Can we Go Back to School Now? A Plea Schools Across the World Never Thought They’d Hear

 

Travel backwards in time: it’s March, and the world stops for two weeks. We think this new virus, COVID, will be a momentary lapse in our normal lives. Maybe we even get selfishly excited: we can work from home! I can do Zoom calls in my pajamas, take breaks for Instagram if I need to. It doesn’t feel like this is going to be a huge problem, and we hope for the best. 

 

Flash forward: it’s mid-summer, and schools are making the tough decision about what to do for the upcoming school year. Somehow, the virus is still impacting hundreds of thousands of people, and we didn’t see this coming. Can kids learn from home? Can teachers teach remotely? The answer would appear to be “yes,” but at what cost? 

 

First, it is important to recognize that many responses to COVID and how to re-adjust to living amidst a global pandemic come from a place of privilege. How people view the virus, how leaders decide to address the pandemic, and how schools choose to adapt is often directly related to privilege, whether it is socioeconomic or racial. Many ways in which the United States responded to the pandemic did not consider how the virus may be affecting individuals living in poverty; this is highly evident in the way educational systems adjusted their school setup for the 2020-2021 school year. 

 

COVID’s relation to education across the world is something many people may not have considered. Adults were at the forefront of all things COVID-related when the virus first began; for adults in the upper and middle classes, this transition was relatively easy, and perhaps welcomed. Women and men posted about taking “family walks,” played board games with their children, and Instagrammed screenshots of colleagues on a Zoom happy hour. This idealized version of quarantine was strictly reserved for those earning a liveable wage, for thousands (and perhaps millions) of Americans, this was not the case. 

 

Workers were laid off. Meager quarantine checks were given, often not really to the people who needed them most. Families had to figure out how to keep the lights on, feed their children, and plan for the future. When schools had to decide what to do for the next year, it became evident they did not consider how families living in poverty may be affected by e-Learning. 

 

For wealthy families, E-Learning was a breeze. They doled out their iPads and MacBooks, and their children relished in the first few weeks of school in the comfort of their home. For families experiencing poverty, the educational shift proved to be far more challenging. Many families had to figure out a way to keep their children engaged in classes while they were at work, or arrange childcare for children who could not be left alone, an extra cost they were not planning on. In addition, if a family was struggling financially, they may not be able to afford to keep their Internet connection--how will their children connect to their classes if they cannot pay for Internet? 

Above all, it seems that schools were stuck between a rock and a hard place. Kids still needed to be educated, but it seemed like there was almost no time to plan how to make the 2020-2021 school year effective. Would there be resources to give children living in poverty tablets and laptops? What about children who received two of their three meals at school--how would they eat? And if the kids came to school in masks, would more individuals be at risk for contracting COVID? 

 

Many schools made the decision to transition to E-Learning, which seemed to be a way to keep the most amount of people safe from contracting the virus. However, this came with a host of issues: effectiveness of teaching and learning, financial setbacks, and engagement. Numerous studies have been conducted about the effects of E-Learning this year, and most have found a negative impact on student performance, since students are in a challenging position to be almost completely self-motivated and in charge of their own studying and learning habits, sometimes without a parent or teacher to hold them accountable in-person. 

 

I think my classmates can definitely relate to the struggles that COVID-19 has brought us in terms of our education. Many of us have not been able to experience our internships in person, meet our classmates, or sit in a classroom with our professors. We engage in discussion posts and submit assignments on our laptops, watch short videos on class material instead of being able to ask questions during a lecture. It is an experience unlike any we have had before, and it takes a toll mentally and emotionally. My two best friends in Dominican’s MSW program and I all have a group chat, and we make it a point to have a FaceTime check in weekly, because sometimes we just feel so frustrated and drained. Many professors are amazing and understanding, and allow us the chance to make up assignments if we are struggling mentally. Others take the time to answer our questions, meet us for office hours, and engage us on our Zoom sessions. However, others struggle with the online format, and may not give us the support we need. Our experience is not unique, and I have no doubt many other students feel frustrated that they are not experiencing school in a typical fashion.

What has been most interesting to me has been chatting with my members from my internship, the kids I nanny for, as well as students I used to work with in my old job at the church. The common denominator between all of these adolescents is one thing: they long for the days of attending school in person. 

 

We are in a challenging time, where we need to prioritize the safety and health of our citizens. It is vital that we prevent the spread of COVID-19, but we also must consider how all these changes are affecting those in school. Kids and adults experiencing E-Learning are mentally and emotionally drained, and some feel they do not receive adequate support. As the virus continues to spread, we as social workers need to advocate for better support, more training for teachers, and the allocation of resources to support both teachers and students in their teaching and learning. Above all, we must ensure that we are campaigning for better support so that students can succeed in an unprecedented learning environment. 

 ~ Claire Revord

References 

 

Dhawan, S. (2020). Online Learning: A Panacea in the Time of COVID-19 Crisis. Journal of Educational Technology Systems, 49(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047239520934018

Donohue, J. M. (2020, September 1). COVID-19 and School Closures. Infectious Diseases | JAMA | JAMA Network. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2769033

Dorn, E., Hancock, B., Sarakatsannis, J., & Viruleg, E. (2020, August 7). COVID-19 and student learning in the United States: The hurt could last a lifetime. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-and-social-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-student-learning-in-the-united-states-the-hurt-could-last-a-lifetime#

Economic Policy Institute, Garcia, E., & Weiss, E. (2020, September). COVID-19 and student performance, equity, and U.S. education policy (No. 1). https://www.epi.org/publication/the-consequences-of-the-covid-19-pandemic-for-education-performance-and-equity-in-the-united-states-what-can-we-learn-from-pre-pandemic-research-to-inform-relief-recovery-and-rebuilding/

Gonzalez, T., de la Rubia, M. A., Hincz, K. P., Comas-Lopez, M., Subirats, L., Fort, S., & Sacha, G. M. (2020). Influence of COVID-19 confinement on students’ performance in higher education. PLOS ONE, 15(10), e0239490. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239490