When Victoria Vial High School in Miami closed last spring and her classes went online, it felt like the beginning of an adventure. “I was in my pajamas, sitting in my comfortable chair,” the 13-year-old recalled. “I was texting my friends during class.”
Then he received his academic progress report. A student A and B before the pandemic, she failed in three classes. The academic slide left her mother, Carola Mengolini, in tears. She urged her daughter to create to-do lists and moved the girl’s workspace into the guest bedroom to pick up her grades.
During the summer, Victoria’s tennis and theater camps were canceled. Her family postponed a planned trip to Argentina to visit her extended family.
She formed a pandemic pod with five close friends, but the girls quarreled. Subcliches formed, and Victoria and her best friend found themselves excluded. The forest fell apart.
Returning to personal school last fall brought some relief, but with some of her classmates still at home, teachers had to shift their focus between in-person and online children, leaving students feeling disorganized behind.