Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, everyone is experiencing stressful situations they’ve never encountered before. Our current lives are full of uncertainty about when social distancing will no longer be necessary and when businesses and organizations will reopen and be able to operate as usual. News outlets are flooded with panic-inducing updates and speculations, so it’s easy to feel like our lives may never go back to normal.
Yet, many individuals are still expected to continue with nearly the same amount of school and occupational work that they were responsible for before the widespread of the novel coronavirus. Aside from having to cope with the insurmountable stress of the world’s chaotic state, everyone’s current living situation comes with its own additional stressors.
Many people worry about the health of their family and themselves, their financial stability, acquiring enough food and house supplies and treating their physical and mental health problems that may be amplified by the pandemic. Others might not reside in healthy living environments and live in constant fear and heightened stress with no chance of escaping during this quarantine.
Although many bosses, teachers and advisers have realistically decreased their workload to be manageable during this stressful time, not everyone has followed suit. Some authoritative figures are struggling to understand that their students and employees likely face some form of adversity that makes it harder for them to perform as they normally would. Because of this, individuals are finding themselves overwhelmed with nonessential responsibilities.
As schools across the nation move to online platforms, students aren’t receiving nearly as much guidance and resources as they did in person. This lack of in-person resources creates problems when their workload remains the same as before classes went online. Especially with public schools in low-income areas, a lot of students and faculty have less experience with and access to technology, so teachers are unable to stream their lessons for students to learn face-to-face. Instead, students are left to teach themselves through assigned readings which can’t compare to the effectiveness of a teacher’s verbal instruction.
Most college students chose their school for their academic resources, which have since been altered drastically during the pandemic. Perhaps they chose a college for the lecture classes, labs or teacher-to-student ratio since they felt they would learn best in these environments. Every student has their preferred method of learning, but now they are all forced to complete their courses using the limited methods of remote learning. Some students will be unable to adequately learn online without the structure of in-person classes.
Of course, it’s not the institution’s fault for these changes, but they should aim to alleviate their students and faculty of all nonessential responsibilities if they can help it. We want students to continue to learn during this hard time and engaging in coursework can function as a much-needed distraction from the current epidemic. Teachers and professors, however, should significantly lighten the workload so their students have more time and energy to maintain good physical and mental health.
It might seem like students have nothing better to do since everyone is stuck at home, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we’re all just lounging around and being unproductive. Many students still have to work, take care of family members and take care of their own health. Besides, in such uncertain times, it’s hard to find the motivation to complete coursework when we are unsure where we will be in a month or two, let alone where we will be next semester.
Everyone is living their lives one day at a time, so unfortunately term papers and online exams seem unimportant. Teachers, you can offer a surplus of learning opportunities, but please shrink your course load. This is a peculiar situation like no other and we all should be dedicating our energy to staying safe and healthy. Education can wait, survival cannot.