By Jade Morris, Y11
As the COVID-19 cases rose in Geneva during the month of March, students were checking for updates almost every class. Although this was partly out of concern, it was also a way to see how close the school was to closing. When the email came out saying that we were starting online learning, the classrooms were buzzing with excitement. Students couldn’t wait to relax at home.
But boy were we wrong about our “coronacation.” After a few weeks of sitting in our room and listening to our teachers talk through Google Meets for hours, online learning was getting pretty tiring. We were anxious to get out of the house and be social again. It was making us wish we could go back to school, which is something we never thought we’d say. Motivation began to decline, and boredom was through the roof.
That’s when the complaints started to kick in. The school listened to our concerns and as a result, made an effort to shorten classes as well as limit screen time. Instead of being thankful for the proactive response and focusing on the positive, the student body criticised more and more. We said that we were bored, but then all we did was grumble about the workload. We complained about our eyes hurting from all the screen time, so the teachers told us to crack open a book; but we then protested about having to read: there was just no winning.
Although these problems were not unjustified, I think we should remember that we are not the only ones going through the ups and downs of online learning. Yes, we may be tired and unmotivated, but we should also consider the teachers who are going through this. Surely they must be getting tired of sitting and staring at our Gmail icons all day.
To bring a different outlook to the situation, I asked a teacher for their opinion on online teaching. She explained that although this hasn’t “all been plain sailing” and that although she looks forward to the school’s reopening (provided that it’s safe), she reminded us that there are positives. Online learning is a “worthwhile and meaningful experience” that gives a whole new perspective on education. She also mentioned how teaching in a classroom is such a “collective experience,” which is difficult to replicate online. Distance learning certainly isn’t as straightforward as being back in the classroom but that doesn’t mean it’s all bad.
For the first time in our lifetime, everyone in the world is being directly impacted by the same issues. Shouldn’t that bring us together? At the end of the day, we can’t change the situation but we can make the most of it.
