Amidst the current pandemic, many people’s uncertainty has been aroused  as to a possible date we may return to normalcy. It seems to be returning slowly; however, not at a pace in which everything might be normal comparable to prior years. I propose we should, however, for the following reasons. 

Student attendance is at an all time low, due in part to the non-mandatory facet to attend in-person school. A plethora of cons to the newly implemented system deviate from much motivation to perform well on a daily basis. A myriad of distractions surround these students, aside from their bed sitting a few yards from them at all times; expecting them to sit still for hours on end is a fallacy, and should never be the expectation set by our school system. The new infrastructure not only affects students, but teachers as well. They are essentially teaching two classes, incapable of attending to all students’ needs. The teacher isn’t even able to know whether the student they are trying to reach out to is present in their class due to cameras not being required to be on. I believe the scholastic system and higher ups should abandon this inefficient method of learning, and return to mandatory in-person attendance. 

Students aren’t retaining required knowledge which are used on the provided assessments, particularly the STAAR test, in which I’d expect the scores to be low. Furthermore, students are able to pull the answers not from their brain, but rather from a simple few clicks. Reprimandment will never (and can never) be assured to these students, as they aren’t there to be reprimanded. All of these facets considered, it’s readily apparent the need to return to normal learning is vital if we don’t desire a downtrend of test scores and performance in school.