Senior Slide: How the High School Class of 2021 is Affected by Remote Learning
By: Michael Howard
Tags: High School, Zoom, Covid 19, Senioritis, Seniors

Tabs, tabs, tabs! My entire senior year sits behind a glass screen!

In some shape or form, the COVID-19 pandemic has afflicted all with some sort of inconveniences, and for high school students, much of this time in their lives known for roaring student sections, dances, and socialization has been snatched from their grip and without notice. To hold such events at a time like this is impractical, and unfortunately for the safety of teachers, students, and families, many schools have converted to fully remote or hybrid learning models.

As a current senior in high school, I have been inundated with the stresses of college applications and maintaining my grades in my most difficult classes. The stress does not exist only as a result of these typical senior year tasks, but it has rather been amplified by the prospect of learning from a computer screen. I have always found that a routinized day, in which I have to physically move from one place to another, allows for my optimal academic performance, so a remote learning model was difficult for me to follow for the remaining months of my junior year. Since my school offers a hybrid model, in which I am able to attend classes reduced in capacity and socially distantly, I learn in that way to enhance my focus, but not all students are capable of introducing such a model safely.

Getting sidetracked

What I have found throughout my time remote learning is that it is extremely easy to get distracted. You hold the power to do whatever you choose, and this isn’t necessarily a good thing. Autonomy in decision-making is enriching when it doesn’t jeopardize your education. Though I am quite attentive, I find myself reaching for my phone multiple times when I occasionally have to attend a class virtually. When in school, teachers are able to monitor students, whereas a teacher in a virtual campus is only aware of what is in frame — they are oblivious to the fact that you’re Snapchatting your friends the entire time.

I have observed that throughout the year, more and more students in my school have converted to the virtual model, both because of the severity of the pandemic and most notably the autonomy accompanied with being home all day. Many student testimonies have reported a strong negative correlation between learning virtually and class averages when compared to the previous year. Before the pandemic, I saw technology as an escape from the gloom and doom from school work — a means of recreation. Now, as I am typing this, the accompanying tabs on my computer are filled with homework assignments. The pandemic resulted in a technological awakening in the education system, with nearly all of my assignments being online, despite attending school in person daily. It is difficult to remain focused when you can easily click the “Leave Meeting” button on Zoom. Tempting for some, they do it without hesitation.

“Senioritis”

It is currently December, and my classmates and I are beginning to hear from the colleges which we applied to during their Early Action applicant pools, and as we are greeted with news of acceptance, our motivation is waning. This is typical and often referred to as “senioritis,” which can only seem to be cured by our graduation ceremony in June.

Compared to the average of eight and a half hours of screen time nearly a month ago, I have been using my phone for nearly three more hours per day, since my school has employed a virtual model during this past week. Yikes!

We grow day by day lazier and lazier, and the pandemic surely does not make this much easier. A lack of structure in our senior year allowed this to be initiated much earlier than it should have, as I have had bouts of “senioritis” as early as the month of September, even before beginning college applications. For those students who attend class virtually, senioritis is in full swing. This lack of structure, one may even call it entropy, allows for an unconcerned state of mind to arise much more easily.

Applying to College, “COVID Style”

I’d like you to imagine walking into a building for the first time, then being told that you must remain there for the next four years. Though a dramatic representation of what the class of 2021 is struggling through, many students have applied to colleges without having been able to visit any colleges campuses. Personally, I have only toured one college out of the nine colleges that I have applied/am applying to, and this tour was over a year ago. As they say, you won’t be able to determine whether a college is meant for you or not until you walk onto campus and “get a feel” for the school. Though some schools offer tours in small groups, this is not the case with most universities, and at a time where viral infection is crippling the nation, it is not necessarily that safe.

Colleges do offer, though, virtual campus tours and open houses, Q&A sessions with students, and different informational sessions for different majors and programs. These sessions, which usually occur over Zoom, have been more than helpful for me in determining whether or not I should apply to a school, but they often serve as glorifiers to the school. Of course, you are not going to expect a college to display their lack of community or their out-of-date facilities, and often those are attributes that need to be observed in person. It is daunting nonetheless to go into the college process blind, and knowing that I will have to make a decision with only a list of pros, not cons, is stressful.

A Class Like No Other

Inarguably, both this current senior class and last year’s senior class have experienced more than one can chew and without warning. As we have heard news of the distribution of vaccines to healthcare workers throughout the past few days, we begin to gather hope that our senior year will end much differently than that of the graduating class of 2020. But in the mean time, we are dragging along, trying to grasp any bit of ambition that we have in us.

Ladies and gentlemen, the class of 2021.