Over the past two weeks, we have seen the world change with astonishing speed thanks to COVID-19. First, there was global panic as people depleted the store shelves of toilet paper and hand sanitizer, then we watched as our political leaders scrambled to guide us and now it seems the dust has settled from the initial panic, with most of us sealed away in our homes, perhaps a little scared, but mostly just bored.

In the midst of the pandemic, there has been some speculation from teachers that, “maybe we shouldn’t push students to work? We’re in the middle of a global crisis, shouldn’t we just let them cope and relax?” NO!

First of all, this is not a wartime crisis where people are busy and have a lot to do. In this particular situation, everyone has significantly less on their plate because we are all stuck at home and everything is closed. For students, all of our sports have been cancelled, most are not going to jobs and our social lives have been limited to Facetime calls and texting. We need to be kept busy or we will lose our minds.

Personally, I’m doing everything I can to stay productive and it’s the only thing keeping me from freaking out over the situation. If all I had to do all day was sit on my couch and watch the news I would be terrified and distraught. At least if I stay busy I can distract myself a bit and pretend things are normal.

Continuing to assign students work is not unfair, it’s a necessity. Not only do we need to be able to continue learning, but this pandemic has already taken so much away from us, don’t let it take away our opportunity to earn an education. We also just need to maintain some level of normalcy. If classes continue, we will at least have the familiarity of assignments and our teachers, and if nothing else, something productive to distract us.