For students and teachers across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic changed the very foundation of traditional schooling. In-person classes shifted to an online setting and teachers relied on sites such as Canvas and Microsoft Teams to conduct lessons and post assignments. This virtual schooling had a negative impact on students and teachers alike who had to adapt to a new way to learn and teach.

Inevitably, when the 2021-2022 school year commenced in-person, students and teachers were forced to adapt quickly being back in the physical classroom. In addition to the more obvious changes such as no longer being able to watch class in bed, there has been a drastic increase in the workload students are being assigned.

Students seemingly have more assignments than ever before. This is widely due to the belief that students missed out on learning important information last year. In order to retain last year’s information, students must be force-fed information in an unreasonable time frame.

School is rarely a student’s only responsibility as they are already bogged down with sports, family and club events or meetings. Homework is important, but the workload this year has been absurd. Extracurriculars and free time are almost a nonfactor in today’s version of school.

The school system has yet to acknowledge the loss of learning from last year, acting as though we learned everything that we were supposed to despite being behind a computer for six hours a day with the ability to cheat on assignments or do other activities during class time.

While the school board has approached the situation in an unfair manner, the only people who acknowledge the academic and social losses are teachers. However, instead of trying to reteach some of the material at normal speed, teachers are rushing the curriculum. Though teachers rightfully acknowledge the loss of learning, they have not been trained by the school board to give it the correct treatment.

Students are in a tough situation. They are forced to try to retain as much information as they can from the previous mess of a year while also trying to learn new information. This stress can lead to other long-term issues such as depression.

The school board should recognize that students had trouble learning in an online environment for the past year and a half, and adapting to our new normal is not an overnight process. In order to solve the issue, the school board must take things slower and acknowledge the loss of learning.

Overall, COVID-19 is something that the majority of people find difficult to instantly recover from whether it be financially, emotionally, physically or academically related. The school board needs to do a better job acknowledging the hardships students are facing during the aftermath of quarantine.