Dear Reader,

Before we begin, I would like to take a moment to acknowledge the events that have been taking place in recent times, and I would like to encourage us all to remain informed and to educate ourselves on the issues present in our society. If you would like to learn more about racism and discrimination, the library is a great place to start for a selection of books about this topic, and I will also be linking some resources at the end of this article that I hope you will check out. Right now, it is more important than ever that we all stand together.

Let’s get onto it, then, for one final time.

Work:

To be quite honest with you, there is not much point in writing this section of the column. By the time you see this, school will be over and done with for the year, and all you will be left with is a sense of lingering regret and wasted potential. On the off chance that this is still relevant at the time of publication, I would like to remind you that all you need to do is complete your work. Nothing has to be stellar, dear reader, just done. So go and do it.

Play:

With the monotonous drone of the school year behind us, you may be looking forward to the monotonous drone of the summer ahead. You are about to have hours and hours of free time to waste doing nothing just as you do now, except with no long-overdue assignments to turn in and no angry emails from your teachers to ignore.

You may consider — if the situation allows it — finding a job or a volunteer position this summer so you can spend your time contributing positively to society. There is bound to be something out there for everyone, even for those of you reading this column who do not enjoy a broad scope of passion or talent.

Aside from that, there are ways to enjoy yourself in a socially distant and healthy manner. Invite a few (imaginary) friends to the park to play frisbee or a ball game, or take a walk with your family on a local trail and drag your feet listlessly as they lecture you about your report card grades. Truly, there is nothing better than that.

If you’re the type of doomer destined to be alone, make sure you spend some time in the great outdoors, basking in the climate-change-induced warmth of the summer as you lose another round of the pointless video game you’re playing on your overpriced console or forget the sentence you just read from your book that pushes you to the limit of your very basic literacy skills. Sun’s out, fun’s out, right?

Finally, for those of you forced to remain in what is effectively house arrest, there are plenty of ways to make good use of your time indoors. Learn a new language, play an instrument, stare at the wall as time ticks away your youth, or start a new project in an area you’ve always wanted to explore. Yes, there is still hope, even for you. Contrary to your beliefs, self-improvement is not a fantasy.

I must sign off now, dear reader, for the last and final time. Thank you for sticking with my column this year; I hope you weren’t too offended by all the jokes I made. If even one person managed to follow through on some of the advice I gave and ended up better for it, I can look back at this experience happily and say I did a job well done.

Go forth, dear reader, into the world and leave it better than you found it. That’s where I’m headed now, and one day you will join me.

Sincerely,

Andrea Zhao

Resources

By no means is this an exhaustive list, but here are some resources that serve as a good introduction to recent events.

Books

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

I’m Still Here - Austin Channing Brown

Between the World and Me - Ta-Nehisi Coates

The Skin We’re In - Desmond Cole

White Fragility - Robin DiAngelo

This Book is Anti-Racist - Tiffany Jewell

How to Be an Antiracist - Ibram X. Kendi

Citizen - Claudia Rankine

The Color of Law - Richard Rothstein

Just Mercy - Bryan Stevenson

Websites

https://blacklivesmatter.carrd.co/ - website with links to ways to help and online resources

TV/Films

13th

BlacKKKlansman

Dear White People

Do the Right Thing - free from Cineplex

Unless we believe highly (I mean highly) optimistic projections that a COVID-19 vaccine will be ready by the end of this year, it is likely that the 2020-2021 school year will face the same headwinds when it comes to reopening as it does now. COVID-19 daily case numbers remain stubbornly consistent —at 400 diagnosed cases per day— and most of them are concentrated in the GTA. Additionally, we have now learnt that COVID-19 spreads most effectively when people talk to each other in indoor spaces. Beyond this concern, UTS faces an added hurdle to clear before reopening too, as the majority of students take some form of public transit to arrive at school every day. So how should the school go about ‘reopening’ while still striving to keep the risk of infection as low as possible?

One suggestion is that we have staggered school days. Since UTS has ~750 students, having each grade come in for one set day during the week would allow people to social distance more effectively. This would be supplemented by online instruction for the other days of the week, similar to what we have now. A combination of in-person and online learning is what many major universities in the United States and Canada are considering right now, as it assuages the concerns that the teaching faculty may have for their own health. It could be that the one in-person lesson per week would review (or preview) the lessons taught online. This proposal will increase the engagement that students feel with their learning, while still minimizing risk for all involved. Furthermore, allowing students to see their peers, even from six feet apart, is incredibly important as having to talk exclusively through a screen limits the ability to engage with each other and stifles the sense of community at UTS that we all appreciate.

A more risky suggestion would involve the complete reopening of the school until around American Thanksgiving, November 26. This is an option that Notre Dame University has been exploring. It wants to reopen school on August 10 to allow as much time for in-person learning as possible. The goal is to avoid the brunt of a widely predicted 2nd wave, which may peak in December. This model is more suited for residential colleges than UTS, however, because college students don’t need to venture out of campus or interact with students not in their college. UTS students have to go home every day and interact with numerous strangers on the way due to the nature of public transport, greatly increasing the chance that a UTS student becomes infected.

We could continue with online learning for the entirety of the academic year, but this would be a less than ideal option when it comes to student engagement. It could also bring up complicated questions in slashing tuition and to what extent. Likewise, we could completely throw open the doors for all of 2020-2021, and bank on the fact that teenagers rarely die from COVID-19. This to me, seems like the worst option as it puts the parents of students at great risk. In an ideal world, each student, when they wake up, would have to do a COVID-19 test, with the results coming within 15 minutes. If they test positive, they know not to come to school. I have also seen suggestions of schools having an app in which students can report feeling sick. This has promise: students who identify as sick can have all their contacts at school traced. But this would likely have to be combined with the staggered school day option. Additionally, an app that requires students to self-report symptoms can be abused, and this leaves out that there is a five day incubation period in the infected, during which they show no symptoms.

