Online Schooling

By: Jett Goetz, Ashley Jiang, Catherine Wu

As Exonians return from winter break, the scene on campus presents a drastically different picture from just a couple of weeks ago. Reminiscent of Winter term 2021, remote learning, grab-and-go dining, required masking, and canceled activities are the new norm, as students stay holed up in their rooms.

Various challenges associated with the stricter COVID-19 protocols have emerged for students on campus. One of these implementations, virtual learning, leaves students with mixed opinions. “I forgot what remote learning was like, and I still kind of feel in vacation mode,” lower Advay Numula said. “But I think it’s a good transition into regular school if it happens soon.”

Students had varying thoughts on the return to remote learning. “It reminds me a lot of last year and the instruction we had, not as exciting as in-person classes but enough to get me learning,” upper David Kim said.

Some students hope in-person schooling will return as soon as possible. “I personally hate remote schooling. It stresses me out,” upper Jackie Doucette said. “But so far most of my teachers have been really understanding of how tough it can be on students.”

“It has not been very good because being on Zoom on top of all the extra COVID restrictions has made it very hard to socialize, get outside, and exercise. I prefer in-person classes because they help me stay more focused and learn more. The only good thing about Zoom classes is that I can sleep in a little extra before class,” upper Abegail Byun said.

Other students also noticed changes in their workload. “I think most teachers geared it down a bit in terms of intensity,” lower Gunn Sukhum said.

One challenge many students find themselves facing is a lack of focus. Upper Krish Patel noted the difficulty of staying on task during Zoom. “It provides more opportunities to become disengaged with the class,” he said.

For students with roommates, Zoom classes present additional difficulties, yet students have found various ways to overcome these challenges. “Me and my roommate both wear AirPods and we usually do have class conflicts,” prep Byran Huang said. While Airpods and headphones are convenient options, turning down the volume during classes has worked for roommates as well.

Day students are also adjusting to a new learning environment with two learning options: study at home or study in carrels fully masked in the library. “I’m planning on staying home this week for classes,” Doucette said. “I feel more comfortable being at home instead of having to wear a mask in the library on my Zoom classes.” 

An additional rule students are getting used to is grab-and-go dining. This protocol requires students to eat either outdoors or in their rooms or carrels. “Grab-and-go dining is quite interesting,” Huang said. “I like the variety in the other stations. I eat in my dorm, usually … winter is just too cold to eat outside.” 

Like Huang, many students opted with eating inside, not wanting to face the cold weather. “I usually eat in my room. Grab-and-go is pretty efficient right now, and I find myself actually getting more work done because of this,” prep Davido Zhang said.

Some, however, didn’t mind the conditions. “I'm generally able to eat with people outside,” lower Sarah Sargent said. “If I bundle up it doesn't feel that cold.” 

Another protocol affecting student life is the ban on extracurriculars meeting in-person. Kim, a member of the boys’ varsity diving team, talked about the potential difficulties for team-bonding. “It will be harder to maintain a close-knit environment as a lot of socialization happens in the hot tub or when we are close together,” he said.

Doucette, a varsity basketball player, expressed her concern of COVID-19 restrictions affecting college recruitment. “I’m very upset that sports practices are postponed. I’m in my junior year, and this is a big year for recruiting, so I think it’s really disappointing that yet another one of my seasons is messed up because of Covid,” Doucette said.

Clubs, also prohibited from meeting in-person, came up with alternative ways to get together. “Despite being online, Biology Club will be meeting this week. I believe it is important that we try not to allow being remote to prevent us from continuing our normal lives,” Patel said, a co-head of Biology Club.

More physical clubs, however, had a harder time gathering since in-person meetings have been restricted. Meetings for ESSO [Exeter Student Service Organization] Children’s clubs, such as ESSO Swimming, have been postponed until February due to COVID-19 concerns. 

Rock Climbing Club also halted activity until further notice. “I hope we return to in-person as soon as possible because I think kids would love to have a way to escape the stressful environment at Exeter,” senior and co-head Reece Chapman said. 

Overall, students are hopeful of school life becoming closer to what it was last term after these first two weeks. “I have my fingers crossed for everything returning back to normal next week,” Ng said. “I am excited to hopefully have classes and extracurriculars in-person!”