As you know, there was a pandemic in the middle of 2020. This stopped school and we were all cooped up for a year. Do you think that affected you socially? It should be getting better now that we are in school, but it is not. There are a lot of problems that could’ve been prevented, but they weren’t.

First of all, there are the covid precautions. We have to have assigned seats in case someone gets covid. That is understandable, but most seats were put in alphabetical order. I don’t understand why we couldn’t have chosen our seats and then the teacher would write it down on the seating chart. Yes, some teachers did this, but a majority of mine did not. The teachers that did do that had alphabetical seats for the first two weeks. That is a good thing because it gives time for kids to make friends and for the teachers to learn kids’ names. I just wish it wasn’t kept for the whole year.

Next, we don’t have any time to talk to friends. If we want to talk to kids, we have to talk to them at lunch. We can’t make new friends and speak to new people if we have to stay seated at the lunch tables we chose at the beginning of the year. We also get rushed out of the locker rooms in the morning and can’t go to each other’s locker rooms. If we have extra time then why do we need to rush, and why can’t we go to talk to our other friends? 

Throughout my seventh grade year, we had a ton of meets. I saw some people that liked the same cartoons I did or had the same interests, and I could tell that because of their profile pictures. How was I supposed to become friends with them? I couldn’t say something in the meet chat because I would get in trouble. I didn’t want to email or message them on hangouts because then the school could see we were exchanging each other’s numbers or Snapchats. I find that very weird. So I couldn’t exactly make friends with them. We did finally meet because of a club, but what if we didn’t have a club together? I’m sure at least a couple of you can relate to not being able to get in touch with someone.

You probably even have your own reasons as to why school is affecting you socially. I just hope that whoever relates to this knows that other people relate to it, too! Don’t be afraid to speak about something you think is wrong because if someone hears or reads whatever you have to say, they can feel heard.

• Do you think school is affecting you socially? If it is, why do you think it is?
• Can you relate to some of the reasoning in the essay?
• What can the principal, vice-principal, and teachers do to improve this?