The Divide Between In-person and Online School

Coronavirus impacted every aspect of life, one of the biggest being education. Moving online in early March of 2020, students had to adapt to the new kind of online learning vs. in person which was what was normal.

The biggest problem with online learning was the lack of concentration as well as motivation. It was hard to get up every day and do the same thing with no social interaction, a key part of the in-person school. There was more time with teachers, to make a connection and get help, and overall the understanding of the material was much more.

There was some good about online education as well. One is that learning became so much more accessible. I happen to live in a very funded and well-off municipality in Ohio, and I go to a great school, so this was not a problem, but just 20 minutes out, these issues were apparent. So many kids lack good education as well as access to opportunities due to the quality of schooling they get but moving online opened up a world of possibilities and opportunities that they never would have gotten otherwise.

One other issue that became incredibly apparent was the lack of funding that certain schools and their communities had. Many students were given even worse education because they did not have access to computers or any technology to join in on online classes. Schools also struggled to get back to in-person because they would not be able to fight the spread of Covid with the inability to stay 6 feet apart or have the ability to become more inclusive due to the fact that public schools cannot deny educational opportunities.

Overall, in-person school’s benefits outweigh the disadvantages as well as what online school has to offer, but personally, I found there to be a lot of advantages. I found that the stresses of school were much less, and although I could not see my friends as much, my mental health started to get much better without all the pressures of my school. I also had so much more time for me to do things I wanted to. I was able to work out a lot more, make new recipes, watch new shows. So many things I didn’t have time for before became my new life.

When given the option, I chose in-person despite how good the online school lifestyle was because I need relationships with my teachers and friends to be able to succeed in school. While I did decide to go to school, a lot of my friends stayed online and seemed to thrive. They had more time for themselves, to work, get their priorities in place and it’s nice to see how much they can achieve without having school weighing down and stripping them of life and its opportunities.