The 2020-21 school year has been rough for everyone. Our school system abruptly closed down in march for a two week break, before closing down all together. Computers were to be collected at schools, to do some school work. Mcas was canceled. Things made sense. Summer came, and left, and the new school year started back up again, fully remote. Although these classes have more structure than back in May, even being halfway through the year already, it still takes some adjustment to this new way of learning. Not many students seem to be learning to their full potential, and this brings up the question on whether or not we should resume in person learning anytime soon?

The easy answer would be; simply no. It’s safer at home. Too many students in a building at once during a global pandemic is a recipe for disaster. But, the easy answer isn’t always the right answer. I mean, you have many things to be taken into consideration. Like the pros and cons of your choices. I decided to conduct a quick poll on my instagram of nearly 500 followers, to see if I could get what some of them thought. I right away figured that majority of the poll takers would choose to stay home. I mean, it’s easier to get away with laying in bed, playing video games all day and eating whenever they want. It’s the easiest way to slack off. But, they’re was a part of me that was hoping that the poll takers would try and consider things other than being lazy at home. I was hoping they would consider how they were doing in school in february 2020, versus now. After revisiting the poll 20 hours after posting it, the results were in. I was wrong, majority voted that they would rather go back to school. 60% voted yes to going back, while 40% voted no. I was actually super shocked, so I had a follow up question. I asked the people to say what they voted, and why they voted. I got a mass amount of responses, and to my surprise, these answers were very educated and passionate about what they were talking about. ¨Teachers don’t communicate well and online is much worse quality education than in school.¨ Said a student that voted yes. ¨I answered yes because I need the in person support and my iep doesn’t offer that through online.” Answered another student. ¨Mater Delorosa and Blessed Sacrament schools in holyoke are in person!! If MD and BS can go back why can’t we!!¨ Someone wrote. That’s actually something I had no idea about, and it brings up thinking about private and charter schools in our area that are holding in person classes. ¨Yes because it is affecting a huge amount of students mentally, without in-person instruction, the suicide rate has gone up drastically, as well as the abuse rate.¨ Said another passionate student. Out of the people that answered no, I only got a couple of written explanations. ¨I live with high risk family members, and i´d probably fail harder without the help of google. ¨ Wrote the first student. ¨People are not following the regulations already, imagine is we were fully in person!” A student from the dean campus wrote. Dean is kind of in a hybrid schooling state right now, so it’s great to get some opinions from people who are kind of going to school in person. 

After looking at my collected data, I wrote a quick poll about the COVID vaccine. ¨When it’s available to you, do you want to take it?¨57% said yes, while 43% no. I did have a follow up question, but only one person had a written response for what they answered. ¨When the Spanish flu broke out it took years to get a vaccine and every other virus has too, even the H1N1, which was around the time Obama was elected i believe, they came up with this vaccine far to quickly and I don’t think it will work very well lol.¨ They said. So obviously this person voted ¨no¨ and I wish I got an opinion from a ¨yes¨ voter. 

This was very interesting to see what kids around my age think about the things in our world that are constantly changing. I hope these young people will continue to advocate for what they believe in, and stay involved and educated in the world around them.