The place that we call the “model home” is different this year. The Upper School is learning from home, while middle, intermediate, and lower schools learn at 330 W Webster. With this comes increased stress levels from parents, teachers and staff members. This stress stems from both being stuck at home and the threat of COVID-19. This year has been difficult for the majority of the world, Parker included. The Parker community shared their opinions on the decisions put in place by the Parker administration.

Senior Veronica Rodriguez shared she would “love to be at school to converse with friends in the halls, but because of the coronavirus I have put that aside and feel like remote learning for now is the best option.” Rodriquez also shared she believed, “remote learning has given me space and time to think about the future, work on college applications, and pursue some interests of mine.”

 “I would love to be in school with my friends, but I value the safety of the student body even if it means to sacrifice some of the physical and daily interactions with students, teachers, staff, administration, etc.,” Rodriguez said.

 Rodriguez has a sense of hope and optimism in remote learning and eventually being back to school in person. “Remote learning comes with negatives and positives, and the only thing I hope for is for things to get better and lead to more future physical interaction with others.” 

“Online teaching has gone so much better than I had anticipated,” said Upper School History Teacher  Andrew Bigelow.

 Bigelow said that his students have adjusted well and have risen to the occasion. However, “I do miss seeing my students in person. I also miss my colleagues because so many of us have been friends for some time,” he said.

 Even though Bigelow would love to be in school right now with all of his students and colleagues, he also said that “I do believe that it is the safer way to be, and as much as it hurts, we have to stay home to protect our kids and families.”

School Nurse Anne Nelson has been coordinating the health response. “We’re doing a lot better than I expected,” Nelson said.

 She believes that Parker has done an incredible job with in-person school. She said that when school first started, “I thought we would be remote by now.” She said that the students in grades JK-8 that are in person are doing a great job following the coronavirus rules and regulations, as people are doing a great job social distancing and always wearing their masks. Even though in-person school is working for the most part for the lower, intermediate and middle school students, she still thinks that the Upper School should be remote. Nurse Anne believes this because “high schoolers are at a time in their lives where it is very important for them to have social interactions with their friends, and they can’t do that right now in an in-school environment.”

 She also believed that we would have a better experience online than the in-person alternative. “If high schoolers were in school, they would not be in classes with different people from different grades, as everybody would be split up into groups that they take all of their classes with.”

In high school, everybody takes different classes at different levels and with different groups of people, and that wouldn’t work if they were in school right now. She hopes very much that the upper school will be able to be back in the building very soon. 

With a glimpse of optimism in an otherwise unfortunate situation, Nurse Anne added she has “hope spring will be a time where we can all be together.”