Illustration By Marty Loftin / Staff
A PERSPECTIVE
BY MARTY LOFTIN
In the midst of a global pandemic, the value of education becomes illusionary. It is difficult, if not impossible, for many students to focus on studies meant to better their future when the present is so bleak. It is not fair for schools and colleges to expect students to adapt to distance learning.
Southwestern College President Kindred Murillo said about 1,000 students dropped 4,300 units so far, though it will take time to compare COVID-19-related dropped classes to the drop rate of previous semesters.
“What we’re going to do is compare that to our normal drop rate mid semester,” Murillo said.
Instead of forcing students to either drop or suffer through the rest of the academic year with a poor substitute, the academic year should be scrapped. Students who feel they cannot focus on their studies should be allowed to take time off of school and spend time with their loved ones without staining their transcript with a W.
Education is not just learning facts and regurgitating them. Many of the ways instructors evaluate how well their pupils understand course material are less effective or practically insubstantial when attempted online. It is also unquestionably easier for students to cheat when all they have to do is open a new tab. If students are to get something valuable out of their classes, a rushed facsimile should be discouraged.
Instead, both students and instructors should use this time to ponder the entire purpose of an education system that is forcing students to accept such an inferior product. Does asking students to continue through this ongoing tragedy really have their best interest at heart?
18.2 million students in the United States attended college in Fall 2019, which includes 5.3 million enrolled in public 2-year colleges like Southwestern, according to EducationData.org, a website for sharing information and stats on the U.S. education system.
For many of these students, education is tied to a specific routine. It may involve waking up at a certain time, eating, going to classes in a certain order, studying and then going home to relax. This routine, however individualistic, puts a person into a learning mindset and makes them a willing vessel for their instructors to fill with knowledge. The disruption caused by COVID-19 to one’s psyche has not even begun to be measured adequately and it is possible a whole generation of people will come out of quarantine mentally scarred.
Some people can adapt to the digital transition of their classes, but online courses are fraught with issues.
In Los Angeles, about 15,000 students have been absent from their online classes and have not turned in any work since the pandemic forced campuses to close on March 16, according to an LA Times article by Howard Blume and Sonali Kohli. Furthermore, 40,000 students have not been in daily contact with their instructors.
While the Los Angeles Unified School District distributed thousands of computers to students and signed a contract with Verizon to give students internet access through individual hotspots, instructors are still struggling to connect with their students.
Many find it next to impossible trying to study at home, and home may be an even worse place to do online school work with entire families sheltering-in-place. A large household makes a lot of noise and strains the internet bandwidth. Normally, weary students can study at school, a library, cafe or park. Those are now all closed.
Poor students can struggle in online classes, especially if they or their families lose their jobs or are furloughed. More than 10 million people have filed unemployment claims in the course of 3 weeks because of the pandemic.
Students struggle to get through their studies with just a single disaster going on, how can they focus with a looming economic crisis?
Right now, the most vulnerable people in the country have lost some of the most important resources available to them. Many students received meals from their learning institutions, be it through school lunch vouchers or meal plans at their cafeterias.
It is unfair to ask students to engage with academia when it is so unclear if students can even have their basic needs met during this crisis.
COVID-19 became a worldwide phenomenon due to its subtlety. Because of the long period of time before symptoms appear, everyone now lives with a ticking time-bomb that resets every week or so a person spends in good health. It’s so easy to become paranoid now. Everyone you see on the street or even every person who leaves your home could be going out and bringing the virus back.
This atmosphere of fear is not a conducive learning environment. Students should be given a break. Educators should spend their time retooling their courses so that students who wish to continue their studies in the fall will have a course designed for distance learning.
This is of course assuming that society does not completely collapse by then.
This novel strain of coronavirus will very likely burn itself out before it can also take the human species with it. Still, the outbreak has revealed significant structural flaws in modern civilization, especially in our education system.
In the meantime, maybe people should take a breather and stop worrying so much about work (both school and job related) and instead spend some quality time with their families. Now that everything has slowed down, it is a good opportunity to try new things. Everyone seems to be trying to figure out how to bake. Maybe a brownie or five will make the present a little less bleak.
