Education during Covid can basically be summed up by this meme:
Students have been left to fend
for themselves and teach themselves the material. Most of our learning is
assignment-based with various things due at 11:59pm. Initially, teachers were
completely unprepared to fully teach in an online setting so they scattered to
make up lesson plans, give us work online, and teach amidst uncertainty about
their own family’s health. I give teachers a lot of credit for the extensive
work they had to do in order to do the best they could for us in the spring
semester of 2020. With that being said, I did find that the quality of
education was poor. There wasn’t a lot of work given to us and we felt as if we
didn’t truly learn anything.
However, that all changed come
fall. With teachers better prepared to teach their courses online, we
immediately jumped in as if the class was the same as in person. That was a
major flaw with our education I believe – you cannot expect students to focus
on work when they’re doing it in their bedroom and surrounded my devices and
loud family members. Moreover, learning is much more difficult when not placed
in a setting that the brain associated with learning. The act of being in a classroom,
and going to a separate one for each class, is important for the brain. We
simply cannot learn the same way that we do online as we do in a classroom.
Furthermore, it can also be
difficult to focus on learning when we are preoccupied with worry. Students
have had to learn despite a family contracting the virus, or even themselves.
How are we supposed to focus on our studies when we are worried about a global deadly
pandemic surrounding us? Most professors have not adjusted for this and it
shows with our GPA. We have in-person expectations with a virtual setting and
many students are not able to keep their grades up. I know for me, learning
calculus online has been a nightmare and while I feel like I haven’t learned
much, I am still given extremely difficult exams. If there could be a program
implemented where students could opt online classes out of their GPA or somehow
get a hardship clause added, I would greatly appreciate that. I think all our grades
need to be taken with a grain of salt right now and not every class should
count towards our GPA. I would even suggest allowing students to retake classes
for free in-person and replace the old grade with the new one if they improve. I
don’t know what the solution is to be fair with grading but what I do know is
that students should not be punished for putting an honest effort forward but
still failing when they are trying to learn at this time.
It also isn't fair that some students may have had parents who lost their jobs so they have to work to keep their family afloat. Working long shifts and managing schoolwork is unfair. Coming from a family with financial stability as well as good health is a major advantage right now. Students who need to work or care for family members who may have fallen ill are preoccupied with more pressing concerns. There is no equality when it comes to education right now. Every student's experience is unique to them and cannot be used as a comparison to a student who may be more or less advantaged right now.
Additionally, with European and
Asian nations implementing in-person classes, I feel as if I am at a
disadvantage. They are getting a better education than me and it makes me worry
about the future. Will they outcompete me in the job market? If I don’t feel
like I’m leaning anything, will I actually be prepared to enter the workforce
after college? These questions haunt me. I think that we will see a major
educational and economic impact when students who received a virtual education
are asked to apply their skills in-person even though they had not had the
opportunity to practice that. As a chemistry major, I am supposed to be
actively learning how to perform certain lab techniques, yet half of my labs
are online where I just watch someone perform it. I am not truly learning what
is being done and I will not be able to replicate in the future if asked. There
are some jobs that simply need their graduates to have had an in-person
education.
One thing is for sure: being a
student during a pandemic is not fun. Hopefully, we will still get the education
we need to be successful and the impacts are not as treacherous as they could
be. We all are worthy of a good education and we should not have to sacrifice
that on top of everything else we have to give up. My hope is that universities
and employers show mercy to us because, after all, we’re all just trying to get
our assignments in by 11:59pm.
