Forcing society to stay isolated, the coronavirus pandemic is one of the biggest, most life-changing events in world history. The global situation is going downhill, socially, and economically, and governments are doing all they can to keep their countries afloat. School is now done from home, but that comes with its own set of problems and difficulties.

While teachers and administrators try to adjust to these circumstances, there is no real, strong system that an entire school district can follow yet. The differences between middle school and high school e-learning are a result of this.

To start off, middle schoolers are obviously at a lower difficulty level in education than high schoolers, but that does not excuse them from getting work. While the system was in shambles at the beginning of distance learning, Barrington middle schools have decided for teachers to set up mandatory Zoom calls to mark attendance while giving out necessary learning tools and work. At BHS, however, students are given work while teachers have certain office hours to conduct Zooms or create a platform for students to ask questions. There isn’t any system of Zooms like in the middle schools.

However, there are some similarities. Both schools have specific days for specific subjects (STEAM/Broncos Days and Humanities/Fillies Days) and have Mondays as a “catch-up” and social-emotional learning (SEL) day.

The middle school and high school education systems are now quite different in terms of teacher interaction (via Zoom) and amounts of work. If one had to choose which system they wanted to learn from, they should find the middle school more appealing. Middle school requires teachers to have a mandatory Zoom call with their students. The main purpose of the Zoom is to take attendance, making e-learning seem more similar to an actual school.

Every class is different in high school, and so a Zoom may not be required and students may find it a bit irritating if there was one. But the Zoom doesn’t have to take very long and students can show up and get attendance points with ease.