By: By Jimmy Khuc & Han Pham & Nicholas Wong, staff writers
Many high schools and high school students around the country have just completed or are close to completing their first virtual learning semester. While many students urge and want to return back to in-person school for reasons such as seeing friends or just going out again, there are also students who wish to return because they feel as virtual learning affects their dedication to school negatively. However, I feel the complete opposite as I believe that virtual learning has boosted my school performance and overall dedication to school.
In my opinion, virtual learning is easier to maintain and has even boosted my school performance. Before online school, I didn’t believe that the school system was efficient nor was it flexible for a student to attend to their personal needs such as eating meals etc. I used to have to bus to school which took around 30-40 minutes depending on traffic, and I had to shower and get ready for school which took around 20 minutes. This gave me a ten minute window to cook and eat my food which isn’t ideal in the slightest thus I normally skipped breakfast.
Now that online school is in place, I have more time to cook and eat my breakfast or lunch, and I feel more focused during classes which led to my improvement in organizing and completing my work.
My classes feel less repetitive, students used to have specific classes for an hour to two hours 4 times a week. This made me despise school as most days had 6 subjects crammed together which really drained out my mental state. However now, we now have a day between each specific class which allowed me to focus on certain subjects more as I didn’t have to worry about others.
I have more personal freedom and comfort while in online school. When teachers now assign work, they allow me to work on my own time which also allows me to work at my own pace and decide when to take a break and when to study. More personal freedom allows me to tailor my study hours around my schedule and allows me to work at my own pace.
However, the most important benefit that I have gained from online classes is my self-discipline. As I am in my home environment which before used to push my mindset into relax mode and was a getaway from school. Now I have to remind myself what times do my classes start as there is no bell nor anyone to remind me, and I have to push myself to complete my schoolwork and pay attention during class as it is so easy for me to just sit on my phone or flat out ditch class. I’ve been able to push myself as I am not in a school environment which meant that no one was telling me to stay on track; I myself am responsible for my school priorities which meant I had to constantly remind myself to remember each class by writing down the schedule of the week and what I needed to complete for each class.
Though I wish that I can return back to normal school because it’s my last year in high school, I feel that virtual learning has greatly improved my performance in school and my self-discipline for the future.
