As of Friday, March 13, Hillsborough Public Schools made the decision to close schooling for a “minimum of two weeks and will follow a flexible learning schedule,” because of the recent COVID-19 panademic.  This choice was in result of governor Phil Murphy declaring a public health emergency, preventing groups of 250 or more people to get together, which was then recently changed to 50 people or less.

Hillsborough high school students had been authorized to attend online schooling for at least two weeks until the virus debilitated. The recent culture change surely has taken a toll on the average student, leaving a lot of kids with mixed feelings about taking online classes. Most of the feedback has been pretty varied. Junior, Josephine Genovese, reached out and talked about the online schooling situation. “I am not the biggest fan of online schooling due to the fact I feel rushed for time and I feel like I can’t get enough thought into what I’m doing,” Genovese said. “Regular school is better in my opinion because the teacher is right there to answer all my questions and explain the unclear directions that are given to us online.” 

Though, there are also some pros to the learner, there is a simpler work load of online schooling given only 30 minutes for each class period. Students have been saying ending two hours earlier is all worth the harsh independent tasks they have to complete with online instruction. Sophomore, Aastha Patel, spoke out about her experience of flexible learning. “I like working at my own pace,” Patel said. ” The workload is a lot lighter, and being in the comfort of my own home really adds to it.”

As days go by, the virus continues to spread wide and far, adding a significant amount of new cases, potentially extending our flexible learning to a later date.  President Donald Trump claimed yesterday that the virus could last until July or August, with San Francisco being the first major city to go on 24 hour lockdown for the next 3 weeks.  The recent events have posed a lot of questions for citizens across the globe. Many residents feel that the world is slowly shutting down. Some citizens even mentioned how it almost does not feel real. We are really in for a roller coaster ride in these upcoming weeks.