Coronavirus And How We Should Do Schooling

This is an argumentative essay submitted by a 16 year old High school student presented here in its original form.

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The Nature Of Our Current Existence:

An Outline:

Many parents are struggling, and it’s hard to cope the fact that their children will be sitting in front of a laptop for an entire day. Many students also don’t really care. This summer, I read that the average student drops about 2.3 points in math and 3.4 in language arts during the summer. They said that the coronavirus pandemic and drop students’ grades about 5 points. It is a real problem that students will lack behind compared to other students and around the world. Colleges and schools have tried to help with this, many saying that the SAT isn’t required this year.

Coronavirus pandemic is still raging and worse than ever. 10.5 million people have it and an additional 242,000 have died. In Atlanta, they required their schools to track how many people got it during the first 10 weeks. While they only had 26 cases – 17 employees and 9 kids – all it takes is one person to get it and spread It to his/her family, and then they will spread it.

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Let’s Explore This In Detail:

COVID – 19 has ravaged the country, putting it on lockdown for almost the entire year and destroying plans, income, and even eating out. Now, the government had to make a choice on how to deal with the reopening of schools all over the country. While it is imperative that a student receives an education, doing it safely and online is the best path forward during times like this.

Many parents are struggling, and it’s hard to cope the fact that their children will be sitting in front of a laptop for an entire day. Many students also don’t really care, simply logging in and not doing anything. Last year, when Fulton County (in the state of Georgia) released their grading policy for the rest of the semester and said that your grade wouldn’t drop from what it was on March 13, many students, myself included, took that as a way of saying we don’t need to do anything.

This summer, I read that the average student drops about 2.3 points in math and 3.4 in language arts during the summer. They said that the coronavirus pandemic and drop students’ grades about 5 points. It is a real problem that students will lack behind compared to other students and around the world. Including the fact of eye strain, not being able to see friends at school, group projects, extracurricular clubs, and many other things, and you understand why opening up schools is something a lot of parents and kids want to do. Colleges and schools have tried to help with this, many saying that the SAT isn’t required this year and allowing for online school, but that simply isn’t enough.

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While we do want to open up our schools, we need to remember that we are still in a pandemic. The COVID – 19 pandemic is still raging and worse than ever. 10.5 million people have it and an additional 242,000 have died. In Atlanta, they required their schools to track how many people got it during the first 10 weeks. While they only had 26 cases – 17 employees and 9 kids – all it takes is one person to get it and spread It to his/her family, and then they will spread it.

Centennial and North Springs High School, both in Fulton, also went fully online after students reported they had the virus. We closed schools on March 13, back when the death toll was only 30 people a day. Now they want to open all of the schools at times when almost 100,000 people are getting it daily. This pandemic was something we could’ve solved during the summer, but instead we are trying to catch up on something that as already won.

The pandemic as led to a lot of new changes, with some of them being good. While we can no longer meet together, we can now easily use Zoom or any other software to see people far as the other side or as close as the next room. While online teaching has been hard, with most teachers saying that the transition to remote-learning has been really tough and wouldn’t consider remote learning in the future. This might be due to the lack of infrastructure or experience. Colleges aren’t any better, even though almost 15% of college students worldwide take all virtual classes. Although schools were caught off-guard and couldn’t prepare, after this there seems to be future in the world of online schooling.

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As new technologies emerge, almost everything is digitalizing and appearing online. Online learning can provide more gateways. Drama students at New York University’s Tisch Schools of the Arts use Oculus Quest VR headsets to “act” with each other. Many schools offer online degrees for working adults, so how can it be any different for students themselves? While the education might not be the same, the teaching will eventually get better until it can compete with face-to-face learning.

The news of a vaccine coming soon has everyone excited and itching to get this pandemic over, but we are still not done yet. With experts saying that the vaccine not able for fast production and delivery until next year, we still need to be cautious about our daily lives, and that includes learning. Not only is it the safest way, but new innovations on education can help make remote learning the new future.

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About The Article Author:

Our mission with FutureSTRONG Academy – to grow children who respect themselves, their time and their capabilities in a world where distractions are just a click or a swipe away.

I see myself as an advocate for bringing social, emotional and character development to families, schools and communities. I never want to let this idea out of my sight – Our children are not just GPAs. I’m a Writer and a Certified Master Coach in NLP and CBT. Until 2017, I was also a Big Data Scientist. In December of 2044, I hope to win the Nobel. Namasté.

Write to me or call me. Tell me what support from me looks like.

Rachana Nadella-Somayajula,
Program Director & Essential Life Skills Coach for Kids and Busy Parents