Is Virtual Schooling What Is Best For Students?

By Zola Kambandu Schilz

The new “normal” for many schools is completely virtual. The virtual schooling system has many benefits, such as preventing the spread of COVID-19 and promoting social distancing. However, with every pro comes its fair list of opposing cons. Looking at the new schooling system, from the eyes of a student we begin to see the real impact virtual teaching has on those involved. We also begin to question if this is really what is best for students when it comes to learning.  

In the eyes of students, the current American school system is already beginning to fail them. An increase in work loads, study material, tests, and assignments leads to mental health spirals and worsening sleep schedules. With new information being force fed to students five days a week, for seven hours each day, everything learned from one class period can be difficult to digest. For some students, hearing large amounts of information and scribbling it down in a notebook is not quite enough to learn the content well. For other students, school has become a test of memorization, in which they take in the information word-for-word, spew it out when needed and forget it once it’s not. A third group of students will opt to  only do what they need to to pass, the bare minimum becoming their best work. 

What do all these students have in common? They are all stressed. They are motivated only by the pressure of a failing grade. Now, however, with virtual schooling, we are adding more to this equation. High levels of screen time—something proven to have largely negative effects on the developing brain’s cortex and everyday functions—is now added to the equation, as well as the lack of social interaction, which, to many students, social interaction is something that used to happen on an everyday basis. 

Did you know it is recommended by the Mayo Clinic Health System, that teens limit their screen time to two hours per day? Sure, even before virtual schooling, many teenagers were going far beyond that recommendation, but with the new online instruction, teens and children alike are now raising their levels of time, staring at a screen for more than seven hours daily. The average American school day lasts seven; or eight hours. Afterwards, the students go home where they do homework and complete assignments, or they remain at school to participate in a club or sport. Now convert this into matters of online school: students are getting around nine to ten hours of screen time doing schoolwork alone.

Now the question is, what can all this screen time do to an adolescents health? A number of studies have been done on this topic, prior to distance learning, which means that going into it, we were, for the most part, educated on the many risks of extended screen time. The most significant risks right now are those that affect students’ performances in class. Extended amounts of screen time can actually lead to trouble with reading, language, and memory—three things that are vital to a students success in school. The excessive use of a computer or cell phone also has negative effects on adolescent behavior, leading to things like irritability, anxiety, and even depression. 

While we are so focused on avoiding the spread of COVID-19, we are ignoring the risks of online learning to students, which can be just as, if not more, harmful to the health of students. Not only does distance learning cause health issues that affect not only an adolescents’ grades, but also their future, as many students may carry these things with them throughout the remainder of their lives.