This year, we have been in a weird in-between. As a country, we are still recovering from the effects of COVID-19 while also still struggling with new cases. Even with the numerous precautions being taken, it isn’t enough to stop kids from getting sick.
With cold and flu season upon us, this has created some debate as to what to do when you get sick. Even though almost everyone I spoke to agreed that students should stay home, a question that a lot of my sources found controversial or hard to answer had to do with the difficulty of catching up on work after staying home sick.
In my first year in the Upper School, I was faced with the struggle of getting sick and having to navigate all my classes and classwork. I had to Zoom in with one teacher because I could not reschedule a meeting even though I was feverish and unwell. Even though I missed a day of classes, I was still not myself, which prevented me from focusing and having the motivation and energy to be productive and get work done. I found it especially hard to focus when snot was clogging my airways and made it very difficult to breathe, so difficult that sometimes holding my breath was easier than breathing.
Other students felt similarly, like freshman Jenna Kanaan who said that she decided to come to school while she was sick because she knew missing school would have made it difficult to catch up on her work. She came to school in the middle of October with a congested nose, sore throat, headache, and fatigue. Because of all those symptoms, Jenna ended up losing her voice and feeling miserable for a week. “I decided to come to school because it is so hard to catch up from work,” she said, “and if you miss one day of school you are missing like six hours of work.
While Jenna detailed the many struggles she had catching up with work, Head of the Upper School Dan Gleason had a different perspective on students missing school due to sickness; he has been impressed with teachers time and time again because of how flexible and willing they are to help their students., “The school is not looking into [approaches or strategies to manage the workload] ” he explained, “because if you are sick and truly not feeling well enough to come to school you should not be trying to get onto any Zoom classes and strain yourself with work. The system we currently have in place for sick students is the Ascend that we trust students fill out honestly. So no, currently we are not looking at any new policies or anything like that.” Dr. Gleason did not comment on what teachers or administrators can do to help students who are missing class time when they choose to stay home.
The administration seems to think that students can manage to catch up after a few days of missed classes, but what happens when a student misses a week or longer? I decided to speak to two students who had some unique perspectives. Junior Emily Evans had to miss over a week of school due to a mystery sickness, and last year sophomore Hana Haxhaj had to miss over three months of school due to medical reasons. Both Emily and Hana reflected on the challenges of catching up after being out sick for an extended period of time. “I would say it is difficult to catch up from work,” Emily said. “But it is even harder to come back to school after missing a class because you could have missed some important information that might show up on a test or quiz a week later.” Both girls seemed very sure with their responses; however, Hana did seem just a tad more enthusiastic about hers. “It is very hard to catch up from work, especially since some teachers are not super flexible or they just do not respond to your emails or something like that.”
While students seem to believe that missing more than a day of classes puts you at a disadvantage, some teachers seemed sympathetic to students’ needs. For instance, English teacher Michelle Caswell said that she tries to post any missed work on Classroom. However, she has some students who email her when they miss class and some students who just do not think to do so. She said that she only posts resources to those who asked for them.
Several students seem to agree with Ms. Caswell. Emily, Hana, and freshman Alex Segal said that it would be helpful if teachers would post their lesson plans on Classroom with any slides or worksheets attached, and possibly even a recording of the class.
So, the main takeaway is that teachers should do their best to be flexible and attend to their students’ needs by posting more resources on Classroom. This would help students feel less overwhelmed. However, this does not mean that students should not put in any effort to contact their teachers to make up for what they missed.
