Virtual Month: How Do LHS Students Feel?
2020 has been a year filled with wild surprises and unprecedented territory. Most notably, society has been plagued with the Covid-19 virus and has forced the lifestyle of not just Leonia High School students, but the lifestyle of society as a whole to change. As this year comes to an end, there is still an unfortunate amount of reported cases with people suffering from the virus, causing society to have to stay indoors while safely celebrating this holiday season.
Across the nation, many different subjects and celebrations are being shut down in contrast to previous years for safety measures. Some examples that can be applied to this practice are various travel restrictions and recommended gathering rules. In terms of the situation at LHS, the administrators have decided to change the schedule that the entire community will follow for the near future.
Starting from the middle of December to the middle of January, students and faculty alike will be working fully remotely. This decision is being made for a variety of reasons. Firstly, this circles back to the idea that every local community should be responsible and should attempt to contain the spread of Covid-19 through different measures, and going virtual for a month where the holiday season is present is a good way to do so. Besides, this month may also give the administrators of the school what a fully virtual schedule may look like in the LHS community.
Because this virtual month will cause students to adjust to a very different schedule, two different freshmen were interviewed to reveal their thoughts about this virtual month. When asked how he felt about the structure of the school year so far, Joshua Jang responded with, “I mean it was fine. My grades are a little bit on the bad side because everything is stressful but remote learning is fine, I guess”.
Being a freshman, the transition to high school while having to deal with remote learning has taken a toll. When asked about his opinions regarding this switch, Jang positively responded saying, “I feel that this virtual switch is cool. Since coronavirus is still a thing I like it”. When followed up with the question of whether he accepts taking the risk of being exposed to Covid-19 at the cost of education, he replied by answering, “Although education is important, I prefer that I stay healthy and Covid-19 exposure does not occur at all”. Generally, he seems to feel positively towards this change.
On the other hand, when Andrew Lee was interviewed with the same format of questions as Joshua Jang, his answers were quite the opposite. Firstly, when discussing his experience with the previous schedule that LHS was following, he said, “I was thriving academically. I think this is because there were like no people at school and I was able to learn effectively with a smaller group of people”. This shows how the hybrid schedule for students may have been effective for many.
As a result, when discussing the reactions to LHS going virtual for a month he responded by saying, “Really? I think my grades will go down. I am not good at this virtual stuff”. After following up with the question of if his grades were easy to keep up with the hybrid schedule, he said, “I think the main reason why my grades are where they are now is because I am doing hybrid. I think the main reason why this schedule helps my grades is because I at least get to see my teachers, even if it is for a short amount of time”
There are mixed reactions that are coming with this transition to virtual month. Students are scheduled to go back to a hybrid and virtual schedule starting January 11th, 2021. Until then, the LHS community as a whole will go through this new schedule. Although it may seem like a long period of time before students are able to return to the LHS building itself, with the community scheduled to go on Holiday Break, this transitional phase will come in no time. Hopefully, looking past this year, 2021 will bring blessings and will eventually provide students a safe learning space.
