Cohorts: Are They Helping?

While our lives were already completely shifted, and we were still struggling to adjust, we came back to school in August to find that half the people aren’t even here. While this has been a preventative measure to protect us from COVID, and there are definitely some perks to it, it has also had some serious unforeseen consequences. Smaller class sizes have allowed us to have a more one on one education while physically in school and has let many students thrive while being in school. Social distancing would be incredibly difficult with the entire student body attending at once, and the cohorts solve that issue. They are here for everyone’s safety. But, the downsides are very serious, and in many cases the bad outweighs the good. Online learning has been salvation to some and a gaping zero in the gradebook for others. Our class averages have plummeted and students simply don’t do their work, because at home there are so many distractions. In school, many students have been completely isolated from their friends. People who had a supportive network of people around them suddenly are completely alone. Learning is completely stunted online, as even though teachers are doing their best, it just isn’t the same, and students generally do not learn as much. This isolation is going to have long term mental health effects on students and their education level if things don’t turn around anytime soon. We have it much better off here than many other schools who are completely online, but harm is still being done here. We need to consider this: If online-learning is prolonged into next school year, an entire generation is going to be put irreversibly behind.