From “High School Musical” to “Fast Times at Ridgemont High,” all of the media that we’ve consumed throughout our lives has framed high school as a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Freshman year is supposed to be the year where ninth graders learn the ropes that will propel them through all four years toward graduation.
Due to COVID-19, this year’s freshmen experienced a virtual middle school graduation and now have been thrown into the major transitional period to high school online.
“I think that it is going to be a hard year,” said freshman Bana Alhassan. “Half the year has already passed, but it was as long as last year as a whole.”
In a survey of 22 freshmen, 91 percent of them agreed that it’s been hard to bond with freshmen they didn’t already know. In their classes, opportunities for social interaction and team-building are severely limited by virtual learning.
“I feel like there isn’t really a sense of community because it’s kind of everyone for themselves,” said freshman Alex Maties. “You don’t do a lot of breakout rooms, and if you do, you’re either silent or one person is doing all of the talking. I feel like it’s people who are already friends who are going to be friends throughout high school.”
Other students like freshman Valou Pierre have had the same experience in breakout rooms.
“[In breakout rooms] no one wants to talk because they don’t know each other and it’s silent for almost the whole time unless the teacher comes in and asks them to talk,” Pierre said.
“I notice that I haven’t made a new friendship in high school simply because me and other freshmen don’t have the courage to speak to new people in a Google Meet,” added freshman Jack George.
One of the biggest questions at hand is whether or not the class of 2024 will be prepared for their sophomore year, especially if in-person plans have been fully integrated for the majority of the student body by then.
“I don’t really worry about [being prepared for sophomore year], because I think the teachers are doing a really good job with teaching and making sure we understand the curriculum,” freshman Jack Adler said.
Maties, and 64 percent of students surveyed, feel otherwise: “I don’t know what to expect [next year], because this feels like it’s not high school. I feel like there’s going to be a bit of a shock when sophomore year does begin.”
Aside from social and academic aspects, there are many extracurricular activities typically provided through the school, which are operating differently in online learning. The school sent out slideshows which presented the clubs offered, making them more accessible to freshmen who had no other way to learn about them without the traditional club week.
“The school did a great job of showing all the clubs,” Adler said. “My gym teacher connected us with the sports [coaches] so I didn’t have a hard time with that.”
Not all freshmen agree, however. Half of survey participants said it was difficult to get involved in clubs. For them, school is a solitary experience.
“It sort of surprises me when I realize that I’m in high school, since I’m not even in a classroom,” an anonymous freshman said. “I am at home, doing work and going to Google Meets. It’s probably much easier to navigate than the halls of high school, but it’s far from what I expected my freshman year to be like.”
Photo by ECHO Staff
