Posted by Noah Fishman, Writer
Shruti Talekar | Staff Illustrator at The Pitt News, Featured Photo
With the recent outbreak of the Coronavirus pandemic, most of the world was forced to shut down. One of the first major public facilities to forcibly adapt were schools. Since education cannot simply be paused, schools have turned to online learning.
This was a big jump for everyone, especially colleges. Tommy Zurhellen, Associate Professor of English at Marist College, explained: “The immediacy of the switch was the big thing, you had two weeks of spring break, and then you had to start again all over online.”
The abrupt transition Professor Zurhellen experienced has been felt by many college professors. “Because we’re on a quarter system, not semesters, I only saw my students physically twice before this happened,” remarked Kingsborough Community College English Professor Eleanor Bader. “I could walk by them on the street and probably not recognize them.”
“The first thing we realized is that it can’t be one size fits all,” remembered Professor Zurhellen. “All our students are different, everybody’s from a different background.”
One of the most crucial considerations for online schooling is how to accommodate everyone. “The only thing I wish is that we could support our students more and make sure they all have the same access to technology,” Professor Zurhellen added. “On my end, it’s fine, but I have to think about how realistically it will go for my students. We’ve got to get students all on the same page. You have to think about the disparity between a poor kid who doesn’t have a laptop or WiFi, and a kid who’s better off who has his own laptop and WiFi at home. It’s a huge difference. We didn’t talk about that when we switched to online, I just wish we’d talked about that more, and made sure everyone gets the access they deserve.” Unfortunately, it seems most colleges are ill-equipped to judge or accommodate their students’ resources.
“One problem is that your professors, when you get to college, think you have everything available to you,” explained Caterina Pierre, Professor of Art History at the City University of New York and Kingsborough Community College.
“We assume you have some access to a computer; we don’t ask you. We assume you have the internet; we don’t ask you. The problem with this is that I found out the hard way that a lot of my students didn’t have WiFi at home. They did not have a personal computer, they didn’t buy the textbooks because they couldn’t afford them, they were hoping to use the textbooks in the library, but the library shut down. These were students who hadn’t planned to do this at home, and didn’t really have the resources to do this at home.” Another factor that many students struggle with is responsibility. Not all students are responsible for only themselves. Many have families and children they have to think about. “Kingsborough is a college of immigrants, and our students tend to be extremely low income and extremely ill-equipped to take classes in English,” Professor Bader described.
“I’ve had to scale it back a little bit because out of 54 students 25 to 30 have been sick themselves or are taking care of a sick family member, or have had family members die; they’re all going to work every day, they’re poor people. Some of them are 18, the traditional college age, but a lot of them are older, a lot of them have kids, and almost all of them are working. They have the kind of sh*t jobs where they don’t get to sit on a computer at home and fiddle around,” continued Professor Bader. “They’re going to work on the subways and busses, so they’re getting sick. The students who have five people sharing one computer are not able to get the work done, so they’re doing a lot less, and they’re so stressed out, so they’re doing a lot less.” As Professor Bader described, for many students, online schooling is the least of their worries. They cannot afford to think about their education when their family’s well being is at stake.
While college students and professors struggle with online higher education, younger students, even those with the necessary resources (WiFI, computers, time, etc.), have problems.
“I don’t like online schooling,” said New Paltz High School junior Julius Forte. “It’s very hard to get motivated and actually do the work. Some of my classes’ online material does not make sense, and I’m not learning anything.”
These may not be kind words, but the sentiments are shared by many. “I feel way more stressed out doing online school than I did when I was actually in school,” stated Comerate and Frontier High School junior Mary Teresa. “I had a routine, and everything planned out when I was in school. With online school, I’ve tried multiple times to make a schedule, but I end up procrastinating and not able to motivate myself to follow it. I also feel that in some classes, I have more work online than I actually did in school.”
This feeling of excessive work is a common one. “I feel like I’m not learning enough or trying my best,” admitted Sperry High School sophomore Clara Burley. “I just don’t have any motivation. I don’t put in the effort because I have so many things stacked up onto each other.” Yet another concern is the difficulty of staying focused while at home.
“It’s super difficult to learn your whole curriculum at home,” complained New Paltz High School junior Jessica Dugatkin. “There’s so much potential for distractions, and it seems pointless to start an assignment if I know I’ll be interrupted.”
While most of these responses have been quite negative, not everyone shares this gloomy outlook. “I think it’s better than regular school because you don’t have to get up as early, and you can pretty much work more at your own pace,” said Kingston High School junior Tiernan McCarthy-Kenney.” But I don’t understand why some schools pile a sh*t ton of work on kids, so I’m in the middle about it.”
Amid this pandemic, some students are now discovering the freedom that comes with setting their schedules.
Another challenge due to the switch to online schooling was the College Board’s administration of online AP exams. “I took APUSH [AP U.S. History], they didn’t let me submit my test, so I flunked it,” snapped Griffin Tietje. “Now I have to wait to see if I can retake it because of their mistake, and I wasn’t the only one. I hate the College Board.”
Tietje is right; he is not the only one. Numerous students had problems submitting their exams, and some, like Tietje, were not able to. A few of these students were even interviewed in publications, including The New York Times and The Verge. There have even been multiple class-action lawsuits against the College Board regarding botched AP tests. Despite all of this, the College Board has released statements claiming that “less than one percent of students were unable to submit their responses.”
On the other end of the spectrum, some students (among those who succeeded in submitting their exams) preferred this new format. “It’s kind of been a blessing in disguise,” said New Paltz High School junior Hannah Spilhaus. “I liked that the AP tests were short and open-note; it made them seem less stressful and easier to handle.”
Opinions about the switch to online schooling have been rather negative, overall. However, the transition online was not a choice, but rather a hardship forced on educators due to the pandemic. Given these conditions, there is something to be said for the speed and competence with which the system was built.
It is also of paramount importance to remember that improving a system takes time and support. It is very easy to criticize a flawed rollout. However, it is far more challenging to come together and try to fix these flaws. But, of course, this is what we must do. Online schooling is not a choice. It is a necessity brought upon us by the events of our time. Schools exist to instruct people in the trades of life. The critical question that must be asked: Is online schooling allowing students to learn effectively? Based on the opinions above–no. Figuring out how to improve this system will be an education in and of itself.
The Maroon 