Simon Bazelon home at (remote) “school.”
At 7:25 a.m., the alarm went off. Five minutes later, I was in class.
Well, sort of.
As a senior at Wilbur Cross High School, I am a student in one of the only school districts in the state reopening this fall without any in person instruction.
The first day back at “school” felt pretty different.
Instead of sitting at a desk, I was on my couch. Instead of having my friends around me, I was home, by myself. Instead of wearing real clothes, I was still in my pajamas.
My first class of the day was English. I normally enjoy my English classes, but from behind my laptop screen, the experience was not the same. Despite the best efforts of my wonderful English teacher, I found myself completely unable to focus on and discuss the excerpt of Romeo and Juliet we read.
As a friend of mine, Wilbur Cross junior Marc Muench, put it, “Virtual learning has all of the boring and unpleasant parts of high school, without any of the stuff that makes it fun.”
I think he’s right.
On Google Meets – the platform NHPS is using for online instruction – there’s no way to recreate the side conversations that make classes bearable. No jokes, no gossip, no sarcastic comments. Just 80 minutes of staring at a computer screen, full of awkward pauses as students and teachers alike try and fail to recreate the rhythm of in-person conversations.
Have you tried to sit by yourself and focus on a virtual lesson from 7:30 to 8:50 in the morning? Everyone is doing their best. But the pauses and inability to look people in the eye, or look away from the screen, are unnatural and alienating. It is… difficult, to say the least.
After my first period English class came homeroom. My homeroom teacher took attendance and asked us questions about ourselves. She explained that while absences during spring remote learning won’t be counted against students, going forward, not showing up to virtual homeroom will be reported to the district as an absence for that day of school. I spent most of homeroom eating breakfast, hoping no one would ask me a question while my mouth was full.
Second period psychology went similarly to English. The class syllabus was presented via screen share, and the expectations and goals for the course were set out.
Students asked questions, and got answers, but student-teacher interactions were much clumsier through the screen than they usually are face to face. Some of that may improve as teachers and students grow more accustomed to live remote online instruction, but mostly it seemed like a limitation of the platform itself.
Studying the faces of some of my classmates – students are being “strongly encouraged,” though not required, to have their webcams on during class – I could see that many students were less than fully engaged. Some were clearly looking down at their phones. Others didn’t respond when asked questions. At least one actually appeared to be asleep.
By the time psychology was over, it was 10:40, and my “lunch break” was beginning.
Usually, lunch at Wilbur Cross is a chaotic and glorious mess. Hundreds of students mill around the cafeteria and wait in line to get their food. Since many students rely on NHPS for two meals a day – New Haven schools provide free breakfast and lunch to all students – closures have been a serious disruption to the food security of many families. In response, New Haven is offering free meal pickup for students and their families at numerous locations throughout the city.
I made myself a sandwich and ate it alone, without anyone else to talk to.
My last class of the day was physics, which passed by fairly uneventfully. After an hour, it was over, and so was my first day back at school since early June.
“In One Ear And Directly Out The Other”
In writing this article, I was asked to explain how I felt about the first day of virtual learning this fall, as well as what I thought worked, and what I thought didn’t.
To be completely honest? I hated my first day. All told, I spent more than four hours staring at my computer screen. It was mentally exhausting, especially with none of the hustle and bustle of a normal school day to wake me up. I had a lot of trouble focusing, and I felt like almost everything I was taught went in one ear and directly out the other.
On the positive side, I really appreciated how much effort my teachers were putting in to try and make the lessons work, despite the challenging circumstances.
On the negative side, there are two key changes that I think NHPS should adopt immediately.
First, the start time. Last February, I wrote an opinion piece for the Independent calling for later high school start times. My argument was that the science clearly shows that young people, and especially teenagers, learn better when they wake up later.
In today’s unusual circumstances, the case for moving start times back is stronger than ever. With students learning from home, there are no transportation issues to work out. With fall sports canceled, there is no conflict with afternoon games and practices. Continuing to start online school at 7:30 a.m. each day is, in my view, a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad idea. Not a single high school student – or teacher – I have talked to has said they are happy about waking up that early to get online.
In April, when I surveyed roughly 100 NHPS students on how they felt about remote learning, most said that they didn’t like it, but it had one redeeming quality: They could wake up later. Now, by enforcing a 7:30 start time, the school district has taken that one benefit away.
In a recent Board of Alders hearing, the superintendent explained that the early start time is intended to keep students in their usual routine. But we need to recognize that we’re all out of our routines already and participating in a different kind of school. Navigating school online during a pandemic is difficult enough without the added challenge of a lack of sleep.
Second, classes should be shortened. Eighty minutes is simply too long to expect students to focus on an online lesson. Teachers should include intermittent breaks when students can get away from their screens, and should consider not using up the full block of class time.
Going back to school after the summer is something I’ve usually looked forward to. After months apart, catching up with friends I haven’t seen is always fun. After one day back, I can clearly say: Covid school is not the same.
Simon Bazelon is a senior at Wilbur Cross High School.
I am truly sorry this young mans experience was so negative.
I am very happy to say that both of my high school children were excited and happy with how their days went.
They have reconnected with friends and met new teachers who were extremely enthusiastic.
This is a little different for everyone but I am sure teachers will not lecture for the full one and half hours once you all are acclimated. This is the on set of a new year. and as time progresses there will be side chats ,texting etc as the youth adapt and persevere. I offer this young man the incite that there were be many many more college classes on line regardless of what fine institution he elects to attend so take this as an opportunity to get experience. GREAT job NHBOE in this revised version of distance learning.