Equal Opportunity Learning In Pandemic

    Before Covid I would agree that online education provides equal learning opportunities for students that chose to do their classes online. However during this pandemic where online school is the only option I don’t believe that learning opportunities are equal. While many students may be able to switch to online school with ease that isn’t the case for everyone. Some families may not have the resources or access to the proper resources for the children to participate in virtual learning, hence the in person education thus far. There are also situations where perhaps the families have the resources but the children can’t participate or perform as well as they would be able to in a classroom for whatever the reason may be, it could also be a mix of the two or something completely unrelated. There are a variety of reasons that people may not be able to do virtual classes and now that we have no other option than to do class online puts those children at an immediate disadvantage and sets them behind their peers.

    I firmly believe that there should be a hardship clause for any students impacted by Covid to the extent that they could fail their classes. I don’t think that students and the futures they’ve worked hard for until Covid should have to suffer over things that are entirely out of their control. Students cannot control: a pandemic, how much money their families have, where they live, various mental disorders, etc., they shouldn’t be expected to perform miracles to maybe complete their classwork while other students just have to wake up and do it. 

    While I’m not too sure about how to go about implementing such a policy fairly I do think that it’s possible. During this pandemic students have experienced so much change between school, the protests, the virus itself, etc. and should all be shown some leniency right now. No two people have experienced this pandemic the same and you will never know what responsibilities they are juggling to make ends meet. Personally I think that having a break year from school would have been the best, and the fairest, option during Covid. Things are continuously changing and there is a lot going on especially in politics and the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement, that I think it would be the safer option to keep kids from falling behind and also to keep them safe.

    During Covid I haven’t had the most exciting experiences with online learning. My teachers give three times the amount of work they normally would and it’s all just busywork, it’s like they fail to realize I do have work for other classes to do. I also suck at actually doing my work because I don’t have any motivation to get it done. I struggle to pay attention during the zoom lectures too because I get bored of staring at my screen all day, I also have ADHD and even if I take my medication there are simply too many things to fiddle with no matter where I go. Online classes are also making me a lot more with drawn from others, I spend 95% of my time in my dorm, the other 5% is basically to get food or the few hours I spend with my church group on Friday nights.

    Many countries in Europe and Asia are having face-to-face classes already while the U.S. is still mostly online or completely online for some, and teetering on the verge of being completely online again for everyone. I feel like a lot of students including myself are going to be less competitive in the job market because of Covid. We’ve so far spent 7 months in lockdown with no end in sight and most of us spend our time at home not with other people, making us less social and less competitive which is definitely going to shift our mental state.