For many high schoolers, the hybrid model has proven to be difficult. Part-time in-person learning has caused struggles and no small amount of stress for students. However, by creating and following a safe and effective plan, attending school five days a week could once again be routine.

It is of the utmost importance for high school students to be educated properly. These four years are crucial to learning essential skills and topics that we will use throughout college and future careers. At least for me, online learning is much harder when it comes to retaining information, focus, and overall mental health. From my experience this year, learning has been much harder, juggling between in-person and online learning. 

As much as we all love staying at home in our pajamas, traditional in-person learning is definitely more effective. For any student in any grade, having a teacher face-to-face is critically important for retaining information. Though many of us often wonder when we will ever use this information in the real world, the lessons we are learning now in our junior and senior years are going to be directly relevant to college. Being in school in-person is a much more beneficial way to ensure a strong education. 

At home, I experience many more distractions than I would at school—my phone, my pets, and my family. My focus isn’t always on what it should be, and that has led to some unfortunately low grades. Many have expressed that online learning is easier, but for me, it has proven to be more difficult. 

Bella Falo, a NASH junior, said, “[Remote learning] has made it extremely challenging because I need to adjust my time management from previous years, and it’s harder to take in knowledge when staring at a screen all day.” 

Some student’s mental health has decreased while experiencing online learning. Anxiety over assignments, missed assignments, or even Blackboard failure is no small problem for remote students. 

With North Allegheny’s large class size, many see full-time in-person learning as a COVID-19 threat. However, I think students should be given a choice—five days a week either in-person or online. Students that choose the in-person option would have to agree to follow all necessary safety precautions. Teachers would be on rotation outside the school, taking students temperatures as they walk in. Then, those students who are permitted into the building would have to hand sanitize throughout the day, before and after each class, as well as wipe down the desk they were utilizing that period. While these precautions may add up and take time away from classes, teachers take just as much time to take for attendance.

There are, of course, serious concerns with a return to full-time in-person schooling. If students don’t take the precautions seriously, the risk of contracting COVID-19 and being quarantine is heightened. But if the school board can put these precautions into effect strongly enough, I believe the students will do their best to abide by these policies.