What Just Happened?: The Effects Sudden Remote Learning Has Had on Students
These last two years of the pandemic have been unprecedented. Across the globe, our ways of life met new issues and obstacles. From seeing everyone in masks to hand sanitizer inside the doors of businesses, the pandemic has created rapid change in the daily operations of society. One of the places most affected by these changes is the school system.
The beginning of the pandemic saw education and learning practices uprooted from the school building and replanted at home. Many adults found themselves having trouble acclimating to their new work atmosphere and that same difficulty was felt by children across the country as well. As schools went to a remote learning system, all students had to adapt swiftly or quickly fall behind in their studies. As a teacher’s aide who saw the wide range of responses to this change in real-time, it was evident that this event would change some students’ growth and trajectory for years to come.
At the beginning of quarantine, it was extremely difficult to know what was expected of me during this transition to home. My task as an aide was to guide and support my students in ways that were similarly effective to the classroom setting. Yet, as teachers noticed, it quickly became clear that it was going to be an uphill battle to obtain completed work from some students. Many students started falling behind at an aggressive rate. Not only was it hard for educators; it was equally, if not more, difficult for the students to have a full grasp on what was expected of them during this time. Unfortunately, many students had to become even more used to this remote style of learning for much of the next school year.
As students had to endure more of their new reality of learning from home, I watched them begin to grow more desperate for normality. They started adapting to this new normal to survive. While this was helpful in the short term, it caused some serious repercussions when students went back to school in person. It quickly became apparent that students were facing severe challenges coming back into school and being in the classroom for their usual seven to eight hours a day. They had been away from this safe and known atmosphere for so long it created difficulties daily.
A major difficulty has included the reintroduction of stressors, be they academic, emotional, mental, or relational. Many students experienced the inner struggle of relearning what others—teachers and students—expect of them. Unsurprisingly, this brought about confusion and anxiety.
In my work as a counselor, I have also seen an increase in clients dealing with the stresses of getting back to this familiar life. It’s possible to both long for it and not be fully prepared to face it.
When I think of growth and learning in a school or work setting, I can’t help but see the parallel to our spiritual life. There are times that we encounter extreme abnormalities in our typical routines. This can lead to attempts to adapt to these changes by focusing on our own devices and changing up those typical routines. Eventually, we must get back to our “old normal” of focusing on our relationship with Christ and the comfort of a more known, reliable routine.
As believers, our lives revolve around the idea that we have a basic understanding and form of communication with Christ. The hope is to grow in this daily, but when we are not focused on spending time with Him, that communication becomes insufficient. It is important to focus once again on growing in the right direction. Communication with Christ and understanding His will is what we need to do this. Three main practices create the ability to do this: spending intimate time in prayer, concentrating on scripture, and seeking the advice of wise counsel in our lives. Focusing on these three behaviors helps recreate our “old normal” once again.
As we continue to live through this unprecedented time, we don’t know what long-term effects could be waiting. One thing we do know, as believers, is that even in our unknown, God has no questions or wonders. He knows that we are His and our struggles and obstacles are His. Knowing that can give us the faith and comfort to walk through the difficulties with confidence that everything will work out how He wants.