The Life Of A Student In 2020

Norah Newton | Jan 06, 2021

From relationships to employment, food shortages to mental health, Covid-19 has affected almost all aspects of our daily life. A unique challenge however, is presented to youth. School-aged children have been forced to adapt to a new, and often rushed, form of learning. “Normal” classes are non-existent, with multiple class and semester styles being used-even within the same board.

As most of us know, Ontario is back on lockdown due to Covid-19. For highschool students, this means school will shift to being completely online, at least until January 28th.

Before the lockdown was announced, Granite Ridge Education Centre (GREC), the K-12 school located in Sharbot Lake, was operating fairly normally, albeit with understandable restrictions.

GREC has definitely been affected less than the vast majority of other schools in Ontario. The classes/semesters are structured the same as any other year which takes the pressure off GREC students to adjust to a whole new system of learning.

Students still miss many aspects of a regular school year however, with the most common complaint being the loss of extracurriculars.

Isaak Normile, a grade 11 student at GREC, stated that that was his biggest dislike about this year.

“There’s no extracurricular activities,” said Normile, “Although I do understand it. There’s no way around it, but for someone who would usually like school for all the extracurriculars, that enjoyment isn't there anymore.”

Keeley Cox, a senior at GREC, also offered her perspective.

“I’m very sports-heavy, and, especially because it’s my last year, I miss the sports, but I honestly think that having to focus on the academic aspect of school is one of the best things to come out of this school year.”

Another aspect of school that students missed was the freedom they had during other years.

“There’s a lot of boundaries.” Said grade 9 student Braidey Merrigan. “We can’t use lockers, and most of the stuff that was really exciting about highschool kind of dropped, again like the sports and after school activities.”

Even seemingly small things made an impact on students.

“I don’t like having to eat in the cafeteria,” Keeley Cox laughed, “it’s so weird, because the cafeteria is really loud and not a place I was really in during previous years.”

Despite the complaints however, students agreed that they were all lucky to be at GREC as opposed to a school that was almost exclusively online or, like the rest of the Limestone Board, doing “octmesters”, 8 semesters within the one year.