May 2021 – Coming into this year, I was happy. I was excited, and I couldn’t wait for online school. Now, as I’m nearing the end of the school year, I am everything but excited. Online school has some very serious issues that could be easily fixed with a bit of time.

Mental Health

Earlier in class today, we had to read an article about “How some doctors blame masks for the decline in children’s mental health.” Although there has been a HUGE decline in mental health this year due to Covid, their reasons were wrong. I’ve found that it wasn’t masks, nor the pandemic itself, but online school. This year my siblings and I have all been negatively impacted by online school. I often beat myself up for not getting the grade I wanted, or not turning in an assignment. I’ve asked my siblings about their decline in mental health over this year, and they both agreed with me. But since this could just be my families issues, I’ve decided to do some research to see if others have been affected. After reading over a few articles, I can conclude that many other students have been affected negatively by online school. 

Grades in General

I used to be an A/B student. Before online school, I’ve never failed a class. Now, I’m finding it harder and harder to keep up with the overwhelming workload this year. No one should be put to blame for this, since it’s new to almost everyone. And to make sure it wasn’t just me, I’ve asked my siblings and friends if they’re having the same issues, and almost everyone agreed on one thing: online school is harder than regular school. But to make sure this wasn’t just the district being weird, I read over some articles making the same claim as I am, and they both agree that online school has made it harder for students to pass a class. I think this problem could be solved if the district made the teachers slow down their teaching and go over the content more thoroughly.

Conclusion

These past 2 years have been extremely difficult for everyone. I just believe that the classes this year have been moving too fast, and the teachers haven’t been covering the content enough, which leaves me feeling lost. Like I said before, these problems could be easily solved if the teachers just slow down or review the content every once in a while.