Melissa Rich, a freshman at Stevens Institute of Technology, says she felt the effects of lowered expectations in her own high-school classes during the pandemic. “I used to be, in middle school at least, the kid that would always get stuff in on time and cared a lot about my classes,” says Rich, who was in ninth grade when Covid hit. “The pandemic changed the way I worked. It definitely stunted me a little bit.”A marine-biology class she took in high school consisted of worksheets. A geometry teacher would let students use a tutoring platform during tests to figure out answers. “I take responsibility for this. I can’t say it’s the teacher’s fault for not pushing me hard enough,” she says, “but when people would just let us do anything, I did not feel motivated to do extra work for classes I wasn’t passionate about.”
I felt this way during the pandemic as well. There was a shift in the way classes were taught and in the quality of work students were expected to do. I always wanted to do my best, and I was always pushing myself. However, during the pandemic, it felt like teachers didn't care as much if you succeeded or not, and they didn't care if you actually learned.