Student Essay: Is This School?

Is This School?

Forget what you heard on the news — this is what it was really like to be a high schooler in the midst of a global pandemic.

Words by Isabel Tongson

They say junior year is the most rigorous one of your high school years. Grades are of the utmost importance thanks to the imminent college application process, counselors make it their mission to show you how to entertain schools of interest, and as upperclassmen, you take on the responsibility of being the life of the party at homecoming and prom. In a typical year, these duties are trying enough, but for juniors like me, a global pandemic made things infi nitely more challenging.

My class was tossed between online and in-person learning, the cancellation of college tours has us applying nearly blind to campuses, and our school functions were signifi cantly lacking student smiles. However, through everything, I was lucky to have some amazing friends … to complain to. Junior year was tough, but taking time to ensure I maintained friendships ended up being healthy and soothing — quite possibly the only thing soothing about being in high school during Covid-19.

As soon as I logged into my fi rst virtual class during my sophomore year in spring 2020 (remember that time when everyone thought the pandemic would last two weeks?), I knew I would not absorb everything that I was supposed to through a screen. This was the entire school’s fi rst taste at remote learning, and reactions varied more than I thought they would. A majority of kids, including myself, did enjoy the extra hour of sleep in the morning, but as soon as the teachers started asking everyone to turn their cameras on, we knew we were in for a rough period.

Some teachers continued on with their prepared lessons, expecting us to take in the same amount of information as we would in person, while the rest were uncertain of whether it was even worth beginning new topics when students clearly needed to be physically present to perform experiments or give presentations. This mass precariousness put students in a numb state, and collectively the student body decided we just needed to get through these last few months no matter how many technical glitches it took.

Luckily, by the start of junior year, teachers were more prepared. Students were offered a choice between online and in-person learning, and I knew I needed the latter. As I sat in class properly masked, I watched my teachers attempt to include virtual students by navigating what they called “techno-gymnastics” aka switching from one tab to another while sharing their screen. Thankfully, my teachers were sympathetic to this weird new learning frontier; they adjusted assignment due dates or altered instructions altogether. A handful of my friends weren’t so lucky. Some even had assignments marked late due to honest technical diffi culties, and there was nothing they could do to fi x it — something that many parents didn’t fully understand or believe. Just because we know when we’re presenting on a Google Meet doesn’t mean we have supreme control over our house’s WiFi.

Thankfully, there were moments where my friends and I had fun without the normalcy we’d come to miss. Since we weren’t allowed to eat inside classrooms, every day (well, at least the ones that it didn’t rain) we picnicked in the quad, which was a Covid perk that I hope continues. With the lack of mass assemblies, the ParentTeacher Association was able to plan outdoor breaks between classes where students could grab cookies, candy and sometimes even ice cream. And on top of it all, my school successfully hosted a prom at the Orlando Science Center, a feat many students marveled at. Though the photobooth pictures feature us wearing masks that matched our dresses and suits, it was worth experiencing my fi rst prom — PPE and all.

While it seems we’re on the other side of all this, I think students would benefi t from their parents being understanding of just how strange these circumstances have been, no matter if you were a physical or virtual student. Parents, teachers and students alike are working through the challenges of education in an online or hybrid format, so understanding each other’s pressures will make the pandemic a little more bearable for us all. That’s why it’s important for students to have a voice in the decision-making process — after all, we’re the ones living it.

As I’m about to start my senior year this fall, I know it won’t be totally normal, but I believe it will be a bittersweet ending to an unprecedented high school career. Students should be proud of how far they’ve come and most defi nitely should not give up hope for the school year to come.

Though the photobooth pictures feature us wearing masks that matched our dresses and suits, it was worth experiencing my fi rst prom — PPE and all.