By Hallie Robinson

Features Editor

On Friday March 13, 2020, students walked out the doors of Blue Springs South thinking they would only be gone for a week for spring break. Little did they know, that would be the last time they would walk through those doors for the 2019-2020 school year.

As of March 23, 2020, students in the Blue Springs School District have been doing school online in order to keep safe from the Coronavirus pandemic. Is this switch helpful to the physical health of students? Yes. But what about their mental health?

The methods taken to complete schoolwork varies between students. Junior Will St. Louis takes advantage of teachers assigning weekly assignments and does all his work on Monday. His work for South takes about 2 hours, but he is also in the Auto Tech program at CTC. This work takes about 4 hours to complete.

“I get to watch YouTube and I’m in my own chair while I work and not breaking my back in a metal seat,” says St. Louis, “but also my CTC class requires me to do hands on work so it sucks I can’t be there.”

Other students like junior Katie Harris take it day by day. She says she is working about 4 hours every day, but motivation is lower than it would be at school. However, she tries to keep things positive for herself.

“The best part is eating when I want and sleeping in until 12 o’clock,” says Harris, “but also I like having time to myself to figure out what I like to do.”

Senior Gavin Schaefer also is looking on the bright side of things. He splits his work up each day like Harris, but he is only working about 2 hours. With this free time, he has picked up gardening, with 52 plants. He says “a plant dad’s gotta be a plant dad.”

While students are trying to look on the bright side of things, it can be difficult to stay positive. Like most things, there are down sides.

“It’s really self-motivation because you don’t have any teachers to shame you for not doing your work, you just have little red font,” says Schaefer, “So, really most of your work has to be self-motivated and that’s really difficult.”

A common denominator in these students seems to be a lack of self-motivation. What could be causing this?

Students have said it seems teachers are assigning more than they would normally, meaning quantity and/or length of assignments. When asked if they would prefer to switch to online permanently, all of these students said no without having to think about it.

“No, I wouldn’t at all because I do not have an organized schedule, and I am all about a good schedule and organization,” says Harris.

Overall, many students associate online school with negative thoughts and feeling. They are burnt out, tired, stressed, and just want to be with their friends again.

Furthermore, every student learns differently. Some students are not fully retaining information as they would through face-to-face learning.

“There’s a lot of negativity in some classes because I don’t really learn by just looking at a screen, but also my teachers are a bit more lenient,” says St. Louis, “some aren’t. They set very strict deadlines and say that we have no exceptions.”

All in all, students are trying their best to keep things positive in this weird, difficult time.

“I have so much more time because I’m not just sitting through classes, doing nothing,” says Schaefer, “so it’s actually quite great. It gives me more time to do things that I like and new things that I now like.”