By Samuel Campbell and Hayden Sampson

Things are tough. They aren’t the same as they were before, and all of a sudden our world was flipped upside down. However, Tempe Prep administration and faculty responded with lightning quick speed, and TPA resumed school in impressive fashion, one week after spring break was supposed to have ended, much faster than most schools.

Whether or not you consider that a good thing, the impressive response by our school to this situation has to be admired. It was at the least an interesting change and teachers have been doing their best to cope. One example of a teacher who is adjusting to the situation is Dr. Riesbeck.

Dr. Riesbeck teaches 12th grade Humane Letters and the 11th grade Greek students. He believes the biggest down-side of online school is the “loss of direct interaction between students and teachers.” Though the situation is unfavorable, Dr. Riesbeck is “confident that the students learn a great deal.” As Dr. Riesbeck puts it, his “fellow teachers rose to the occasion and are working hard to figure things out so quickly.”

Though praise should primarily be for the teachers, the hardworking students cannot be ignored. While different students have different teachers and courses -yielding different work loads – all the students have put in great efforts. Just as the students have different work loads, the teachers have different problems adjusting.

Mr. Sanderson has similar beliefs about the loss of interaction, but this situation has affected him differently. He teaches 11th and 6th grade drama. His 11th grade drama class “has been pretty easy, since it is set and costume design, and that usually involves a lot of showing of pictures and videos.”

On the other hand, his 6th grade drama class was cancelled! The class is purely interaction based and mainly involves working to perform a play. This isn’t possible over Zoom.

However, we can be grateful for what has been accomplished, and appreciate the gift of learning we are continuing to receive. We have much to be thankful for, especially our amazing teachers.