AB Students in Quarantine
BY JASMINE WU '22 & KIRTANA KRISHNAKUMAR '20
The pages in front of me are blank; scribbled words melt into the rhythmic clacking of keys. Time melds together, drifting between night and day and hours and days and weeks. However for others, every moment matters: someone somewhere doesn’t feel the faint bluish glow of a screen on their face; someone somewhere is distressed, thinking about a sick loved one, or fearing for their own immunocompromised life; someone somewhere is risking their health to serve our society.
For students at Acton-Boxborough, highschool life has been resigned to a simple quarantine. We’ve mostly dodged the bullet of the coronavirus, instead finding ourselves with empty days at home and a diluted version of school. Perhaps some activities have shifted to an online setting, but for the most part, large blocks of time remain unfilled.
With this new free time, surveyed highschoolers note that they’ve tried to stay busy with things they enjoy, finally turning to their hobbies or doing activities they rarely had time for during school. Whether that’s catching up on sleep, picking up a new skill, embarking upon a fitness glow-up, cooking up a decadent meal, or binging shows on Netflix, most students have certainly found something to do.
Another vital activity includes social interaction. A majority of students wish for their friends, seeking a companion to laugh and spend time with. While video calls and Facetime have replaced that interaction, the impression isn’t quite the same, especially for those who “really enjoy… [the] social aspect” of school, as a student mentions in the survey. This is the biggest negative for many: as one student aptly puts it, they “miss the homies.” Missing their friends’ physical presence, many have lost a sense of companionship and find it harder to socialize.
Aside from time spent with friends, in the past, schoolwork would have typically captured students’ attention. Distance learning, however, proves to be far different from normal school as it has simplified a six hour school day plus additional homework to supposedly two hours a day. While some students find this adaptation structure-less and even “boring and repetitive,” others see it as a simple alternative to a grueling school day and don’t mind its mild nature. They’re just glad “to be safe and healthy right now.”
For some students, on the other hand, grades are important, and they wish for clarity about such a stressful topic during the pandemic. Still, many understand that the district has been struggling to provide certainty and recognize that it’s simply “out of [the school’s] control.” At the time of these surveys, the administration had not yet decided on a grading system, but recently, after receiving input from students and parents, the school decided that terms three and four will be graded on a pass/fail basis.
Pass/fail courses bring into question student motivation and their ability to promote their own learning. Students have found that they “[thrive] best with a plan or at the very least a routine” and lack motivation without that structure. Juniors, who have the added pressure of upcoming college applications, realize that the pass/fail system prevents them from raising their yearly grades, producing some apprehension. To compensate, many took the extra effort to study for their AP tests, something that continued to drive them during distance learning. Certainly, they have faith that colleges will be understanding of their unique circumstances.
For seniors who have finally ended their battles with college admissions, a new obstacle has emerged: college reopenings. Many feel that a first semester online is not a semester worth paying for, and they grapple with the decision to defer their college acceptances. Since many universities have only released vague information about opening, seniors feel that they remain in limbo. Senior year typically ends on a positive note by giving students some certainty about their futures, but the Class of 2020 lost that as well. Along with this, disappointments lie in major event cancellations including sports seasons, club activities, prom, and graduation. Having that final sports season or club tournament cancelled is “devastat[ing]” given the anticipation leading up to them. Further, graduation, especially, is a treasured, memorable event, and to lose that final moment of unity is incredibly upsetting. Despite this, seniors are incredibly grateful for the efforts taken by the administration and Project Graduation to arrange the Rolling Rally and virtual events for now. While they hope to have a proper in-person graduation in the future, they greatly appreciate the events organized to honor seniors.
COVID-19 has largely thrown students’ usual lives into a strange in-between, introducing them to a situation unlike their usual day-to-day lives. We are disconnected from school, a center for social interactions, as well as the chaotic world around us, currently facing the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. For AB students, we have remained relatively sheltered, resigned to normal daily activity at home. Many are “more afraid of [their] school li[ves] [or] grades than [their] actual health,” but still acknowledge that “[p]eople are dying” and other harsh realities. This unforgettable moment encompasses some “hard times,” but for privileged students not directly affected by the virus, they’re just unusual times.
Similarly, the pandemic has exposed multiple inequities in the system. School acted to counter these differences; its rigidity and structure brings students to a level playing field where home lives are less significant. In the end, high school unites us as learners, and many students “miss the consistency that school provided.” In quarantine, students are in their own worlds, with their own realities and private lives, facing stresses that they may have otherwise used school to escape such as financial situations or unhealthy relationships. Faces on a screen are unable to bind people together in the same way that physical presence did.
Without structure, students lack motivation, encountering a sense of short-term apathy when left with free time. This boredom and monotony allows them to realize how much the stressful and social aspects of school shape their lives: it fills the time. Once it’s gone, students must find their own activities or projects. In the past, when days were filled with school and constant anxiety of assessments, we surrendered the opportunity for self-exploration, confined to school’s rigid schedule and structure. While this structure aids us in productivity, our newfound freedom allows us to reflect on who we might become in the world.
