Distant Learning: Why Are So Many Students Struggling?

Ever since news broke about an outbreak of the Coronavirus in the United States, students have joked about closing schools. However, now that schools are finally closed, it seems like all students are more stressed than ever.

For many, school was a place of escape, myself included. Many students have trouble focusing at home, whether it be because of parents, pets, or just being at home. For some kids, school lunch might have been their only meal.

It’s undeniable that students need to continue learning during this time, but the way that students are being taught seems unproductive. My workload per week has seemingly increased for all my classes, which is unfair considering I have eight classes that I have to complete work for. The due dates for a lot of assignments have also changed. Many assignments that would have originally been due at 11:59 pm are now due at 3 pm. This extended period of staying at home has undoubtedly messed up a lot of student’s sleep schedules, meaning they stay up later and sleep in later, meaning that they have less time to do their work. This is especially harmful when teachers post work on the day that it’s due, and it’s due by 3 pm, which is both much harder for students to complete on time and unrealistic to the schedule we used to have.

In order to fix these issues with distant learning, I believe that there should be a change in the schedule. The week should consist of four classes instead of 8, and every week the classes alternate. One week you would have assignments for your regular A day classes, and then the next week for your B day classes. Each week, one assignment would be posted for the day, due at 11:59 pm, giving students the whole day to work on just four assignments. Teachers, if they decide to do Google Meet classes, should have to do them after 12 am, giving students with messed up sleep schedules time to wake up and get ready for class. There should be little to no homework, or the homework should be to complete work they may have missed. This would give students time to destress and recuperate for the next week.

If we have to do distant learning, it should be done this way for the sake of the mental health of the students.