By Anton Dedvukaj
There are many things one could say about the way that Irvington High School has handled COVID-19. Overall, I think that outside of the Plexiglas fiasco of last spring, it was handled reasonably well. Also, I really appreciated how the workload was adjusted accordingly so that things didn’t become more stressful than they were. Well, at least up until this year.
This year was the first year since the pandemic hit that I’d argue teachers attempted to return to a sense of normalcy with regards to the workload. The mask is still a requirement and people are still constantly stuck at home as the cases surge every other month, but apparently the teachers are certain that this is the time for things to go back to normal.
I mean, in a sense, I get it. We all want things to be back to normal sooner rather than later, and with cohorts now being a thing of the past, it seems as though now would be the time to implement a heavier workload. Also, I admit that my take might be biased. I entered my junior year this year, and that’s generally agreed to be the hardest year to get through in terms of the workload.
However, I still firmly believe that the workload we’ve been given is a bit much to handle given the still-present circumstances around us. I know plenty of people who are either currently in quarantine or were quarantining for a period of time at some point this year. How have these people been spending such a stressful time in quarantine? Making up the loads of classwork that they’re missing in school. Why? Because if they don’t, they fall behind to a comical degree and are left drowning in makeup work when they get back.
This isn’t just me reaching or making assumptions. I wasn’t in quarantine, but I had a similar experience with regards to being stuck at home while school was going on. After receiving my booster shot, I chose to stay home for a day just to make sure that I had no reaction. While I thankfully didn’t have a reaction, I did have notes, assignments, and a lab to make up in the space of that one day.
I can only imagine that those in quarantine likely have to deal with worse as they stay at home for longer and have to keep up with school work on Google Meet. I can’t speak for everyone, but I found it much more difficult to learn material last year during the days when my cohort went virtual, and I imagine that many other students would feel the same, thus making school all the more difficult for them while in quarantine.
To make matters worse, I’ve even heard talk that some people who are only mildly sick with non-COVID ailments have just gone to school because it is easier to go to school sick than it is to stay home and then have to make up the work. I’ll openly admit that I don’t have concrete proof of this having happened, and thus can’t confirm it, but the fact that I found these rumors believable is both telling and troubling to me.
It just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me that we’re back to having three tests a week and several hours’ worth of homework while much of the students are at home, and countless more were at least exposed fairly recently.
I get that nobody wants to go back to distance learning, and I am 100% in agreement with that opinion. However, I do think that the attempts to return to the normal pre-COVID workload should have been slowed at least a little when Omicron came around, and that the school’s transition towards such a workload has been clumsy at best. I get that school is always going to be difficult, but while I thought that my freshman and sophomore years were more manageable in the pandemic-era workload aspect, junior year has been a lot more stress-inducing than I’d argue it has needed to be.
