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Parents wish for their children to have the desire and ability to express themselves and speak their minds. They want them to feel confident sharing opinions and points of view.
PUTTING WORDS IN THEIR MOUTH
But for the most part when they do, it’s only after being edited and screened by those same parents to ensure the “right thing” is being said.
The same thing is happening during the pandemic. Pundits say students will be damaged for the “rest of their lives” due to the COVID slide, lost academic year and lost friendships.
GO TO THE SOURCE
So I had a novel idea. Rather than speaking for students, how about giving one the forum do it on their own. I asked a seventh grader who we will call Ava, to share what students in her universe are feeling, saying, doing, not doing.
HOW BAD IS BAD?
Are they forever ruined? Scarred for the rest of their lives by Zoom? Or are they learning lessons from all of this?
What she submited is the way it will be printed. It will not be edited.
AVA’S POV
So with that said, here’s COVID School Year 2020-2021 as Ava sees it…
“Back in March of 2020, when I first heard about schools closing because of a pandemic, I wasn’t really even sure what that meant. So in my mind, I had only just assumed that schools were closed down for a couple weeks and then everything would go straight back to normal. But I had no clue what was really in store for me and everyone else.
“When my school began to teach online, teachers were struggling, kids were struggling, even our parents were struggling with trying to keep us caught up. Back then, for a little while I thought it was a blessing in disguise. Students like me were only in class for a few hours a day. We finished school before it was even time for lunch. But this school year, things are much different.
“Because of last year, we started to get used to doing things online so everyone assumed we would be okay. However, teachers began giving us lots of assignments again. At first it was easy to keep up. But as assignments started to pile up, things began to get difficult for students. We had so much work to do, and many started to fall behind. Teachers just kept giving out assignments without any clue of how much other teachers assigned too.
“While being in quarantine we all started to become anti-social, not having seen our friends for months. Lots of people became so stressed because of deadlines and being so far away from the ones we loved, but that just wasn’t enough. They had to send us back to school too. It sounds like this would all be easy, just like going back to normal, but it sure wasn’t.
Things got even harder. We got to see our friends that we missed so dearly but it wasn’t all that great while having to stay distanced from them.
“Throughout the past year, yes things have been tough, but there is a bright side. While being stuck inside for months, it has given me a chance to do some of my favorite things.
I used to love cooking and baking. It was my favorite things to do but I never had time to make anything. Being at home for so long, I had a chance to catch up on it.
“For every holiday that came up, I made special desserts for my family. Fourth of July, Halloween, Thanksgiving and during Christmas Break. It gave me a chance to do the thing I loved. This pandemic has drastically changed things, but maybe not all of it was miserable because we had a chance to find other interests we didn’t have time for and learn to adjust.”
Hello Pundits, how about it? – if Ava can use the wise words “…learn to adjust” – perhaps others will benefit from the wisdom of one pretty good baker and cook.
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder of The Student Success Project and Think Factory Consulting. He can be reached at 305-788-4105 or email at ritchie@thinkfactory.com and on Facebook and You Tube as The Student Success Project.
