Dear East Leyden

Dear East Leyden High School,

I would like to ask a few questions and also just think about what is going on right now. We are currently in the middle of a pandemic, a once in 100 years occurrence that has really mixed up the world. I haven't been going to school for about a month now, and honestly it’s kind of strange. I mean for the last few years I have had a schedule: I would wake up at 6:00 AM, go to school, get back home at 3:00 PM. I had a set bedtime, chores, and even a schedule for going to the gym. However, now I wake up and go to sleep whenever I want, the gym and school are closed, and I can do my chores whenever I want. 

The Covid-19 virus has made me lazy, but I wonder what effects it will have on the world. After all, many countries have closed their borders to everything except for essential travel and  restaurants and schools were closed. I can’t help but wonder what’s actually going to happen when everything calms down. 

What I want to know is what’s going to happen next year? Even though schools are practicing distance learning, it’s inevitable that people are going to fall behind. I personally am a visual learner, so it is not too difficult to adapt to this kind of schoolwork; however, what about the people who are auditory learners? What about the curriculum? Because school is online, I doubt that teachers can do everything that they had planned for the year. Also, what effect will these grades have on a college application? What about the people who had borderline grades or were being tutored at school? It is difficult to account for every circumstance, so I wonder how this situation will be treated. 

I have my AP test coming up, and it has been made into an online 45 minute test; it has been edited to only include the content that we went over in class. While I feel prepared for it, I don’t actually know how it will go until I start. Many things have been changed, and I wonder how they will be adapted back when everything returns to normal. I guess only time will tell; I’ll just have to wait until it actually happens to find out.

Thank you, 

Kacper Bakun