Immersed as we are in the cold days of winter, it is an unfortunate fact that many students have to choose whether or not to attend school when they are feeling unwell. And this truly is a struggle: on the one hand, no one wants to be responsible for transmitting a virus to their classmates or teachers, but on the other, missing school can be stressful and result in a student getting behind in their studies or feeling overwhelmed.
While there is no perfect solution to this issue, one potential way to reduce the strain on absent students is to provide a virtual means for them to attend classes. Since the COVID 19 pandemic, this has become an increasingly viable option, as many teachers already have zoom rooms and experience setting them up in the classroom.
This is only one of the many pros of this potential option for sick or absent students. Another is that kids who may still be contagious might feel less pressure to return immediately to school knowing that they have a way to keep up with their work, which could help reduce student body germ transmission. In addition, the return to school itself could be much smoother for everyone involved if the student had been able to keep up with classwork during their absence.
However, there are also cons to this setup. For one, despite experience from the pandemic, it would still require some additional work and time engagement from teachers to set up this option, which could lead to less material getting covered in class. Especially if only one student was absent, that could be a lot of work for fairly minimal gain. And if the class was doing an activity rather than just discussion or lecture, the virtual student might not be able to participate extensively anyway.
In addition, having to organize virtual class attendance could lead to students focusing and stressing about school work rather than taking the necessary time to get well. Also, depending on home internet and technology access, virtual attendance opportunities could be unequal or even unavailable to some students.
With both pros and cons in mind, the question of whether schools should offer a virtual attendance option only becomes more thoroughly difficult to answer. During the COVID pandemic, one potential solution we used was offering virtual class only to students who were going to miss five or more days of school. This solution is satisfying because it provides the opportunity explicitly to students who need the virtual resource most in order to keep up with classwork. However, now that COVID no longer forces a five-day absence, it is not realistic to expect unwell students or their families to predict how long they will need to stay home, rendering this solution unfeasible.
So, with this in mind, what I would ultimately propose is this: if students want to attend class virtually, they can email the appropriate teacher with their request. This gives the student the opportunity to really consider whether they are well enough to engage virtually and talk it over with their family if necessary.
The next step, therefore, would be for the teacher to respond confirming that they will open the zoom meeting for the student. This is ideal because it would allow for the teacher to assess their lesson plans and decide whether it would really be beneficial for the student to virtually attend. If the class was allotted for a lecture or discussion, they could accept the student’s request, but if a class activity was planned that would be difficult to participate in virtually, they could explain this to the student, giving them the chance to rest rather than push themself to virtually attend a class period that would likely be largely unhelpful to their learning.
How we look at virtual learning certainly changed during the pandemic. Almost all students and educators now have experience in some form or another of virtually conducted classes, and this makes utilizing them presently much more feasible. Ultimately, the question becomes whether offering a virtual way to experience a class has enough benefits to outweigh the time and effort required from all involved. With time, the process would become smoother and potentially very useful, but with that said, it would take time to build a system that would maximize the effort of students and teachers.
The solution proposed above is only one of the many ways to potentially construct an online option for sick students. It comes down to what students and educators feel is reasonable, and this could look different at a variety of schools. However, especially considering Seabury’s small student body, we have a community that could benefit from discussing a virtual option, and we do not know what its limits would be until we try.
