OPINION: DIGITAL LEARNING SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN IMPLEMENTED
By Daniel Vasquez
El Rodeo Staff Writer
El Rodeo Staff Writer
On November 20, I along with my family tested positive for Covid-19. We were all shocked and feared whatever was to come ahead. We took action and quarantined ourselves and had food along with medicine delivered to our house, making sure to never come in contact with anyone else. We took many precautionary measures and consumed 1000mg Vitamin C supplements to help fight off the virus. Soon, we had noticed something unexpected. None of us had severe symptoms. Both my father and mother lost their senses of smell and taste and also had fevers and headaches. Me, my brother, and my sister only experienced fevers but only I suffered a headache. We were confused and even more shocked that we didn’t develop extreme symptoms such as body aches and the inability to breathe. My mother and father had mild coughs and experienced nothing else respiratory related. None of us were in a great deal of pain and suffering.
For me personally, the virus seemed very anticlimactic. I expected to be out sick for a minimum of a week but I only missed one day of school. I felt very tired for two days and had a headache for three days. I had a fever for three days but after that, I was completely fine. I never developed a cough or had trouble breathing which took me by surprise because this virus attacks the lungs. I feared a virus that claimed the lives of millions of people world-wide but I only developed a fever. I was and am still confused as to why that it is, but then I came to a conclusion.
I noticed that my parents developed worse symptoms than my sister, my brother and me. I also noticed that my brother's headache had gone away faster than mine and my sister had only had one for a day. I realized that as the age increased, the symptoms became worse.
This is how I came to the conclusion that distance learning should have never been implemented because students would most likely not be severely affected by the virus. Students are at a young enough age to the point that the virus may not be harmful to them. With precautions set in place and other measures taken to ensure that campus would be clean enough to learn in, I'm sure that there would have been no issue with learning at school. Because of my own personal experience with this virus, I am convinced that there would be very little danger with at-campus learning. Obviously, the most at-risk people would be elderly teachers but there would be little to fear because students would most likely not be able to spread the virus very effectively. For this reason, there shouldn’t be any major concern.
I fully understand that there would be many barriers and challenges facing on-campus learning however I also believe that enforcing distance learning was the wrong course of action. It is understandable that early in the year the virus was still completely new and not very much understood, but I don’t believe there was a good enough excuse to not reintroduce on-campus learning for the 2020-2021 school year. By the beginning of the school year there was enough to be known about the virus and how it affects people to make the right call. All I ask is that more consideration be taken while this pandemic continues.
For me personally, the virus seemed very anticlimactic. I expected to be out sick for a minimum of a week but I only missed one day of school. I felt very tired for two days and had a headache for three days. I had a fever for three days but after that, I was completely fine. I never developed a cough or had trouble breathing which took me by surprise because this virus attacks the lungs. I feared a virus that claimed the lives of millions of people world-wide but I only developed a fever. I was and am still confused as to why that it is, but then I came to a conclusion.
I noticed that my parents developed worse symptoms than my sister, my brother and me. I also noticed that my brother's headache had gone away faster than mine and my sister had only had one for a day. I realized that as the age increased, the symptoms became worse.
This is how I came to the conclusion that distance learning should have never been implemented because students would most likely not be severely affected by the virus. Students are at a young enough age to the point that the virus may not be harmful to them. With precautions set in place and other measures taken to ensure that campus would be clean enough to learn in, I'm sure that there would have been no issue with learning at school. Because of my own personal experience with this virus, I am convinced that there would be very little danger with at-campus learning. Obviously, the most at-risk people would be elderly teachers but there would be little to fear because students would most likely not be able to spread the virus very effectively. For this reason, there shouldn’t be any major concern.
I fully understand that there would be many barriers and challenges facing on-campus learning however I also believe that enforcing distance learning was the wrong course of action. It is understandable that early in the year the virus was still completely new and not very much understood, but I don’t believe there was a good enough excuse to not reintroduce on-campus learning for the 2020-2021 school year. By the beginning of the school year there was enough to be known about the virus and how it affects people to make the right call. All I ask is that more consideration be taken while this pandemic continues.