I think the option here that makes the most sense is of staggered school days, with the school year beginning earlier in the summer, like Notre Dame, and thus ending earlier as well. Student engagement is critical, and something that can easily be lost when we learn entirely online. By beginning earlier, we can fit in as many school days as possible before a 2nd wave in which this option may have to be revisited. I suppose forming your opinion depends on how you choose to navigate the complicated see-saw between health and education. And it will be interesting to watch how many will choose the former over the latter, or vice versa, when September arrives.

Since the end of March Break when we started school online, until the end of the school year, my perspective about online learning has definitely changed. Along the way, I also had to adapt to the circumstances of staying at home, as well as how to stay positive when online learning can become tiring. I realized that learning to be positive can help cope with the boredom that can arise and even benefit in the future when COVID-19 is no longer present.

When quarantine first began, my first thoughts about the pandemic were that it felt like a mini-vacation and we wouldn’t have school. Then, UTS moved to an online platform where we could use Google Meet for synchronous meetings and use Google Classroom for submitting homework. I found it very convenient that I could wake up 10 minutes before class and that homework made me busy enough to last the whole day. We could schedule meetings with teachers anytime because there was just so much time. In terms of IT, I learned how to scan, export documents, record videos, and choose a good microphone that could increase the quality of the input sound. These skills were so commonplace that they became my new “normal” of living in these unusual times.

Mid-way, I started to feel tired since I was looking at screens for too long. I wondered what I could do to make myself more excited, so I started to exercise more. At first, it was in the form of workouts inside, but evolved to outdoor activities. Some of these activities included biking, trampolining, and skipping. What surprised me was one time when we decided to go on a car ride, the first one after we all went on lockdown. It felt very worrying, but I felt a nostalgia when we were going towards the school we would be inside without the virus. It comforted me very much and inspired me to work harder for next year in F2 :)

Recently, the school and my friends came up with amazing ideas that could make up for events that were cancelled due to the virus. For example, the school came up with tournaments that would involve accessible games online, such as chess and Nintendo. On the day I wrote this column, my friends hosted a virtual birthday party where we would celebrate online. We hosted our own tournaments and ate virtual birthday cake (which was really no birthday cake).

Overall, I benefited from social distancing not only because I was able to finish my homework, but also because I learned many new ways of doing things and had a lot of appreciation for teachers and staff who organized everything. After experiencing this social distancing, I interpret the situation today as an opportunity to build on resilience and perseverance. It was definitely an experience that I will never forget.

The damage that coronavirus inflicts is extensive and indiscriminate. No corner of society is untouched, and no system is left undamaged.

The education system is incredibly vulnerable, especially in low income neighbourhoods.

The bubble of high schools has burst; despite the seeming equality of students attending the same school, participating in the same clubs, and following similar schedules, the virus exposes the stark difference between each student’s situation at home. Though UTS is not as affected as most schools because it can provide resources and support for students in need, there are still many difficulties students face when attending classes at home.

Students have to adapt to a changing environment, and these new frontiers can be uncomfortable. It’s hard to focus when your dog is barking at the neighbours in the background, or when you have an urge to check your phone every fifteen minutes. One of the biggest struggles faced by all students is the sudden wifi disconnections — if I cut out of the call unexpectedly, how will it affect my learning skills? How can I explain what happened honestly without my teacher taking it as a halfhearted excuse to miss class? There’s nothing better than that sense of relief that washes over you as you miraculously reconnect and submit your Latin essay nine seconds before the deadline.

Despite our personal difficulties, we can use this as a time to reflect on academic changes as a result of discomfort and growth. Everyone feels disconcerted by the sudden change in learning style and the lack of face-to-face interaction, but there are areas of positive growth that can change our learning experience for the better. Online classes create an environment where students are free to learn away from the ever-constant pressure from our peers, creating opportunities to rediscover our love of learning.

There are many advantages of learning in an isolated environment. For example, in your bedroom, you will not hear the chatter of students discussing how many hours they put into their summatives, or comparing the number of hours of sleep they got last night. We do not hear others talk about the x number of pages of homework they completed, or the x cups of coffee they drank to stay awake poring over their notes. There is no longer an unconscious presence of peer pressure to achieve and “be better”.

I recently discovered how much small comments on studying affect my focus and confidence; at school, we compare ourselves endlessly. Feelings of inadequacy surface when we wonder if we’re studying harder than our peers. These comparisons generate an unhealthy mindset towards studying and learning, and frankly, are unrealistic. Even worse, these comparisons steal the joy away from learning, and we forget about our passion for the subject. Without these nagging thoughts, I have seen a big improvement in my willingness to learn and participate in class. I also realized that now, I rarely hesitate to ask for help from my teachers, and the extra clarification and one-on-one discussion has helped me perform better. Isolation allows us to ask for help without the fear of being judged, because no one but the teacher is there to hear your thoughts.

UTS students have the unprecedented opportunity to pursue their interests and execute their studies in private, away from the community that puts a value on everything we do. We have a chance to learn for learning’s sake without the tendency to compare ourselves to the chatter that overwhelms our daily lives at Humbert. I hope every student can take notice of the peace we have gained from the lack of comparison. Through self-reflection, we can recognize the change we need in the student body to seek conversations that support others, not compare. We can choose to sleep an extra hour, we can take a relaxing break once in a while, and we can recognize that our love of learning should not be hindered by the expectations of others.