Coming to a close

It is finally the last month of the year, December. The month where we are supposedly enjoying the merriness of the season. However, I find it rather odd that a lot of people are not feeling it, more so by the young ones these days. The virus has not only given them the jitters in the way they are supposed to be learning, but in the overall sense of them being children.

They are have been calls to stop the semester and to put everything to a close. As if the efforts of those who have prepared everything for them to learn has been wasted. While it is very frustrating to be learning less than face to face classes, it is also frustrating to abruptly end what has started. But the question is, has the education sector been also listening to the children involved in this new type of learning?

It is quite alarming to be seeing posts of teenagers about mental health, self-preservation and anxiety. The fact that they are conscious about these things would make us question, what went wrong? Sometimes I think it is the way they have been raised up: being entitled to all comfort but it takes us deeper to asking if there are good effects to online, modular and remote learning? It is a bit difficult to strike the balance between giving out activities so that their learning may be assessed versus giving them time off their gadgets to make their being sane. I just think that it is not yet time for the school year to immediately close.

The vaccine is now on its way to being released to the market and that is a good sign. However, I do think that it is not a reason to let our guards down, especially now that it is Christmas season where there are a lot of opportunities to go out and mingle with other people. It is best if we get a hand at it and see if it is really effective. We have reached a saturation point where COVID updates become, more the lack of a better word of it, tiring.

We try to go about this by looking at the numbers which say that the positivity rates are going down and that the hospitals are not as crowded as they were before. It may look like good news but it may be a good point for experts to go about on how policies should be run in our area. Other cities are considering reviving the Christmas tradition of Misa de Gallo, which would possibly attract a number of people. Is it really necessary? Maybe to keep us sane despite the anxiety, but there are other ways to cope.

The year 2020 is about to say goodbye but we are yet to find out many things about how the new normal will go about. The slowly opening up of the economy is not a guarantee that things will be the way it was then.