Home Schooled
A world in isolation, and an online learning experience.
The Online Experience
In a country where there is still an uncontrolled spread of the novel coronavirus, SARS-COV-2, many students are about to enter their third semester of school in the middle of a global pandemic. Schools across the nation shut their doors earlier this year before the end of the spring semester and reopened their doors briefly for the fall semester, only for many of those schools to close once again. Students were forced to learn remotely from their homes over the internet, and along with it came an important transition period.
“Studying from home is next to impossible because my family is very loud.” -Victoria Grajeda
The pandemic has exacerbated and shone a light on problems that students originally were able to escape for one reason or another. Students may no longer have a quiet place to retreat to for studying, as many campuses offer. Campuses also offered other vital resources such as free Wi-Fi for all students to use. When studying at home, students lose these resources, and in most cases, continue to pay the same price they paid when they had access to said resources.
The New Normal
Ashley Nguyen, a 17-year-old senior attending Seven Lakes High School described the shift from learning in-person to entirely online as “really strange and kind of jarring.” Not only has her entire learning structure changed, in arguably one of the most critical years of schooling, but the routine that she has followed since the beginning of her schooling has also shifted dramatically.
When Nguyen was going to school in-person, her morning routine started two and a half hours before class in order to allow for proper grooming, makeup, breakfast, and travel. Now, her mornings start a mere ten minutes before she is due to log into her classes. Because her teachers and other students are not able to see her from behind her screen, she does not bother with putting on makeup or choosing an appropriate outfit and her breakfast can be eaten while attending class.
In a normal year, Nguyen would be creating multiple pieces of art for various art shows throughout the state through her school’s art program, but as those art shows have been canceled, and her school’s art supplies no longer available to her, she has been creating less.
These changes in routine can be seen with millions of students, as they worry less about social pressures to look a certain way and the constraints of time feel loosened. Social expectations have always been fluid, and especially now, when most people are staying in their homes 24/7, new social ways of life are being explored and tested. This includes ideas of hygiene, outward appearance, and limited life outside of the home.
The Third Semester
As another semester ends with no end in sight for the pandemic in the United States, millions of students are unclear as to what their future has in store. With the new knowledge of their capacity to learn and be educated through remote means, many students struggle with the idea of spending thousands of dollars on education from home.
For many students, going to school gave their lives structure and allowed for a place to escape issues that may exist at home. Additionally, trading the enjoyment of meeting friends in person to hang out for video calls from home means that students feel their relationships beginning to strain. Some students feel as if they are at their breaking point.
Emily Stinson said that she “hasn’t been learning anything” and that “The quality of education simply is not there anymore,” about her experience of remote learning. The added stress of living in a country where the government has done next to nothing to stop the spread of the coronavirus also weighs heavily on many students, as new challenges such as money strain, increasing evictions, and the mental toll of staying in one place for 24 hours every single day start to become more and more prevalent.
Millions of people have lost their jobs, and many are at risk of losing their homes. These stressors, piled on the normal stresses that accompany school, students begin to lose motivation for something that seems so relatively unimportant. The future has always been unclear, but right now more than ever, it is entirely unpredictable as to what the next few months have in store and because of that, education might fall to the wayside in order to make time for more vital aspects of life.
