To gauge the true success of the hybrid learning environment thus far, the members of The Panther Voice came together to form a survey that would reflect the personal experiences of the students of Ardsley High School. The study collected insight from 60 ninth, tenth, eleventh and twelfth graders and included questions regarding mental health, social life, sleep, and classroom experience.
When asked whether they found themselves with more, less, or the same amount of work compared to previous years at AHS, 49.1% of students reported that they were receiving more work. 42.1% concluded that they were receiving about the same amount, while 8.8% said that they were getting less work than previous years.
Certainly, this increase in schoolwork can also be attributed to other factors beyond the hybrid learning environment. For instance, high school juniors and seniors traditionally receive significantly more work than underclassmen; this transition is difficult, even in a normal school year.
However, the survey also revealed that keeping up with this work is especially hard for students this year. When asked how well they were able to maintain focus in class on remote days, 12.1% of students said that they are unable to focus in their remote classes; 48.3% of students said that their lack of focus was not horribly severe, but still discouraging and unmotivating; 8.6% of students said that they were relatively alert in their remote classes; and no students said that they were always alert in their remote classes. Interestingly, when asked how well they could focus during in-person classes, 69.9% of students said that they are relatively alert in their remote classes, while 30.2% of students reported that they were always alert in their in person classes. The remote learning environment comes with very real obstacles for students, such as screen fatigue and at-home distractions, which must be taken into consideration.
The pandemic also has had a significant mental toll on all members of society. For our students, more than half of the surveyed students reported a decline in their mental health this year. Specifically, 31% of students reported that their mental health had declined significantly, while 36.2% of students reported that their mental health had declined slightly. One anonymous participant elaborated, “I don’t have any motivation to go to school, to do my work, or to study.” Another student noted, “I don’t get to see all of my friends, stay ninth with teachers, I get a lot of work, I can’t focus, I feel isolated.” However, it seems that most of these comments pertain to remote learning. With regards to in-person learning, a student said that “When quarantine was really bad, I found myself having a hard time staying positive … since we have a lot more flexibility [now], I’m a lot happier and my attitude changed completely.” Another student said, “I feel like that now school is open, I have been much happier in general.”
Part of the mental health toll can be attributed to the decline in social activity due to the pandemic. When asked whether their social life had improved or declined in the past few months, 48.3% of students said it declined a little; 8.6% said that it declined significantly.
School is always overwhelming--but the added stressors that have been born from this pandemic make the pressure almost unbearable. What we need right now is balance and understanding.