Virtual Learning: Helpful or Hinderance?

 In the past three years, everyone's lives have been majorly disrupted and thrown out of balance. Schools were closing. Working from home became commonplace. Online shopping and contactless delivery boomed. Basically, every aspect of everyday living moved online. At the time, this was the most logical solution to social distancing. Can't come into the office? Hop on a Zoom call. Need to visit your doctor? Contact their Telehealth line. But what effect did going completely virtual have on our younger generations? How did online classes affect their ability to successfully learn and retain vital information in regard to students' future careers or even their ability to recognize the alphabet? While some schools reopened, others opted to stay online for the 2020-2021 school year, and we are now learning of the consequences of that action. 

Drawing of a young man 
attending class and working on a laptop

Schools all across the nation are scrambling to close the gap between where students are testing and national benchmark requirements. According to an article from The New York Times, students who attended in-person schooling during the 2020-2021 school year experienced a loss of "20 percent worth of a typical school year's math learning" while students who attended virtual schooling lost, on average, "the equivalent of 50 percent of a typical school year's math learning." While all students are feeling the effects of COVID online learning, this event had a disproportionate effect on students of low socioeconomic status as well as negatively affecting black and Latino students. In my experince working in a school, these students want to learn and are more resillent than most people give them credit for. Kids are capable of coming back and reaching those benchmark requirements. I have already been able to see them overcoming their set backs and obstacles from COVID. Personally, I undestand why it was necessary for schools to go online, and I believe that schools did the best thing for their students that they could do, given the circumstances. It is possible to close this gap of achievement as long as schools are willing to work with their students and put time as well as resources into those students. I think that students can come back from the effects of COVID and be stronger than ever.