By Hannah Page
March 13, 2020, was the last day of what was previously known as a normal school day. The Lake Oswego community had been hearing about a deadly virus, known as COVID-19, which postponed normal school days to some unknown day in the future.
There are many opinions on whether online school is better or worse than the more typical in person school environment. Some students like it better because they prefer not to socialize as much as others. Others enjoy the opportunities to socialize while learning at school. A 6th grade student at Lake Oswego Junior High School, named Cecilia Coleman, states that regular school is better. She says, ¨… going to school and socializing is a must for kids our age. I feel like they could at least make the class time shorter and the break shorter, so we can get all our classes done earlier. Also, when you are just staring at your computer while your teacher is talking it’s hard to stay concentrated the whole time.¨
Sofie Ciporen is a 7th grader at Lake Oswego Junior High School. She also believes regular school is better. Sofie loves regular school because she can see her friends in person, but she says that school has too much homework, and online barely has any. She feels like it’s hard to stare at yourself in the camera for so long each class and each day. Nonetheless, she likes online school.
Another 7th grader named Nia Marks at Raleigh Hills School is liking online school a lot. She describes herself as very shy and quiet, so she loves not having to socialize with other kids throughout the school day. She doesn’t like getting up and ready for the day in the more traditional school environment and now she doesn’t have to. She gets to sit by herself in a room. That is her happy place.
Sienna Larsen, an 8th grade student at Lake Oswego Junior High School, thinks that online school can really be a struggle. She says it is hard to understand the teachers sometimes and students get a longer time to do work and projects in regular school. To make some of this stress go away she says, ¨Maybe the school could make it so some days we don’t have Zoom, because sometimes we just need a break.¨ A lot of students have been agreeing with her ideas as this unusual school year continues.
In a survey of Publications students, 74% would rather go to regular school while 26% of the students like online school better. Every student has different opinions about in-person school, so it should not be a surprise that there are different opinions about online school as well. Teachers, students, and parents are all succeeding in some ways and struggling in others. No one should feel alone. Everyone is learning in their own homes and away from friends because this is a global pandemic that everyone is going through together.
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