Man on the street: CCHS students express opinions on new e-learning during COVID-19 pandemic

BY EMMA HUERTA

Saying that times are strange now is an understatement. Schools are closing, economies are suffering and local and national governments are in utter panic due to the coronavirus pandemic. The many changes have impacted the lives of people everywhere, including CCHS students as Broward County Public Schools (BCPS) has officially transitioned to ‘e-learning’ until the end of the 2019-2020 school year. We asked some CCHS students about their thoughts on the new instructional system.

Justin Ryan

“Basically, I feel like I’m given so much more work [with e-learning] and I’m way more stressed out than before,” senior Justin Ryan said. “It makes the ending of my senior year worse than it already is.”

Victoria Chacon

“I feel like teachers are giving out too much work. In school, I can say that I never had this many assignments. Most of them are time-consuming; it’s hard to manage all my assignments and get them done when they need to be,” junior Victoria Chacon said. “I understand we have ‘nothing better to do’ because we won’t be going anywhere, but absolutely no one wants to spend their whole day doing school. We are still teenagers—not to mention that [there are] students who still have to work, who might be working 30+ hours. It’s not fair to them.”

Christopher Berry

“Online school sucks for the pure fact that most of my teachers are assigning 5+ hours of work,” junior Christopher Berry said. “I like working at my own pace, but it feels like I’m spending most of my weekdays and weekends just doing school work.”

Kyle Georgianna

“I think that online school is a necessity; obviously, eliminating school for the rest of the year isn’t an option,” junior Kyle Georgianna said. “But the transition hasn’t been the easiest because of outside factors, and I’m finding that myself and peers are struggling to complete assignments that wouldn’t be an issue within school.”

Adam Hartmann

“I think that online school isn’t much different from actual school [in] many cases,” junior Adam Hartmann said. “For example, [in] English you are still reading just…now you are doing it at home. The teachers are doing the best [they] can and most of the teachers are communicating well. I just don’t think the students were prepared for it, and obviously not the teachers either.”

Summer Testa

“I have never had that many assignments in one week in all my years of high school…  Not only is it a large workload but given the circumstances, I feel that schoolwork should be lenient regardless,” junior Summer Testa said. “People are dying, incomes are being cut in half and some students have to work extra jobs now and become babysitters for their siblings because of this worldwide pandemic. Work, safety, health and family should be a priority right now, not writing a DBQ.”

Tatum Anchell

“Although I was afraid of the transition to online learning at first, I feel like at this point I have adjusted to the new normal,” sophomore Tatum Mitchell said. “Even though there are many pros and cons to this situation, I feel like I am doing well at adapting and making the best out of the circumstances.”

Grace Jenkins

“I enjoy the freedom of working at my own pace and being able to work on select assignments at a time,” freshman Grace Jenkins said. “However, it can be stressful at times when you have 20 assignments all due on the same day.”

As they’re still adjusting to the new system, CCHS students have varying opinions on the new remote education they’re now being given digitally. Although it is not the most ideal instructional situation, most students understand these necessary circumstances in light of the COVID-19 outbreak. However, many also feel overwhelmed by the massive amounts of work they have to spend their days completing despite the crisis at hand.

Photo by The Lariat Photography