Student Connections
Think about class in third grade: reading buddies, fun days before winter break, field days.
When was the last time an hour spent with your class felt that connected?
We’ve heard the spiel about a million times in our lives. As our generation has grown, things like phones, social media, and the pandemic have made our willingness to connect and our social energy dwindle. It’s an issue, obviously, but how is it affecting our experience in school?
Teachers have noticed that engagement between students within classrooms has changed in recent years.
“Students seem more withdrawn or less trusting of authority figures. [They] seem reluctant to engage with teachers or other classmates,” AP U.S. History teacher Mr. Lyle Hayden said.
The way we interact with each other is affecting our learning experiences, but it’s damaging the way we engage with each other as a student body in general. As a senior who's tried to stay involved in as many parts of school relevant to me, it feels like I have this one-sided, wailing need to communicate that just isn’t being reciprocated. Sitting in psychology, phone zipped away into a micro-fiber pocket in my backpack, I feel that call for communication being slowly fed.
Mr Hayden explained that in his classroom, placing less focus on cell phones and enforcing communication between students (in lessons, projects, and daily practice) has significantly helped improve engagement and connections in his classroom. But I hope to see this kind of connection built in more places than a handful of classrooms: when I stand on the stage in the student center to announce the next issue of the Wind-Up is for sale, I can’t help but scan over each student eating their lunch. My voice reverbates through the speakers while tables keep their backs turned. Recently, it’s struck me just how much of the effort put into our school and community has become background noise to the masses. Environmental Club meetings find a member shaved off of their roster every few meetings. The Bear News team that takes time out of their class to film broadcasts becomes something people have to raise their voices over to continue living in their own world.
So, I want to ask my fellow students a question: what’s the harm in paying attention to the people around you? Next time Wind-Up staffers wave a month’s worth of work in your face for a dollar, consider that it’s not ramblings or noise–it could relate to you. When it comes time to turn and talk to the shoulder partner you’ve been ignoring all year, ask for their input with genuine interest. Spend these four years in high school willing to learn (beyond algebraic functions).
