By: Addison Seei

After a lot of reconsideration, many school districts have chosen to go back to in-person learning for the spring semester of 2021. For some people this is great news, and others not so much. After talking to a couple students, I found out that students would rather be attend school in person for learning purposes. Not only do some students learn better in a face-to-face situation but students are also missing out on meeting new people. With this new year being a hard one already, students are now also missing out on time to hang out with friends and meet new people at college.

A couple school districts near the Quad Cities are starting the spring semester with a five day in-person week. Cambridge and Orion are two school districts that will be participating in a five-day in-person week. They are going to try and stay open for as long as they can operating a five-day week. Students who went home for break at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign must test negative twice, once returning to campus before they can go to classes again. The University of Illinois at urbana Champaign wants to ensure that their students are safe from the coronavirus on their campus.

Schools have said that they have gone to extensive measures to keep students safe while attending in person classes. Mandating that each class room is cleaned after every day of in person learning. Schools are putting up plexiglass dividers, and allowing space for classes to become smaller and of course mandating the use of masks. Teachers feel students learn better in a strictly learning environment. Teachers have said that the amount of homework turned in has decreased since the corona virus has started which has led to students failing courses. Overall, it’s going to be a long time before all schools can reopen for good. Hopefully by the end of this year all schools will reopen completely.