Students’ lives in March of 2020 were thrown upside down without much warning due to Covid-19.  Because of this, students’ motivation for school violently dropped. 

Take it from someone who has first-hand experience with this. Olivia Holloway is a freshman at San Pasqual High School who has lost almost her entire freshman year due to Covid-19. Holloway, just like every other student, was thrust into online schooling last year without any experience of last. Without having built a true connection with the school, she found herself more and more unmotivated as Covid-19 went on. 

“Covid-19 has made it much more difficult to stay focused and with the things going on around the world has put more stress on me,” Holloway shares. 

She shows that this sudden loss of motivation is because school for many students doesn’t seem fun anymore. “I used to find it fun but now it’s more of a drag and pointless. School has also become extremely overwhelming, and very repetitive.”

This doesn’t just affect Holloway, this affects students all over the world. University Of Colorado Boulder has done multiple studies to see how students’ motivation has changed during Covid-19. The first study done before Covid-19 showed that students’ motivation level on a scale of 1-10 was an average of eight. However this same study was done during the spread of Covid-19 and students ‘ motivation levels on average dropped down to three. 

With this sudden drop in motivation there has been a rise in ways to help manage this. For example, some ways to help motivate students could be to set daily goals, create a certain time to relax, or pair your work with something fun and interesting. It is important to keep trying to do your best in school but also take time for yourself. Mental health is extremely important and being stressed about school could lead to a huge downfall in young teens’ mental health.