 2019 in China and launched the biggest pandemic since 1918. It caused businesses to shut down, masks to be mandated, people to stay in their homes, and a lot of this is still happening now.

One of the biggest things the pandemic has done was make all schools shut down and go virtual. Starting in March 2020, teachers had to host classes through a screen and students attended at their homes. It wasn’t until a full year later when some students decided to come back in person to the building, having to wear masks and socially distance.

There are no more virtual classes this year, but both students and staff members are required to wear masks everywhere except the cafeteria. Due to the pandemic, the education system has undergone a lot of positive and negative changes. It made everyone isolate and sit in front of a computer all day long. The motivation, attention, organization, and learning techniques of students have changed massively for good.

According to Funtech, freedom and flexibility changed and opened up greatly during virtual learning. Students were able to snack and do things they would normally be able to do only after school during their online classes. Virtual learning made it easier to organize for a lot of people and also easy to multitask.

“Teachers are more lenient with giving work,” said sophomore Eleanor Sardinas. This means that they are more flexible with deadlines and understanding that peoples’ brains need more time to process and warm up. Sophomore Miranda Wise said she has “more motivation and a better work ethic” due to social distancing. Although many people, including Sardinas, said the opposite about motivation.

During the majority of the pandemic, no one was inside the school building, and even when they were, it was a limited number of people. Many students in virtual classes rarely turned on their cameras and mics during sessions, making their presentation skills weaken. Wise said that they “didn’t like how isolated” they felt. Isolation led to poor social skills and high social anxiety when returning back for a lot of students. The people that came back in March consisted of a small and distanced group. Virtual learning also made it much easier to cheat, with students not being monitored if they had another tab open during a quiz.

Without teachers helping students in person and encouraging them, many people lost motivation over quarantine. Many people liked going back mid-year with the excitement of seeing people again and the ability to be back in the building. Parmjit Carpenter, a geometry teacher, said she liked that she could finally return to her classroom. She found it easier to teach in person rather than to teach online.