How Do Students Feel About Being Back to In-Person School Full-Time?
Michael Clay March 8, 2021
Here in this small town of Madison, West Virginia, students have many mixed feelings about being back in school full time, five days per week. Some are very excited about being back, while others do not want to be here at all.
I interviewed a total of 5 people: two seniors, a junior, a sophomore, and a freshman. I asked each interviewee, “How do you feel about being in school full time?” and “Do you feel like you learn better online or in-person?”
When interviewing fellow senior classmate Cole Mitchell, answers were provided in bulk.
When asked how he feels about being in school full time, Mitchell said, “Me personally, I don’t feel very excited or happy about being back in school full time.”
Mitchell, also known as “Cowboy Cole,” went on to state that he was “somewhat happy” to come back and see all his friends, but that “it got old quickly.”
Mitchell was also upset that shed season, the time of year when antlers lost by male deer are easiest to find, was ruined by the return to the five-day schedule.
Mitchell said resuming in-person school “interrupted the most important point of his life [shed season].”
The very last question that I asked Cowboy Cole was, “What is something you liked about being at home?”
Mitchell quickly responded, “Something I liked about being at home was not being at home. I was able to run the streets. I was able to go out and find deer and do my hunting, country stuff. I like having a lot of time to kind of find myself as a person and find my interests and figure out my future.”
After an interview with Mitchell, I found a bit of a different perspective from senior Brayden Mounts.
When asked how he learned best, online versus in-person, Mounts said, “[My grades were] uh, not good. But, they have risen quite a bit since I am now learning in person.”
Mounts explained his main issues with remote learning: “I had a lot of distractions, as in my PlayStation and my TV.”
These contrasting responses show how students at Scott High School learn in different ways.