Recently, our reporter Vikram Bansal (‘23) had the privilege of interviewing four of his classmates at Barrington High School regarding their academic and social experiences during the pandemic. Although we are not revealing their identities, we feel as a staff that their experiences and insights are a revelation to the BHS community. Here are their responses to two of Vikram’s many questions:
How would you describe your experience with COVID academically?
Student One: “I mean, obviously, I would say that I had a negative experience.
“At least academically, I remember that I had my worst quarter of high school, the first quarter of digital learning. That was the only time I didn’t have all As; I had a B+ in Spanish. It’s definitely been really hard. It made everything take longer. It’s made extracurriculars much harder to access, and it’s made tests harder to study for.
In terms of my college search, it’s definitely made me worse off in that aspect because a lot of people benefitted from online school and took classes they weren’t really capable of honestly taking. The curriculum was more lenient and that really negatively impacted me because my high school course plan wasn’t altered in any way, but these kids suddenly had the chance to take really difficult courses and still get good grades in the class…
“I just get way too anxious about cheating because, like, however many 100s I get from cheating wouldn’t be worth getting one 0. Given the risk with also your reputation amongst teachers, because let’s face it, if you did something like that, current and future teachers will know your name even if they don’t directly approach you about it. But, y’know, there were a ton of people who did take that risk and you could probably see that on their GPAs.
Student Two: “Well, freshman year I thought school was really easy. Sophomore year was a tad difficult because of COVID but with the ridiculous amount of free time I had and the Advisory block, I could study enough so that school was pretty easy. I had very good grades last year because I had the time I needed.
“This year, I’m taking really difficult classes, so I would say that since I wasn’t really prepared for such a loaded schedule.
“I’m definitely having a little bit of an academic relapse. Even though I had difficult classes last year, I had the time that I needed and the teachers were really lenient considering the situation we were in.
“But now, y’know, they’re trying to bring everything back to normal and school’s really just tightening up so all of the work is larger and harder, but the time is decreasing.
“It’s also harder to connect with my teachers ‘cause there’s more kids in our classes and the blocks are shorter. I feel like people don’t talk about this as much as they should, but my classes are, like, packed and the connection with my teachers is less personal.”
Student Four: “I remember that I was initially excited about distance learning and I was definitely okay with it for a while, but I noticed that I was becoming less and less attentive in my classes and I began to be less passionate in my classes.
“The digital barrier was a very real thing that I experienced in my classes. There were days where distance learning was literally a podcast that I just listened to throughout my day… like I’d be in class while walking my dog or watching TV or eating a meal.
“It’s like having a headphone in while talking to a friend where you're not really listening to the music, but you also kind of are: you aren’t 100% focused on it.
“That was basically the main characteristic for most of my sophomore year and I forgot how laughably bad it was until the end of December last year with the whole incident with the school shooting threat. It watered down the curriculum and people got a false sense of confidence in their ability.”
Student 4: “During the climax of it in 2021, that was really tough. You know how annoying it was to do all those virtual labs… I mean, like I already forgot a lot of the stuff already and it’s barely been a year.
“In terms of academic and interactive clubs… I stopped doing it because it wasn’t really the same virtually. So I did another activity instead and I really didn’t have a good time with it because it was just grueling hours of staring at a screen… COVID just ruined the club for me and now I kind of never want to do it again… like ever.”
How would you describe your COVID experience socially?
Student One: “I’d say my social life was impacted a lot… I would say that I was one of the last people to feel comfortable to go out with friends.
“Even when I did go, I was that one kid who always wore a mask wherever we went and they were always like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’
“It basically limited my friend group to those I could be in a pod with, which was primarily my teammates. So it was a lot harder for me to consistently be out with my friends ‘cause I had such a large group and I was already weary about doing all these things in the first place.”
Student Two: “Surprisingly, I actually made more friends during the pandemic than before the pandemic.
“I don’t think I have a lack of social ability. I’ve been able to make friends and make friends a lot easier than I did when I moved here… I really didn’t have, like, friends, but I knew people.
“Then in that summer, which was the COVID summer, I finally started to meet people through masks and distance, but I was still able to meet new people.
“Something that was weird was last summer when I actually got to hug my friends for the first time, which wasn’t really something I could do ‘cause, like, COVID. And I know that sounds weird, but like it was something I just wasn’t able to.
“And then I got to see what people look like for the first time, like I didn’t see their full faces before because of the masks.”
Student Three: “I’ve really felt a social impact. See, in freshman year I was kind of introverted and didn’t make as many friends as I should have, and as a result I didn’t have many people to hang out with. Plus my parents were really strict about who I could hang out with and so I just ended up by myself for a large majority of the pandemic.
“The only friends I could really be with were with close friends and staying in touch with people, but developing deeper bonds with those friends was something that didn’t happen much for me. We also see now how in junior year, yes we can socialize somewhat but there’s something missing…”
“We missed a year, and now there’s not enough time to really socialize because we have so much stuff going on. I don’t have time to socialize because I have so many commitments that come first before I can even think about trying to make plans with a new person.
“I’m literally eating with one hand and doing work with another hand operating on 5-6 hours of sleep: sorry man, I can’t hang out with you.”
Student Four: “Mentally, I was fine because I just got my new dog, so he was like my BFF during COVID."
“But seriously, having him helped me out during COVID because it’s a new friend who I got to spend extra time with ‘cause we were doing nothing the entire day during freshman year.
In terms of non-canine friends, I’d definitely say that my friends switched a little bit because we were already growing distant due to high school life and things like that."
“I was also just bored and kind of miserable all the time since I wasn’t hanging out as much as I used to."
“You can’t go inside to eat or go to the gym or watch a movie at the theater or anything. The simple things that you kind of took for granted before were gone.”