Coronavirus, COVID-19, has been on the upsurge sadly taking  thousands of  lives and putting many at risk throughout the U.S, China, Italy, and around the world. This pandemic has become so problematic that schools, domestically and across the world, have been shutting down. Yet faculty working at high schools and colleges have been taking online measures to ensure education can still be accessible to students around the globe. By using platforms such as schoology, zoom, and more, teachers have been able to continue their lesson plans with minor nuances of course. 

At Bergen County Academies (BCA), both the faculty and the administration have been working tirelessly to provide students with lesson plans that are easily accessible, learnable, and enjoyable. To better understand the current dynamic of “online schooling,” an interview with two local BCA high school students was conducted with Lauren Kwak, an ACAHA junior and Julia Kim, an AVPA/V junior.

Academy Chronicle: What has the adjustment to “online school” been like for you? If there are any difficulties or concerns you have with this system, what suggestions would you make to shape this experience into something better?

Lauren Kwak began: “The adjustment to ‘online school’ has been going relatively smoothly. There are obviously things that I dislike about ‘online school.’ It sucks that I can’t get to see my friends in person, physically attend an extra-help session with a teacher, or spend time sitting by my lockers. But, there for sure are perks that come along with ‘online-schooling.’ First and foremost, I have been able to spend more time on pursuing the hobbies that I enjoy. Now that school is only ‘technically’ from 8:00 am to 12:30 pm, I have more leisure time to spend on painting and engaging in family pilates. Almost every single day, I am able to get in a long and peaceful paint session. Over the course of the last week or so, I have been able to create three paintings and hang them up around my house for display. Besides painting, my family and I have also been able to engage in pilates and collaborative yoga sessions. So, I’m pretty satisfied with the way ‘online school’ is going.”

Julia Kim stated: “The adjustment to ‘online school’ has been annoyingly tedious. I feel like the workload and the stress is significantly worse off now than it was before. I guess I do like the fact that school ends at 12:30 pm instead of 4:10 pm, but I genuinely feel more stressed out now than I did literally a week and a half ago. One benefit, however, that I have been able to reap from this ‘online schooling’ is the fact that I get to sleep more and spend more time with my family. It’s nice to head to bed at 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm and just get in a solid 10 or 11 hours of sleep. That’s the one factor that has been keeping me sane throughout this entire situation.”

Academy Chronicle: BCA has not really set a definite return date yet, so when do you think we will be able to go back to school and attend “physical” and not “online” classes?

“We’ll return to school after spring break or anywhere between mid-April to the end of April,” said Lauren. “I’m obviously not a health care specialist, so I have no idea when this coronavirus outbreak will simmer down, but I feel like the months of March and April are pretty much answered for already. The pandemic has spread too quickly, which means that it’s only a matter of time before the entirety of the state is affected by it. But, I won’t be surprised if Governor Murphy calls school off until May or June. The situation is pretty bad and I feel like it’s really important for people to stay at home, quarantined and safe from all of the contributing external factors.”

Julia Kim added: “School should most likely be in session again around mid-May or June. I highly doubt that we’ll go back to school anytime before that. For God’s sake, people are dying and the count of cases in Bergen County alone is skyrocketing every single day. This situation is sweeping lives by the minute. I don’t think it’s safe to just go about our days and go out in public again without any form of precaution. I, at least, am not willing to endanger my own life by going to a public place so soon. It obviously sucks because I do miss my friends and I do miss the atmosphere of just sitting and studying at BCA. But, life right now is just too dangerous. No one’s really safe and I feel like as long as we’re learning, we all should just get used to “online schooling.”

In the face of this outbreak, it is clear that the BCA community alone has mixed feelings about the newly-initiated “online schooling.” But, what’s settled once and for all is that students are willing to give this new form of learning a chance. It, for sure, has been difficult adjusting to the use of laptops and online resources for greater learning, but the BCA community—all of the students, faculty, and administration—has done an amazing job at providing ease and comfort to this situation. All that students can do is to hope for this pandemic to disappear or shrink before schooling at BCA starts up again.