Quaranteenagers' Complicated Relationship with School in 2020

In between January and May of 2020 Schools across North America were shut down in the hopes of keeping students and teachers, as well as their families safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. This is what I learned from experiencing the pandemic as both a senior in high school as well as a freshmen in college.

I am a teenager who is experiecing the pandemic, which is often referred to as the quarantine, lockdown, coronacarceration, covid, or coronacation. Therefore, I have coined the term Quaranteenager. Because I am a teenager. In "Quarantine."

For some, this was a cause for great celebration. Staying home, watching internet flicks all day, being unburdened by going to school. It is a fantasy for many students after all. Or at least, it was. For others, it was a revolutionary turning of the page in the realm of education forever.

“Online school is the future of education, it will become the new norm and the classroom format will be replaced.” They would say.

What people were unable to foresee was the greatly negative psychological impact that being isolated and stuck indoors would have on the minds of students and teachers alike.

Firstly, there is the great isolation that comes with being under lockdown. Never before has the importance of being able to greet friends in the hallways before and after class been so deeply felt. Though it is short, having those 2-5 minutes of

“Hey how you doing?”

“Good, you?”

“Meh. You?”

“Yeah, about the same. See you at lunch then.”

“‘Kay bye.”

is a very important time of routine, refreshment, and preparation, as well as some form of stress release for students. With the distance education model of work-at-your-own-pace as well as little to no interaction between teachers and students, all a student does is wake up, go to the computer, do some work, close the computer, and go to bed. This causes an extreme sense of “caged bird syndrome” and exacerbates any sort of stuffiness and stress within a person. Combined with dehydration, little to no routine, very little sleep, and waking up at 1 pm, it’s a recipe for mental problems. At least going to school was an intrinsic motivator to brush one’s teeth and dress nicely – an underlying part of the routine that was just done because it had to be. For many, these simple daily tasks now feel like a great chore.

Though some of this can be alleviated through online avenues such as Discord servers, it can get stressful after a while. With so many underslept, underfed, and unrefreshed teenagers interacting with each other where facial and body language cues which would normally help discern intent and meaning are not present, sarcasm is misinterpreted, and hostility is misperceived in perfectly normal phrases.

There is also a problem with the online schooling method itself as well.

Firstly, many teachers are not able to provide the same quality of education in the online format as the classroom setting, and this is simply because of inexperience with online lesson delivery. Instructions for assignments are split across different pages such as the syllabus, the course stream, and the individual lessons, instructions are unclear, vague, or confusing, and sometimes the portals simply do not work.

This is further exacerbated by the fact that there is little to no interaction between students and teachers. I can confidently say that I taught myself this semester, because though the curriculum was developed by someone else, the role of a teacher that is typical of a classroom setting was fulfilled by myself. As a joke between friends, we refer to each other as professors, because of how we “teach” college and university students. Some complain of the fact that they paid an institution thousands of dollars in order to teach themselves without using the school’s facilities.

But can teachers and institutions be blamed? No, not entirely. We are all victims of our circumstances. This is as much of a confusing and chaotic time for teachers as it is for students, and schools also need the tuition to cover their building maintenance costs and pay their staff.

One thing is for sure, the classroom format cannot and must NEVER be replaced by online schooling. Ever.

There is a reason that it has been maintained for as long as it has, and it is not because of the advancement of technology or the lack thereof. It is because the best connection between teacher and student, and subsequently student and knowledge is made when there is discourse, discussion, questions, and conversation – among teachers and peers alike.

One thing I would absolutely detest would be to see people in the future romanticising the pandemic era as some people romanticise the World Wars or the sinking of the Titanic.

Sure, we missed school for many months in a row – the dreams of all schoolchildren. It $ucked @$$. I better not hear one child complain about having to go to school because getting an education is a privilege as much as it is a right, which is something I knew prior and had experienced before but was reminded of by this pandemic.

Though I did get my diploma I wish I got to actually finish high school. “I know we’re gonna see each other after march break but it almost feels like we’re saying goodbye for like 10 years.” We said as we exchanged our final goodbyes in March. Many of those people, I will never see again in my life, and that is a quite sobering fact. I was doing very well in computer engineering and yearbook, as well as woodshop (the latter two which I got 100% in), we were gearing up for prom, which I would not have paid to go to because I would be taking pictures for yearbook. I had good friendships, was in various clubs, liked all my courses and was actually happy to go to school.

