By Anton Dedvukaj
On March 12, 2020, the majority of Irvington students went to sleep expecting to see their friends again on Monday. While the idea of COVID-19 closing down the school for a good amount of time wasn’t entirely unexpected, many thought it would come at some random point in the following week. Needless to say, many people were expecting to see their friends physically in the near future. And as we all know by now, that has not been the case.
The COVID-19 pandemic began affecting school life on March 13, when it was announced that school would be closed for the 16th and 17th. Then it was pushed to the end of March. Then mid-April. Then the end of April. Then mid-May. And now, school is canceled for the rest of the school year. In other words, what was initially positioned to be two days off from school has turned into nearly three months. March 12 was unexpectedly the students’ final day of high school for the year, or in the case of the seniors, for good.
Now, there are numerous questions that remain as a result, but one big one is, how will this affect the way we return to school?
Social distancing requires one major thing in order to work: isolation. And, in this isolation, it’s nearly impossible for us to see our friends in person. The best connections are the ones formed in person, and extended time away from our friends may distance ourselves from them more than one may think. You may think you’re keeping in touch, but it’s a lot harder to keep connections with your friends going when you send each other pictures of a quarter of your face on Snapchat once a day. And this social/emotional component of learning connects to all other facets of our education. Putting aside the logistics of holding school if the virus is still present in society, there are also the skills and practices that will need to be re-learned when we return.
Consider study habits. Again, studying isn’t really something that takes place in distant learning. Neither is the need to balance homework with it. For the most part, the homework represents all the work we’ve been doing. All in all, there isn’t much of a need to study or test anyone at all. So, when we go back to school next year, we will have to deal with falling back into the rhythm of a structured school system with studying and tests. This will also be somewhat difficult as well.
Finally, there will be the overall transition from homeschool to in-school learning. At home, we can wake up and do work whenever we please as long as we meet a specific deadline. We will eventually have to go back to a structured school system where this isn’t possible. Overall, the transition back to this structured school system may be the most difficult of all.
At the end of it all, transitioning to distant learning wasn’t easy, and transitioning back to school will be just as, if not more, difficult. So, it’s best we focus on our current distant learning system for the rest of the year and continue to practice social distancing so that when this quarantine is over for good, we can return to school and the administrators can help ease our transition back into normal schooling, and overall normal life.
