Opinion on School's Covid Response

This year has been a lot, as I am sure many would say; however, the coronavirus has been made into a far greater problem than it needs to be for students because of poor management. While I do understand the tolls of isolation and lack of communication with friends and teachers, the catastrophic decline in grades of students is largely unacceptable, and I believe it should have been dealt with in a better manner by both the school district and the community as a whole.

At the start of the school year, the idea of going to school even in a hybrid model was a result of shortsighted planning by the district; not only did the CDC recommend schools stay virtual at the time, but even with half of the students in the building, there was still only around two feet between people on average during passing time, nowhere near the accepted social distancing standards recognized by the scientific community. On top of this, the split model surely made for a stressful learning environment wherein students were likely more focused on the bizarrely dynamic changes - alternating between school, home, virtual, and in-person - as opposed to actual learning. This partially explains the drastic drop in students’ grades and the undoubtedly difficult parameters with which teachers were faced, leading to a decrease in their ability to spend time with their students to hold them accountable (although, students should be doing this themselves), thereby exacerbating the problem. The lack of ability to hold students accountable, however,  can also be explained by an unnecessary reduction in standards, especially pertaining to deadlines, as well as the simple principle of how people are far more likely to comply with actual people as opposed to messages through screens, though I suppose, at this point, it could not be avoided.

As the daily cases began to fall sharply in January, the district thought it wise to eventually resume a normal school schedule on February 25. This could have been done on a more gradual basis, starting off with one or two days a week full-time with all students in the building, and slowly transitioning to five days a week. This is a pandemic: it is something that has never occurred on this scale in the 21st century, therefore, it should not have been handled as it was by the district. 

However, the district cannot be blamed for everything; the community, the country, and the world at large has had a similar attitude. I believe that this sort of impatient decision-making helps explain the four waves of the virus instead of a single wave, which would have been the case if people all over decided to approach this global issue more cautiously. The so-called “restrictions” of the pandemic were also not properly enforced and not monitored to minute details as they should have been, leading to further cases and more frustrating quarantines for many students, furthering their stress levels, decreasing their learning efficiency, focus, and spirit, along with much else. Maybe I just expect too much from people, but I think even the most reasonable of expectations for the situations faced this school year were not met by the school district or the community as a whole. 

But to end on a more positive note, I have seen more motivation in students with the return of full-time classes. A while back I wrote a letter criticizing the decision to return full-time but now I see there were many benefits. The COVID pandemic is bigger than our own desires to have normal school, but since the world would not give us the luxury of stopping for us, perhaps it makes sense that we did not stop for it.

By Sam Mollenhauer

Oshkosh West Index Volume 117 Issue VII

April 30th, 2021