Posted by By Hannah Spilhaus, Staff Writer
High school is about so much more than getting an education. It is about making friends, doing sports and joining clubs: the parts of high school that sculpt character. The academics are just what you have to endure to enjoy the fun stuff. High school is something we value a lot even if we don’t want to admit it. This year, everything is different. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, we don’t get the usual high school experience. For the first time in forever students reminiscing about their time in school are really missing high school. Who woulda thought?
I asked many New Paltz High School students what they missed about being in school. Many said they miss the communal aspects of school. Learning isn’t just an intellectual activity, it is also a social one. Group interaction improves student morale and, surprisingly, makes students more willing to learn.
“Seeing people in school and making those personnel connections makes the whole experience more bearable. With it online I feel like I don’t have any connection with my teachers and it makes it more difficult to learn,” explained NPHS junior Ruby Santos. Ruby is one of so many students that thinks socializing improves her learning.
Clay Gulick a senior feels the same way: “I was so used to seeing people and it definitely made it easier to learn because we bounced ideas and opinions off eachother, it’s so much more difficult online because no one talks and the only perspective of things I hear is from the teacher”.
Being online makes it more difficult to maintain a sense of community in high school. Being social is a monumental aspect of learning that is now gone. This pandemic is worse on our generation more than others because it affects our education in a major way to the detriment of mental health.
Featured Photo: Emma Bakker
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