It has been a wild time since COVID hit the United States. Going from all in school to no school to online learning to hybrid, students here have been through a lot of stuff in the past year. However, some are still staying home, even though they could be half at school. How are they doing? Could this be how schooling is done in the future? Well, we talked to IHS junior, Anna Vincze, to give us some perspective on this.

Her days are harder, taking 4 AP’s is difficult any year, she says, but it’s manageable for her, in no small part due to the strategies she’s built to deal with working at home. “For me, listening to music to block out all the distracting noises in the house always helped… It helps to start my homework right after school ends because I am already focused. Having a designated spot to do schoolwork also helps.” 

But even at her best times, working around her family isn’t easy. Stating “It is definitely harder to focus at home because I am surrounded by distractions.” It also hasn’t been the best for her socially, as she hasn’t seen many of her friends since before quarantine started and, obviously, that can get pretty depressing. Despite all this, she is getting about an equal education at home compared to school. She says this is due to the fact that she can retain her focus when leaving school easier, as she can go straight from schoolwork into homework. She says that it also doesn’t hurt that she can sleep in a little more, now waking up at 7 instead of 6.

In fact, getting more sleep is described by edutopia.org as one of the most positive consequences of learning from home[1], “There are kids who have a hard time getting to class at 8:30, but they might do really well getting their work done at 10:30 at night or even 10:30 in the morning. They just need a couple extra hours”.

It might now be a good idea to get a different perspective on this, from one of our favorite teachers, Mr. Poranski, to get some insight into how our teachers are dealing with hybrid methods. He seems to be in agreement with online-only students, that while it might not be optimal, it isn’t going to be bad for anyone, in the long run, saying “I think we’ll all get through it and I think it will be fine.”

Later on in the interview, when I asked if people online are getting a worse or similar education, his answer surprised me and was very insightful. The way he sees it, everyone is getting the same education whether you’re at home or at school. “I think what we’re doing is we’re delivering remote education to all students. It just so happens that half of the class is in front of the presenter two days a week and the other half the other.” 

And I think that’s the best way to say it. Nothing is ideal for anyone right now. Everyone is in some sort of middle ground, figuring out how to work through this. It doesn’t really matter where we are, we’re all getting through the same mud together.