March 13, 2020 was the day that most student’s lives changed for the worse. This was the day, four years ago, that the government issued a 10-day lockdown due to the infamous COVID-19. While many students celebrated the idea of not needing to go to school for the next two weeks, no one could have guessed what was about to come their way.

Every school year that a student endures is crucial to their development, especially their middle school years. While middle school is not noticed greatly by colleges and job employers, it leads students through a crucial time of development. Many, if not all, students learn and develop key social skills that will impact the rest of their lives during grades five through eight. When COVID-19 hit, students were left out of this opportunity to learn these skills. In the beginning, the effects that this period had on students were not noticed right away. However, they were quickly observed by high school teachers as they saw the middle schoolers that were coming up.

Since March of 2020, there has also been a significant amount of changes to the academic structure. Before this time, many teachers would get up in front of their classroom to teach, handing out pencils and papers where students would do their assignments. Electronic devices were rarely used, except when they were absolutely needed. When the virus hit, students were forced to constantly do their schoolwork on electronic devices. As the 2020-2021 school year started, students were given their own personal Chromebooks by the school which they would use to do their schoolwork, as well as join online classes. Eventually, students would return to school, but it would never truly be the same as it once was. Instead of making their own assignments, many teachers would find themselves sourcing pre-made assignments that were found online instead of making their own. This led to a spike in cheating throughout schools— more than was ever seen before.

As the school system started to change rapidly, academics were also changed for the worse. Students were simply not as motivated as they once were, and they were not able to be in that crucial classroom atmosphere. Then, when they were in the classroom environment again, they were put at a ‘safe’ distance from one another and forced to wear masks. “What is the point of even showing up anymore?” was the question that many students were asking themselves and their peers. Since there was such a lack of motivation for students, this started an extreme spike in absences among students.

Eventually, students were able to take off their unfavorable masks and jump back into the classroom atmosphere. However, that jump back in did not change much. Teachers were still pushing out online assignments instead of teaching in front of the class. The absence spike did not seem to go down and students were frustrated. This proposed a new, and quite frankly, bigger problem. Students were acting out and not listening. Teachers would find themselves trying twice as hard to just get their classroom to listen and to simply behave. Students now are referred to as the “Covid Generation.”

Is there still a chance of change before the school system is too far gone? Fortunately, there is. Everyone can take a step backward. Meaning, we go back to having teachers plan their own lessons and get up in front of the classrooms to teach. Students can take a step back and gather all of those crucial social skills and cues that were missed along the way. Sometimes, all we need is to take a step backward instead of rushing into uncharted territories.