At this point, the only thing anyone can expect for academic year 2020-2021 is the unexpected. Having said that, I’d like to emphasize two important back-to-school bits of wisdom. (See also Catch the Wave and Leaving Soon for College?)
- DON’T TAKE REMOTE LEARNING SHORT CUTS. Many schools are opening online or offering some form of hybrid of in-school and distance learning. I worked with and talked to enough high school students last spring to know that in most cases, distance learning is a joke compared to in-school learning. Not only is it much easier to duck and hide from teachers—literally and figuratively—but teachers’ expectations and course requirements are also almost always much lower and less time-consuming. And unfortunately it gives students just enough slack to hang themselves. Rather than think about minimums, consider going well above and beyond course requirements during any and all remote learning periods throughout the year. You’ll likely still end up doing less work than if school were in full session, you’ll learn more in the given subject, and you’ll do your grade a lot of good.
- MAKE IT YOUR RESPONSIBILITY, NOT YOUR TEACHER’S, TO MASTER IMPORTANT COURSE MATERIAL. It’s always sad to hear students say things like, this year’s going to be tough in such-and-such a subject because I had really bad teacher last year who ended up getting fired. Yes, it’s a crying shame when we get bad teachers; but we all get them and we all have to deal with them. And the best way to deal with them is not by playing, even winning, the blame game. In the end, it’s YOUR education at stake, not any given teacher’s, and it’s up to you to procure a good one! With the virtually unlimited free resources at your disposal just a Google away, there’s no excuse for not learning how to solve a system of equations, or to explore ear imagery in Hamlet, to know the five long-term causes of the French Revolution, or how the Krebs cycle works—-particularly in subjects that are cumulative (good luck in Algebra 2 without a solid foundation in Algebra 1, or in Precalculus without a solid foundation in Algebra 2) and in those in which you are considering majoring/minoring in college.
Whether you’ll spend most of this year at home or in school, YOUR learning and positioning for college are both in YOUR hands. Don’t pretend otherwise, don’t look for shortcuts, don’t let them slip through your fingers, and do put forth your best effort: in this way, you’ll leave the competition behind. We’re to help 🙂