We need in-person school

Let me put you in my shoes for a moment. It’s my senior year, and I haven’t even gone back to school for a full school day. I’ve only experienced two and a half years of high school because even my junior year was cut short. My childhood is almost over, and I haven’t been allowed to experience it for the past eight months. I want to go back, because after this school year, I will never get to be a kid again.

Once everything shut down last school year, we students faced the challenge of doing school online without any preparation, and it was very difficult to say the least. Even now it is just as hard.

We aren’t getting a good enough learning experience from a class video chat that meets a few times a week, especially if we do not have a good environment to learn in. If we are in person then we can get quicker and easier one-on-one help from our teachers without worrying about our wifi connection cutting out.

Another positive thing about going back to school in person is that if we do not have a good home situation, then we will have school as a place to either get help, or at least get a break from it. For many of us, school is a safe place, we have many people we can talk to, at least two meals a day, and it provides better motivation for doing work.

If we go back to school in person and a student decides it isn’t working, the online option is still there. Also if there is a day where you aren’t fit to attend school, or you have some type of appointment that prevents you from coming into school that day, then you are able to go online and do school from there and work on what you may have missed. Just because you are against coming back, doesn’t mean you should take away that opportunity from those who do.

Now is not the time to be pitted against each other. We need to be united, whether students prefer to attend school through a screen or not. Those making the decision need to be aware of the experiences and opportunities you are taking away by not letting us go back.