Why Kids Should Never Have School Online Again

The last two years were truly an emotional roller coaster for all of us. We went through many lockdowns and restrictions caused by Covid-19 Pandemic, which led to not seeing our family and friends for months at a time. Our government introduced an online schooling system which let’s face it had a lot of flows. Online schooling mandated children to be stuck in front of screens for hours and hours a day causing a lack of interpersonal communication skills, bad posture, problems with sleep, and many other mental health issues. Even sports and camps were canceled keeping us kids locked up and keeping our interpersonal skills and muscles from developing. All of this caused children around the world anxiety and feeling more socially isolated. Even though there are some positives about covid lockdowns, one thing I know for sure is that I never ever want anyone to go back to online schooling, and here are the reasons why. 

First of all, when online schooling was announced every kid on the planet was rejoicing because they didn’t have to go to school and because of all the time they were going to spend on screens. However, after about 3 weeks the reality hit, and it hit hard. Children noticed that sitting for hours and hours on the computers caused dry eyes and bad posture from sitting slouched and led to trouble sleeping. Doctors from medical foundations like Sutter East Bay announced and warned that spending too much time on screens stops your brain from producing melatonin which is a chemical that makes you happy. This makes it difficult for many people to turn off their brains and fall asleep. The new online schooling system made it hard for kids to concentrate as they were learning from home and their room brought a lot of distractions. Many kids didn’t have access to an internet connection, technology, or books. Some kids shared their room with siblings which caused a lot of privacy concerns. I can also imagine how much harder it was for the parents and teachers to work from home. Parents had to reorganize their working hours to help kids. Teachers had a lot of problems teaching from home as well. For thousands of years, teachers stood in front of a blackboard and taught subjects in one specific way. All of a sudden teachers had to use new technology and work from home with their kids around needing help or their dogs barking. After 3 weeks the dream became a nightmare for all of us. This continued for the next 6 months which led to a lot of stress and anxiety, which brings me to my second point.

 

In March 2020, when the pandemic hit, governments around the world had to take strict changes to contain the further spread of the Covid-19 virus. One of the hardest decisions was probably closing schools. It is interesting to observe that not all countries closed schools, for example, kids in Sweden didn’t miss even one day of school and they stayed in schools and played all the sports throughout the Pandemic. At this time specialists still don’t know what the impact will be on the kids down the road, however, there are many studies that have been done like the one I read from the Sick Kids Hospital in Toronto. This study was done on over 1,000 parents of children aged 2-18 years old. 70 percent of them reported a worsening state of their kids in some aspects of their mental health. Greater stress from social isolation including both the cancelation of important events at schools and homes like birthdays, Christmas, or other holidays. Staying home and doing online schooling also led to the loss of interpersonal social interactions which caused 1 of many mental health aspects like depression, anxiety, irritability, attention span, hyperactivity, or obsession. In Conclusion, doctors from Sick Kids Hospital and many other Medical Associations recommend that it is very important to keep schools open safely and maintain sports activities to protect children’s mental health and well-being.

I guess, there were some good things, that came out of Covid lockdowns. For some time, there was less pollution due to fewer cars and planes being used. Also, factories were closed giving the planet and people a break. We spent more time with our family at home. We played more board games and went for walks. Lots of people picked up new hobbies and started doing sports at home. And we for sure learned a lot of new tricks on zoom, Google classroom, and manage back. But I am sure that these still do not outbalance the damage it did to our education and kids’ mental health.

Last but certainly not least online schooling harm our interpersonal communication. What is ‘interpersonal communication’ one might ask? It is basically a type of communication like talking to friends or to teachers about work, working out conflicts, and talking to your family about problems at school. In the past 4,000 years, the purpose of schools was to bring kids together are the same age and to teach them important things like reading or counting. The classroom is where our fun school memories come from. Before the Covid lockdowns, every day at school we shared funny jokes which were followed by the whole class bursting out with laughter. We got to play soccer together at recess. I got to share cookies I baked for everyone. We could exchange ideas and work in teams. However, during online schooling we could never walk up to the teacher and discreetly ask a question like “Miss, I don’t understand this math problem” or “What does this word mean?”. We also missed out on nonverbal communication. What is nonverbal communication you ask? It’s laughing, smiling, crying, hugging, joking, high-fiving, and sometimes even jokingly punching and the best part is we got to talk to each other whenever we wanted. It is also reading someone’s facial expression and knowing how they feel or what they are going through. With online schooling, we only saw screens and the teacher. We could not see or interact with our friends. And I am sure every kid would say this too, but we did not make any lasting fun memories.

Friends, do you remember the last school year when you were waiting anxiously for the teachers to figure out their tech problems or the glitching? Or having a hard time seeing the teacher face to face if you were having problems with your homework? Or the other time when you pretended your camera wasn’t working so you don’t have to show your face? Or the time when the teacher asked you to answer a question from your homework, but you lied saying your file was erased? Or the time when the whole family moved into your room while you were telling the teacher a story? Those are the things that I remember from online schooling last year. Some were funny, but most were not great. I know we all tried to make the best out of this horrible situation, and I know that the teachers should get the most credit out of all of us. I know there are many different opinions on the topic of online schooling, so I presented my opinion. I want to be here with you, my friends, in person. I want to play games at recess. I want to be able to cut squid in the science club. I want to share snacks and talk to you during lunch. I want to see you laugh, smile, and cry and not hide behind the screen. Here… together… in school. Because school is cool.

Author: Benus Rewkowski
Age 11, year 2021