Positive lessons learned in online school

While much was missed, Class of ’21 has a skill set that will serve them well

Distance learning is not what anyone wanted. Proms cancelled, seasons postponed, empty hallways and gymnasiums. None of your teachers want to be delivering lessons to a computer screen. Students want to interact with their friends, get in trouble in the hallways and cheer on their classmates on Friday nights. This year of online schooling has been far from perfect, but maybe it hasn’t been all bad.

While all of our learning objectives and outcomes haven’t been met and some students are undoubtedly falling behind from a curriculum standpoint, have we stopped to think about where growth has occurred? The vast majority of our high school students are ready to contribute in a 21st century business world in ways schools have not prepared them before. The skills they have honed from a virtual school year will stay with them for the rest of their working lives.

A generation of students who have been mocked for their text lingo and TikTok dances has learned how to adapt and communicate effectively through email, messages and

Zoom chats. Communicating daily with teachers and counselors, students have mastered Zoom and learned the value of making sure you are on mute. It is time we face the reality of our future and recognize the days of going to an office building and sitting next to your co-workers in a poorly lit open cubicle concept may very well be over, and these students are ready to succeed in the next generation’s workplace.

They know better than most of us that everything you do on the internet is there forever, and they are conscious of that in their Zoom classes or Google meets. They are learning how to manage their time and to meet deadlines in ways other students have never experienced. They have learned the value of sending a professional email to an authority figure and have worked with people who are flexible and those who are set in their ways, much like in the workplace.

Students have been met with connectivity and technology issues like never before, but they continue to work through them and all seem to be their own IT support team. These students will come out on the other side of this pandemic more prepared and with the necessary communication skills to succeed in college and the business world. They have had a high school experience unlike any in the history of our country, and they may very well be better off for it.

There is no doubt that the losses students are sustaining in elementary through middle school and into high school will impact schools and academics for years to come, but let’s not forget that we are not alone in facing these problems. School districts, teachers and educators are already working to find solutions to the problems that will occur over the next several years, but let’s also take pause and reflect on the non-traditional successes we have had, and let’s realize where growth has occurred.

My hat is off to the class of 2021, their perseverance, adaptability and their fight.