By: Grace Blumer-Lamotte

On Tuesday, November 8th, 2022, there was an election for the new governor of Minnesota. The results came in the same night, Governor Tim Walz was elected again for the governor of Minnesota. 

On that Tuesday, all Saint Paul Public Schools (SPPS) had a digital learning day. According to the SPPS website, “A Digital Learning/E-learning Day is where students will be able to access work in Schoology during asynchronous time. During synchronous time, staff are available to assist and support students learning via Google Meet.” 

The schedule for the day was a B day. Period 1 was from 8:30am-9am, period 2 was 9:05am-9:35am, period 3 was 9:40am-10:10am, period 4 was 10:15-10:45am. Teacher’s office hours were from 11am-12pm. During that time period, 8:30am-12pm, teachers and students were to be on the Google Meets. 

Students were able to sit in the comfort of their own home, while teachers needed to be in the school that they work at. 

From a student’s perspective, I think this is unfair for the teachers. They deserve a day off; they work very hard educating their students. I also think that they would feel more relaxed in the comfort of their own home. 

I interviewed a teacher from a SPPS school, another student from SPPS, and a parent of a student at SPPS. I asked them these questions:

How did you think the digital learning day went?

Do you think it’s unfair that teachers had to go to school for the digital learning day? Explain?

I asked only the SPPS teacher this question:

Would you have felt more comfortable in your home compared to the school on the digital learning day?

I asked just the SPPS student and parent this question:

Do you feel that teachers would’ve felt more comfortable in their own home on digital learning day? Explain?

The SPPS teacher responded to the first question saying, “I think the digital learning day went pretty well. It was a bit hectic trying to get to all of my classes with only a 5 minute break, but I managed.”

They replied to the second question saying, “I don’t think it’s necessarily unfair that us, teachers, had to go to school for the day. I would’ve enjoyed showing my pets and kids to my students during the Google meet, which is a little upsetting I wasn’t able too, but it’s okay.”

They answered the third question saying, “I personally would’ve felt more comfortable and relaxed at my own house on that day. But again, it was not my choice to make. One thing I would like to mention is that it was difficult to get to my voting place, the one closest to my house, because I live fairly far away from the school.”

A student from SPPS responded to the first question saying, “I didn’t like the digital learning day personally just because I get work done better inside the school environment.”

They replied to the second question saying, “I would only think it’s unfair for the teachers to go to school that day if they didn’t vote already, or they didn’t have the chance because of the location.”

They answered the third question saying, “To a certain extent I do feel that the teachers would’ve felt more comfortable in their home on that day, but I think most of their materials are at school.”

A parent of students from SPPS responded to the first question saying, “For my 2 kids, I feel like the digital learning day went fine. I think my kids are more engaged with in-person learning. Ultimately I support the day of digital learning if it allows more adults to participate in the election.”

They replied to the second question saying, “Yes I think it’s unfair that the teachers had to go to the school, for two reasons. Number one, if students can learn remotely then educators have the ability to teach remotely. Number two, I think our country should make election day a national holiday to free up all workers to more easily vote.”

They answered the third question saying, “Yes, I feel that teachers would’ve felt more comfortable teaching from their own home because, teachers are professionals we should trust them to know what they need to do to educate our children.”