I can't wait to fly down to Tampa, Florida for spring break. Today, my senior spring break was officially canceled. Along with high school sports, my senior year was slowly closing in on me, I feel claustrophobic. This can't be real, one night I was celebrating this 2 week shut down of schools, the next I was wishing I could have it all back. For so many years I have been wishing I could just be done with school, I could just fast forward 4 years and be in college. But now, now that my senior year has been ripped out from underneath me, I wish I could go back and relive these past four years. The memories with my friends, being a state champion for the equestrian team, a conference champion in lacrosse, a 2 year consecutive conference champion in basketball. I wish I could go back and relive all these memories, knowing that my senior year would be taken. Going back and giving 110% through not only sports, but in my relationships, school and life. 
 

With an unprecedented state ordered quarantine approaching, I knew the rest of the year was going to look different for all of us. How will this affect education? How will this affect my education? 

Quarantine gave me the opportunity to look at life differently, and gave me a chance to take a brain break and grow in many ways I never knew I needed to.

Throughout quarantine I...

Outdoor Activities: 

• Ava, Ally and I went on many adventures through quarantine. Traveling to all the state parks in Michigan, soaking up the sun and enjoying life's moments. 
• On sunny days my sisters and I would go down to our beach and enjoy the nice weather reading, doing homework, and swimming. 

Family Gatherings: 

• May 27th we went to my oldest sister Makenzie's house and had an outdoor picnic, celebrating my dad's birthday.
• On April 21st my sisters and I took our dogs and went for a hike to get outside and enjoy our time together.
• One night we decided to start our own individual scrapbooks, so we had to sort all of our pictures, which brought us down memory lane.

Focus on myself: 

• During quarantine I started making nail art, and found it helped me relax and take my stress away and focus on myself.
• With all the time on my hands it gave me the opportunity to do what I love to do and find my passion again. I was able to ride my horses daily and be true to myself.

• I got the chance to get outside and play with my dogs.
• We played many games over the 90 days, having family game nights
  • Skip-bo, Phase Ten, puzzles, Apples to Apples, charades, campfires

Easter: 

As for a lot of people, holidays looked quite different over quarantine. Typically my family invites many relatives over and we all dress up for church and then have a large scavenger hunt around our barn and then we have a large Easter dinner. But this year looked very different for us, my family had to watch church online, we invited no one over, instead we face-timed all of our family.

• My family watching church online in our living room, Makenzie and my brother in law weren't allowed to come. 

Senior Year Activities:

As a senior you look forward to graduation, your last sports game, senior prom, and your last day of school. The class of 2020 didn't get that, we didn't know it was our last day until it was too late to cherish it, we didn't know our senior year sports were going to get swiped out from under us, we didn't know we wouldn't be able to do what we have been dreaming about since the first day of freshman year, graduation, none of us knew this was going to happen. My high school did their best to make it up to us, we attended an online honors night, which is typically in person, they organized a senior parade, the day we were supposed to graduate they allowed us to come get our diplomas and walk across the stage alone, and they did their best to create a graduation for us. 

As a senior you look forward to graduation, your last sports game, senior prom, and your last day of school. The classes of 2020 didn't get that, we didn't know it was our last day until it was too late to cherish it, we didn't know our senior year sports were going to get swiped out from under us, we didn't know we wouldn't be able to do what we have been dreaming about since the first day of freshman year, graduation, none of us knew this was going to happen. My high school did their best to make it up to us, we attended an online honors night, which is typically in person, they organized a senior parade, the day we were supposed to graduate they allowed us to come get our diplomas and walk across the stage alone, and they did their best to create a graduation for us. 

As for our senior prom, our class pulled together a prom at a students house. With everyone's parents pitching in it was a night to remember, they pulled together prom court drawings, king and queen, a photo booth, fireworks, airplanes, and a dance floor. 

Family Trip:

As the summer slowly turned to fall and we started packing for college, my family headed to Vail, Colorado to visit my uncle. We planned this trip for my dad's birthday because he missed his brother so much and hadn't seen him in two years. As the trip got closer and states began closing again, my parents were hesitant to go. We ended up renting a 12 passenger van and driving 24 hours to go visit my uncle, it was a trip to remember, even during Covid. 

During this trip we got to go on many hikes, shopping sprees, and family bonding time. 

The Essential Question:

How will education react to quarantine?
What does this mean for the future of education?
How will this affect our education system?

Schools being abruptly shutdown in the spring of 2020, forced education boards to put together an online system for the remainder of the year in a short amount of time. As the early weeks of the shutdown began, some schools opted out of online education, while some deemed it was necessary for students to finish the year strong. My school decided it was essential for students to finish required classes, but many around us didn't. 

The severe short-term disruption is felt by many families around the world: home schooling is not only a massive shock to parents’ productivity, but also to children’s social life and learning. As more students decide to take the online route, in person educators are worried students will stick to the online homeschooled idea and not return to school once the Covid-19 pandemic is over. Going to school in person is known to be one of the best ways to gain social skills, being in school and around other classmates allows you to understand other people. When students are at home doing lessons online or on a zoom call, their chance to become culturally relevant decreases monumentally. Being culturally relevant is a huge advantage in your future career and being able to understand all perspectives and backgrounds. As an education major I hear an increasing amount of parents sharing how their kids can't stand school, and they dread it everyday, and it's not just high schoolers. These are parents of elementary schoolers, k-5th grade is meant for children to develop the basic knowledge in the core classes and to have fun. These students dread going to school everyday because they can't sit next to their friend at lunch, they can't play with each other at recess, they have to wear masks constantly.

As schools shut down in person classes once again, educators are worried for their students. There are many statistics showing the downfalls of online education and one major reason for the poor production in our online courses is all students have different home environments. Some students may be more fortunate, with the internet for schooling, siblings to help and parents that help, where other students may not have any of those. This unprecedented time exposes the growing gap between social classes, “From Social Class and The Hidden Curriculum of Work” by Jean Anyon. She talked about social classes and the need to fix it before it gets too bad. Forcing students to learn online, when some schools don't have the funds to give students the right materials, and others around the block give their students personal hotspots and their own computer.  

 

Did quarantine affect my education?

Covid-19 pandemic was a blessing in disguise, as my days of high school were coming to an end, so was my drive to learn and my passion to attend college. High school was an extremely draining 4 years, through sports and 7 hours straight 5 days a week of schooling it was not healthy for my mental health. High school drove me into many different phases of anxiety and stress that I couldn't understand how to cope with. I tended to ignore it because I was so busy. John Gatto states in “Against School” that school is a prison, not only for students, but for teachers as well and it’s full of boredom. I truly felt like I was in prison going to school everyday, being forced to learn things that didn't interest me. As I looked to the future, my next four years, stuck in education again, I was worried I wasn't going to make it. Quarantine gave me a brain break, allowing me to decompress before the next four years of my life. It allowed me to focus on myself and find ways to help relieve stress and anxiety, a much needed tool going through college, especially during a pandemic. As for my friends and fellow classmates, they feel the same way, as I’m sure many high schoolers feel they are in prison and can’t wait to go off to college. I see quarantine as a blessing in disguise, for not just me, but people around me as well. I went through so much over the years, and college was just an addition to my stress. Having 90 days to focus on myself and get the chance to relax was very beneficial for my mental health.