Covid-19 needs no introduction and unless one was living under a rock for the past three years, its impact was strong and potentially everlasting. Economics teacher, Mr. Kurt Gielink, who teaches both the regular and AP levels of Economics at Solon High School, gives his take on the past, present, and future of school, economics class and how Covid affected them.

Q: How are you adjusting to this year after the year on Zoom?

A: This year feels quite normal, except for wearing the face masks. But yeah this year feels pretty normal. I feel good about it. Relieved, and hopefully things don’t go backwards with the surge in the Delta variant.

Q: Do you think that the adjustments that had to be made last year made the material any harder to teach?

A: Well I think any subject was gonna be harder to teach, whether we were all virtual [or not]. the hybrid was very difficult in the sense that you were teaching to students in person and then trying to make that same lesson come across in the same way to the students at home.

Q: Do you think despite the Zoom year that there was still enough preparation for the AP exams?

A: I was disappointed that they did not reduce the content like they had done in the previous year, like they had done in [2019 and 2020]. They actually eliminated one of the units, across the board they did that for all the topics. So I was disappointed. I thought they should have reduced the content because our schedule wasn’t the same even when we were in person and dealing with the students that were at home. It was harder to get all of the content in. I was disappointed that they didn’t reduce some of the content load.

Q: Is there anything you preferred last year compared to the traditional teaching method?

A: No, [laughs] straight no.

Q: Have you gone back to teaching exactly the same way you were before 2020 or not?

A: I think I’m more aware of student needs than I ever have been before. More conscientious of pressures. So I think in that way that just dealing with all the stress from last year made me a little bit more conscientious of the stress that everyone goes through on a normal year. So, I think in that way I’ll be a better teacher.

Q: Do you think Economics was well suited for virtual learning?

A: I don’t think anything is well suited for virtual learning. Um, no. Now it’s certainly easier than like in a science where you had labs, and certainly that is not conducive to virtual learning, so it’s not as difficult as some other subjects. But I really don’t think, in my opinion, that anything is very good when it’s virtual.

Q: If you could, briefly describe how you felt about the virtual year.

A: Hated it. It was just very frustrating and it just didn’t feel the same, you know there wasn’t the same relationship that you built with students in previous years. So there was really nothing that I enjoyed about it.

Q: Do you think the administration handled last year to the best of their ability or could they have done something different?

A: No I think given the time, and given the chaos of the moment, I was fine with the measures that we took to try and keep people safe. Obviously no one was happy with the situation, you know with chaos and no one likes that. But yeah, I’d say it was fine given the preparation time that they had.

Q: Do you think Economic students that took the class during the virtual year are disadvantaged compared to those from subsequent years or prior years?

A: I would say they probably had a disadvantage going into the test. As the AP content goes, with some of the shortened classes that we had, so certainly there was just a lack of time. Less time to get the content in, so in that sense I would say they were disadvantaged.

Q: Do you think College Board handled the virtual year properly or could they have done anything differently?

A: Well I think they should’ve reduced the content like they did in the previous year when everything was shut down. I think they should’ve looked at what schools were doing and all of the back and forth that schools had, you know sometimes you were open and then shutting down again, I think that they should’ve realized that there was not gonna be as much time to cover all the content.

Q: What are some concepts that you wished you could’ve gone deeper into last year?

A: I think the, well at the end we were rushed, and at the end of our content we’re covering the big pieces of macroeconomy, especially the foreign exchange market, and we didn’t really get to that very much at all, so that piece and just the inability to spend time talking about current events. Because we were already behind the gun and trying to catch up.

Q: Do you think cheating was a major issue for your classes during the virtual year?

A: Yes.

Q: How do you think the coronavirus pandemic has changed the future of learning and education?

A: I don’t know if it’s going to change the future, I guess it’s possible that schools may come to rely on some virtual learning. If it comes to it as far as, whether there’s a teacher shortage or you know when a teacher is out, you know a substitute can Zoom in with a regular teacher, or something along those lines. I don’t think, at least in the near future, I don’t see any major changes.

Covid brought about a sleuth of change to the world, at least it did for a year. Whether this change sticks around in the future is anyone’s guess, but economics teacher Mr. Gielink gives his perspective on what might happen to Covid, classes and changes as a whole.