The pandemic really slammed the brakes on my cool high school days of dapper dan, leaving no room for closure. I also had to quit my job in Frebruary due to reasons unrelated to the pandemic. Now I am an unemployed college student living in his parent’s home wearing sweatpants all day in his bedroom without going outside for many days, and that’s okay. But I will move forward.

College was also where I would hopefully be able to have some fellowship with some peers of a similar area of interest as well as keep an eye out and an ear open for a potential future spouse, since I go to a Bible College. Don’t think badly of me for saying so. What better place to find someone whose crucial ideologies and beliefs align with my own?

Yes, the vision was complete. Bibles out on the rustic wooden picnic tables as the fall leaves danced all around us, we would be in heated discourse about theology and our favourite kinds of pens. It would become somewhat of a routine, just something we did, until the friendship grew stronger and trust was strengthened. We would complain about our courses and help each other out. Though that would not be the end, it would be a start.

Instead I am isolated – limited to my family in my home. My chances of any romantic ties or even new friendships will probably not happen until:

This pandemic is over.

I go overseas for work.

I meet people during work or volunteering.

But hey, when a door closes, the Father busts open a door sized hole in the wall, so anything’s possible, right?

I would like to share some of my coping techniques to get through this time of “nosediving into concrete” education.

Mix it up: Change your scenery as needed, change your environment as you go. It is important not to be bogged down and burnt out, and this can happen most easily when you are subjected to the same thing all day every day. Read your textbook out in the park. Do an assignment on your balcony. Do your homework at your dinnertable. Don’t get boxed in by the routine that has been set by the society that no longer exists. Who says you can’t change it up? Do it in the way that works best for you. I find it easier to work at night so I work until 4am and wake up at noon where I relax until 8pm when I start working. Even as I am writing this, it is 3:15 am. I got all my assignments in (mostly) on time this way.

Have a hobby: If your life is dedicated 100 percent to homework and regular work, you will burn out and go crazy. Set aside some time to do something you love and refreshes you, whether that be going for a jog, playing an instrument, doing something creative, or even watching an episode of your favourite TV show. As much as it is important to stay focused on your work, it is important to focus on your pleasures as well.

Play hard, work harder: Don’t be burdened to get on your work first thing in the morning. You are only able to work as much as you are at peace, so find a routine that works for you where you have a clear line between work and play, and do not mix the two. For example, instead of having your work open as you watch netflix, watch netflix in a focused manner for one hour, and work focused for two. If you try to do both at once, you will not be able to relax enough to enjoy your pleasures, and you will not be focused enough to do your work.

Print your Syllabi, and think outside the box: This may seem like a no-brainer, but students seem to overlook this a lot. Print out your syllabus for every class and have all your syllabi for all your classes in one place. This way, you don’t have to look around the portal for your syllabus every time you do an assignment, and you can plan ahead. Buying textbooks has become much harder because of the pandemic, but online options such as kindle are great resources for textbooks, among others. E-books are much cheaper than physical books, and are very convenient to carry around and store which make them an excellent choice for the student who cannot visit the library as freely as they used to.

Have a support system: Seek out online communities where you can just hang out and belong with people in your peer group who can share in your struggles and be a place of relief from your educational burdens. Don’t be shy, but be aware of proper internet safety, and do not share personal information to strangers on the internet.

Don’t be too hard on yourself: We are all having a rough time and the pandemic is not an ideal situation for anyone. There are many challenges in many different aspects of the pandemic life that we are simply slowly punching in the face one by one.

2020 has been a rough year for everyone. People lost their jobs, their homes, their families and friends, and it will apparently take 10 years for America to gain herd immunity at the rate at which they are vaccinating, but it is the belief of this young and hopeful first-year student that it can only get better from here. And so what if it gets worse? We’ll punch that in the face too. We are not so weak as a species to simply throw in the towel, but we cannot do it alone. More than ever before, we need to be unified and we can’t do that without giving up a portion of pride.

The new year of 2021 is daunting as is it welcome. But we can be sure of some things. Online school will be better thanks to our fulfillment of the guinea pig role. The vaccine will have some sort of effect on the pandemic. We will find new ways to adapt to our ever changing world.