Opinion: Reopening School

By Matthew Guan

Reopening school has always been a topic of discussion since quarantine started. Not much was known about it at the start of quarantine, and we were guessing that school would reopen very soon. But unfortunately, most of us were wrong about that statement.
     Before we get into when we will reopen school, and how exactly, we need to talk about the consequences of opening school, and whether it would be a good idea to. I won’t necessarily be on any side of this argument, but I will state the pros and cons in this argument.  
     Of course, if we reopen school at around the time that the virus still has a few million cases, there is a chance that people will be infected. That’s the main problem of reopening school. I mean, masks may not help as much as we think they will, as some may take off their masks sometimes, and they aren’t always as effective. 
     Reopening school would stop virtual online school, and would decrease the screen time for students. One of the problems of virtual online school is that it is too much screen time, and as we all know, that could hurt our eyes. Virtual homework could increase the screen time of students as well. In addition, according to an article, I found that some people don’t focus on homework as much as they do physically than virtually. That could cause some students to have lower grades, which could affect their education. In this scenario, I would say that it is a trade for a thing for another. In this case, it means that we would have to trade safety for education. 
     Now when we’ll be able to go back to school, as we have gone over what would happen if we go back to school. Most parents have been wanting school to reopen, according to some surveys, but most are also concerned about whether or not we should at what time. One reality is that we could reopen when cases drop to much less than our current situation, but that could take a while. But ever since this new COVID-19 vaccine has been out, most think that we could be reopening schools in just less than a year. I would say that after a few months of deploying the vaccine and having most of the population vaccinated, we could start going back to school. But we should still keep on our masks until we know that COVID-19 is almost totally wiped off.
     ​In conclusion to my statement about this vaccination, reopening school around the time of this article has more cons, but it will be possible in possibly a few months after the vaccination. And students can finally take a break from reading on this screen, after almost a year.