Virtually Drowning in Homework

Satire: Virtually Drowning in Homework by Samantha Jackson
As we all know, Fargo Public Schools has started our 2020-21 school year in a hybrid model, splitting students from beginning (A-K) and end (L-Z) of the alphabet into groups for in-person attendance. This is to reduce contact amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. If many of you are like me, your initial thought to this was, “sweet, we only have school for two or three days a week! This is gonna be cake” (though this thought was immediately followed by “what about my L-Z homeslices :(”- I truly miss you guys). Unfortunately, for me and other students like myself, that was definitely not the case.
I was expecting the first day to mainly consist of syllabus reviews and getting to know you activities, but it seems most teachers jumped in at full speed ahead. It was definitely not an easy shift for me to go from all fun and games over the summer, to having two essays, four worksheets, and a trillion other Google Classroom assignments to finish by Monday (okay, maybe I was exaggerating a little, but at the time, it felt like that much of a workload). Though I do understand this time crunch for teachers to fit in their content is hard, it seems much more beneficial to have students fully understand fewer concepts, rather than trying to reach “essential learning outcome” goals made by someone who sits at the District Office all day and stares at a computer (sorry not sorry Gandhi).
Many have found themselves extremely overwhelmed with the workload we have received starting on the very first day of class back in early September. From talking with my peers, it seems like the workload has been especially tough on upperclassmen, who are busy with jobs, extracurriculars (especially considering most of us have leadership roles in our activities), college/future plans, and anything else. Personally, it has been nearly impossible to balance school, work, activities, and something that resembles a social life (yay for social distancing and every event I looked forward to this year getting cancelled) in as close to a normal senior year as possible. Considering this year is my last year in high school (given I don’t flunk out and have to become a super senior), I have done my best to be the most involved as possible with extracurriculars and supporting student activities, as well as being hard at work at Hornbacher’s to save up as much as possible before college (catch me there Wednesday nights as well as most weekends), but this homework load is close to impossible.. In fact, as I am writing this article after midnight, I am also finishing up about three other late assignments. Not to mention I, and most of my fellow senior classmates, have yet to really think about the future, simply because of how overwhelmed we have all been with the present. Like where the heck should I go to college? Where can I buy cheap bed sheets? Also what the heck is FAFSA?!
It seems that a common mood shared by most students this year is to “just get by and get the assignments done,” rather than actually understand the content, simply because we do not have enough time to actually do the assignment to the point where we feel comfortable with the material we are learning. Much of the year so far has focused on deadlines rather than actual learning.
Overall, I think we all must be even more understanding than we were in the world pre-COVID. Our main priority should be the wellbeing of others. Afterall, we cannot complete our math homework if we are hacking up our left lung. We should all be looking out for every individuals’ health and wellbeing. Nothing in the world is easy right now, but we are all in this together.

(can we put this paragraph on a sidebar please :))
P.S. Figured it would be appropriate to add this since we are already on the topic 🙂 – Please, please, pretty, pretty please be smart right now. I know that we all crave at least some normalcy but we will never return (or even really come close) to our pre-COIVD “normal” if we do not put in our part right now. Make smart decisions, wear a mask, monitor your symptoms, and check in on your loved ones. Nothing about this is easy, but things will be much easier if we are there for each other. BE SMART SPARTANS!!

XOXO- prez Sammy J