This experience has replaced pre-pandemic school as we’ve traded normalcy for this defining experience. It’s surreal and sudden, but absolutely a notable moment in all of our lives. Of course, we have a natural anxiety for what we’re losing, for what we expected to happen, but life has adapted. Always, change is inevitable, and as always, we adapt.
For students at Acton-Boxborough, highschool life has been resigned to a simple quarantine. We’ve mostly dodged the bullet of the coronavirus, instead finding ourselves with empty days at home and a diluted version of school. Perhaps some activities have shifted to an online setting, but for the most part, large blocks of time remain unfilled.
With this new free time, surveyed highschoolers note that they’ve tried to stay busy with things they enjoy, finally turning to their hobbies or doing activities they rarely had time for during school. Whether that’s catching up on sleep, picking up a new skill, embarking upon a fitness glow-up, cooking up a decadent meal, or binging shows on Netflix, most students have certainly found something to do.
Another vital activity includes social interaction. A majority of students wish for their friends, seeking a companion to laugh and spend time with. While video calls and Facetime have replaced that interaction, the impression isn’t quite the same, especially for those who “really enjoy… [the] social aspect” of school, as a student mentions in the survey. This is the biggest negative for many: as one student aptly puts it, they “miss the homies.” Missing their friends’ physical presence, many have lost a sense of companionship and find it harder to socialize.
Aside from time spent with friends, in the past, schoolwork would have typically captured students’ attention. Distance learning, however, proves to be far different from normal school as it has simplified a six hour school day plus additional homework to supposedly two hours a day. While some students find this adaptation structure-less and even “boring and repetitive,” others see it as a simple alternative to a grueling school day and don’t mind its mild nature. They’re just glad “to be safe and healthy right now.”
For some students, on the other hand, grades are important, and they wish for clarity about such a stressful topic during the pandemic. Still, many understand that the district has been struggling to provide certainty and recognize that it’s simply “out of [the school’s] control.” At the time of these surveys, the administration had not yet decided on a grading system, but recently, after receiving input from students and parents, the school decided that terms three and four will be graded on a pass/fail basis.
Pass/fail courses bring into question student motivation and their ability to promote their own learning. Students have found that they “[thrive] best with a plan or at the very least a routine” and lack motivation without that structure. Juniors, who have the added pressure of upcoming college applications, realize that the pass/fail system prevents them from raising their yearly grades, producing some apprehension. To compensate, many took the extra effort to study for their AP tests, something that continued to drive them during distance learning. Certainly, they have faith that colleges will be understanding of their unique circumstances.
For seniors who have finally ended their battles with college admissions, a new obstacle has emerged: college reopenings. Many feel that a first semester online is not a semester worth paying for, and they grapple with the decision to defer their college acceptances. Since many universities have only released vague information about opening, seniors feel that they remain in limbo. Senior year typically ends on a positive note by giving students some certainty about their futures, but the Class of 2020 lost that as well. Along with this, disappointments lie in major event cancellations including sports seasons, club activities, prom, and graduation. Having that final sports season or club tournament cancelled is “devastat[ing]” given the anticipation leading up to them. Further, graduation, especially, is a treasured, memorable event, and to lose that final moment of unity is incredibly upsetting. Despite this, seniors are incredibly grateful for the efforts taken by the administration and Project Graduation to arrange the Rolling Rally and virtual events for now. While they hope to have a proper in-person graduation in the future, they greatly appreciate the events organized to honor seniors.
COVID-19 has largely thrown students’ usual lives into a strange in-between, introducing them to a situation unlike their usual day-to-day lives. We are disconnected from school, a center for social interactions, as well as the chaotic world around us, currently facing the ramifications of the COVID-19 pandemic. For AB students, we have remained relatively sheltered, resigned to normal daily activity at home. Many are “more afraid of [their] school li[ves] [or] grades than [their] actual health,” but still acknowledge that “[p]eople are dying” and other harsh realities. This unforgettable moment encompasses some “hard times,” but for privileged students not directly affected by the virus, they’re just unusual times.
Similarly, the pandemic has exposed multiple inequities in the system. School acted to counter these differences; its rigidity and structure brings students to a level playing field where home lives are less significant. In the end, high school unites us as learners, and many students “miss the consistency that school provided.” In quarantine, students are in their own worlds, with their own realities and private lives, facing stresses that they may have otherwise used school to escape such as financial situations or unhealthy relationships. Faces on a screen are unable to bind people together in the same way that physical presence did.
Without structure, students lack motivation, encountering a sense of short-term apathy when left with free time. This boredom and monotony allows them to realize how much the stressful and social aspects of school shape their lives: it fills the time. Once it’s gone, students must find their own activities or projects. In the past, when days were filled with school and constant anxiety of assessments, we surrendered the opportunity for self-exploration, confined to school’s rigid schedule and structure. While this structure aids us in productivity, our newfound freedom allows us to reflect on who we might become in the world.
This experience has replaced pre-pandemic school as we’ve traded normalcy for this defining experience. It’s surreal and sudden, but absolutely a notable moment in all of our lives. Of course, we have a natural anxiety for what we’re losing, for what we expected to happen, but life has adapted. Always, change is inevitable, and as always, we adapt.