It’s a rare occurrence, but something earthquake-stricken Christchurch residents can certainly relate to. In many ways, the city of Christchurch has endured the effects of being snowed in for almost a year, with every new earthquake another disruption. You can see then, why not one but two helpings of snow were not welcome this year.
However, you can’t ignore the foot-high pile of snow at the door, or the images of cars sliding across the roads. So you consign yourself to the only warm room in your home, for as many days as it takes.
During such times, after I’ve bored myself with all the movies and mindless web-browsing that I can handle before restlessness settles in, I get to thinking. Not the sort of deep thought that accompanies a walk home from school or a long, hot shower, but pondering about the situation at hand – in this case, the effects of relative isolation.
Where it hurts
It is clear that, through the disruption that we’ve all experienced, the lesser appreciated aspects of life (which are also the more crucial) have been compromised. Education, employment, even shelter, among others, have all suffered somewhat in these extraordinary times.
I’m not really in a position to comment on the implications for employment or housing, but I can give my take on education. From the comments I see on Facebook and the simple fact that we’ve lost so many hours, missing school has both disrupted people’s education and fuelled discouragement toward schooling in general.
My greatest concern is not in the time lost and the learning that those hours equate to, but the longer-term effects of a skewed routine and, particularly for site-sharing students, the effect of more hours away from school. By this I mean, a smaller proportion of the day spent at school can have the effect of making school seem like less of an important commitment.
As for the more diligent students, who thrive off of time spent at school, they too risk losing enthusiasm, at least in the short-term, simply because less classroom time doesn’t do anything to encourage more commitment after the school bell.
Moving on and moving forward
The most frustrating aspect of all of this disruption is that the students themselves, those whose education risks being impaired by the disruption of the previous year, would want none of it if they had their way. Even snow days, which any other year would have been welcome, are tedious.
Above all, it is the lost momentum, and with it enthusiasm, that will be missed by the students of Canterbury. I can only hope that the resilience of the earthquakes will make returning to the previous state of affairs as fast a process as possible.