Tuesday: I interview The Kid, a 7th-grade Brooklyn public school student in a K-8 school, about how CoronaWorld has altered her semester. I edited our 20-minute talk for clarity.
Me: What has the mid-year switch to online learning been like for you?
The Kid: I was surprised at how much I rely on other people. Because if you're doing a long-term project and somebody's like, “It took me three hours,” then, okay, I can allot three hours. Or if they haven’t started, then I know I’m probably okay because this person tends to do well in school. If they’ve started already then I should get cracking. And I don't have that anymore. So I feel sort of adrift and left to manage it all myself. It was a little scary at first, but I'm learning to manage it better.
Me: Why not reach out to those same people online? Can’t you manage that problem technologically?
Kid: I could, that’s true. But especially with people I'm not close with, it feels awkward to be texting those sorts of things. If we're in the same room seven hours a day or whatever, then you can just talk randomly about whatever. But texting feels more important to me. Like I will say like the weirdest, craziest, most random observations with my friends in real life. But then it feels weirder to text that. I don't know why.
Me: Texting seems more formal?
Kid: Yeah. Even if it's with my friends, it feels like something has to be of importance to text it.
Me: What’s it been like to do school work online?
Kid: Teachers have approached it quite differently. My math class has been very strict. The two teachers decided to make it very structured, to keep it more like what would happen if we were in actual school. They structure time according to the schedule we used to have in class. So if we had a double math period on Mondays, they give more work on Mondays than on Tuesdays, when we only had a single math period. And they want things due at 2:50 every day, when the school day ends.
But other teachers are like, okay, here are a couple of longterm projects you can work on at any time. You can do the work whenever you want, provided you get it in by the due date.
Me: Does having to turn in math assignments every day by 2:50 p.m. seem like a reasonable request in CoronaWorld? Would you prefer to have your day structured like a regular school day?
Kid: Well, in CoronaWorld I’m going to bed later and getting up later. My whole day has shifted. It sort of feels like the center of my day is no longer noon, it’s more like 2. I used to get up at 6; now it’s more like 8:30. Now having to finish something by 2:50 feels like I have to race to do it in the morning, even if it's not technically morning when I do it.
Me: Is there anything you like better about online school?
Kid: Not much. I could say there's less work, but it doesn't feel like less work because the world's so stressful right now. My entire mindset is way worse because we're in CoronaWorld; I’m not getting exercise or seeing my friends or doing after-school activities or any of the normal things I’d like to do. So even if something was objectively better in CoronaWorld, I don't think I'd call it better because everything about my day and my entire life is worse.
Me: Are there other things you lose by not meeting in a classroom? What about the education itself?
Kid: In a classroom the teacher can ask, What’s your question?, then answer in real time. And, OK, they can give you videos meant to explain everything, but if you have a question at the end you've got to email it to a teacher, then wait for a response. And then, what if I don't understand everything about the response? The back and forth is so extended.
It’s also quite isolating, not learning in a room with other students. Even if you never talk to them — even if you literally hate the person sitting next to you, it is extremely isolating not to be able to see them anymore. I'm missing my worst enemies.
Me: You haven't done much synchronous learning, right? I know the [New York City Department of Education] stopped using Zoom after classes got bombed, but the school could use Google Classroom or Microsoft videoconferencing.
Kid: Our math teacher used it once. But it wasn't an actual class, it was just a check-in, and not everybody signed in. Advisory's been using it, but that's also optional. Advisory classes mix the two seventh-grade classes into four groups. They were started as a mental health program for students because we’re so stressed. There aren’t assignments. There's things like: check in with your body; are you drinking enough water; are you doing this or that to reduce stress. They make sure your mental health is fine and, you know, you're not going to die.
Me: Did you find advisories at school useful?
Kid: Not so much. There are going to be people in your grade who are not nice people. OK, everyone may be good at heart; but some people truly do have a mean streak. Even if teachers do their best to make it feel like a safe space, it doesn't feel that way because of the people in the class. So when they say, “Are you okay? Talk to us about your mental health” — most likely there will be people you don't feel comfortable sharing with.
Me: And online? Are those better?
Kid: There’s only been two, and they’re optional. I checked in once, then missed the next one.
Me: When you checked in, how was that?
Kid: It wasn't much. It was pretty much like, Is your mental health okay in coronavirus? Are you getting outside? Are you eating properly? And nobody was, nobody was, nobody was. Everybody was just like … [She falls back on couch dramatically] … “Falls back on couch dramatically.”
Me: I appreciate you saying that for the transcription. Have your work habits changed? Are you doing things differently because you're at home?
Kid: It’s much easier to get distracted. Even in classes where I sat next to my friends and I was talking, my friends do not hold great swaths of information and entertainment like the internet does. Having unfettered access to the internet while you are doing work is quite distracting. It’s harder to focus. Things take longer than they should.
Me: Is the notion of authority different in online teaching? The teacher usually commands the classroom, but you're not even having synchronous online lessons.
Kid: A lot of the authority was, You must do this work by this time or it will have clear consequences for your future. Seventh grade is the grade most high schools look at; you might not get into a good high school if you don’t do well in this class or study for this test. Nobody wants to go to a horrible high school and then a horrible college and then have a horrible job and a horrible life. But now it's all up in the air. If someone does literally zero work for this entire coronavirus time, we have no idea how it will affect getting into high school. Because we don't know how kids are getting into high school. We’re not even taking the state tests. So they've lost that ability to point to a consequence.
Me: Speaking of consequences, your gym instructor asked you to do a 30-day fitness challenge. What happened there?
Kid: He made a Google sheet and told us to log our workouts, but he really has no way of knowing. You could easily lie.
Me: And what are you doing?
Kid: [inaudible]
Me: You’re just checking the box every day that you’ve done the workout, right? Even though you haven’t?
Kid: Yeah. Yeah. Usually I do walk, at least. Some days.
Me: Are you getting grades?
Kid: They're updating the School Loop system, the online place where they assign work and collect it and give grades. But now they’re graded like 1 out of 1, or 2 out of 2. And I’m, like, yay, I got a hundred — big whoop. And if you turn it in late, they're not going to do anything. They know you're quite stressed. So they just update School Loop and not take points off for turning it in late initially. Math is a little bit more hardcore, but even they’re laxer.
Me: What happens if you have to do this in the fall for eighth grade, rather than going back to school?
Kid: Torture.
Me: Why?
Kid: ’Cause I hate this. It's really weird, and not good weird. I don't get to see my friends, which is a major problem. But school was interesting in ways other than just seeing my friends. Now it's somehow distorted. It majorly takes away from how much I like school. Like for science class, we watch a video, answer questions on a worksheet; watch a random Australian guy telling you how radio waves work, answer questions on a worksheet. We used to have experiments. This is way less fun.
Our art teacher has a treasure trove of the coolest, most amazing art supplies. We have scratch boards, model magic, a bunch of crazy colors of yarn — a giant walk-in closet filled with everything anyone could ever need. And now it's like: Do this drawing in colored pencil, because most people have colored pencils at home. I liked using the weird scratch board that shows through silver when I use the little wooden dowel.
Me: Any other thoughts?
Kid: Just: I hope coronavirus ends before the fall, because an entire grade of online-only distance learning would suck.
(New York state numbers as of Tuesday: 251,690 diagnosed with Covid-19, up 1.7 percent; 471 dead, to a total of 14,828 up 3.3 percent. Overall U.S. deaths: 2,627, to a total of 40,082, up 7 percent.)
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