Virtual Schooling

Virtual schooling, or online schooling, is where students attend school entirely online through the use of technology. After Covid-19 hit, 93% of families with students reported they where participants of virtual learning. Virtual learning was used as a way for students to "distance learn," meaning students could stay at home, away from other people, and still learn. However, there has been a lot of controversy over whether or not virtual schooling has been beneficial to students. 

To attend virtual school, students must have access to some form of technology. Unfortunately, this is not a luxury that every student has. This creates an inequality among students allowing the students with access to technology to learn more. This then forces students in poorer communities to get less out of their education, and fall behind their peers academically. 

Cartoon of Zoom Meeting

Studies have shown that virtual school has had negative affects on students mental health. About 71% of students reported virtual school being more stressful than traditional schooling. Students have to worry about wether or not they are signing into the correct zoom link, when to hop onto classes, and how they are going to complete assignments without someone guiding them. If they were attending traditional classes, none of these tasks would be an issue and they could better focus on their school work. 

This also goes along with the social affects virtual school has had on students. Students of all ages need some type of social interaction. Without this, students can feel lonely and depressed, leading to mental health concerns. Virtual schooling can make students feel isolated from society leading to a decreased interest in learning and school. The traditional school setting allows students to meet friends, collaborate, and engage in the community. 

Overall, virtual learning has been detrimental to students learning and mental health. I truly believe that by doing online learning, we are compromising our students futures. 

Standardized Testing

Standardized tests are large tests given to younger students where everyone is given the same test and graded on the same scale. Typically, these tests are multiple-choice to be fair among all students. By doing this, we are able to compare different groups of students as well as grade teachers on how well they are teaching. 

I understand why we have standardized testing; we need to see what areas students need more help on, gauge how "ready" they are to advance, and we need some form of accountability for teachers. But, standardized testing does not do any of those things. Many students have extreme test-taking anxiety causing them to score poorly; this reflects negatively on the students and the teacher when in reality, that could be a star student in the classroom. 

Standardized testing does not serve as a good indicator to reflect the teacher’s hard work and dedication to their students and the student’s growth in knowledge. Teachers work tirelessly with students making sure they are learning everything they can. Does one test reflect everything that the teacher has done all year? There will be circumstances where students just do not care. The test does not affect them at all, so why would they try? And why would we hold that teacher accountable for a student not caring? 

Cartoon of an Actual Standardized Test

Additionally, standardized testing is bad for students' mental health. For example, if a student scores below what they think they should, their self-esteem will plummet. They will assume they are incapable of achieving a good score or believe that they are "below" whatever standard they are being held to. This can lead a student to hate school and diminish their morale. 

Unfortunately, I don't see standardized testing leaving anytime soon. However, we need to find an alternative way to measure student knowledge, students' future success, and teacher performance. 

Teacher Salaries

Teachers' salaries have been a controversial topic between people for years now. Some people say that teachers are grossly underpaid because they do a lot of unsee work, while others argue they are over-paid because they only work 180 days a year. However, Knoxville's average public school teacher salary is $55,671; is that really over-paid? Over the years, there have been walkouts and protests to advocate for higher pay. Low paying salaries have caused issues with teachers leaving the profession or having low moral. Society needs to come to terms with the fact that future generations rely on teachers, and without them, there is no way the future community will grow and improve. 

Teacher reading a children's
 book to her students. 

In my opinion, teachers are incredibly overworked and underpaid. For example, society is still mid-pandemic. Teachers have to create lesson plans for virtual kids, hybrid kids, and in-person kids while making engaging plans. Kids are struggling with attention because they are staring at a screen all day, while others are thankful to be in public. Kids these days are facing challenges that most adults have never had to face, so it is a learning experience for both teachers and students. Another thing to consider is this: how much time do teachers spend outside of the classroom? Have you ever seen a teacher sit down during class and plan what they are doing tomorrow? No, they can't because they have a classroom full of students waiting for instruction. They spend hours outside of regular school hours lesson planning, grading homework, making extra materials for students working ahead or behind, emailing administration or parents, and so much more that people do not see. Teachers are educating our future learners, so giving them higher pay would make an already rewarding job even better. I truly hope we can raise the salary of teachers for the betterment of our youth.