This article was originally published in the Nov. 12 print issue. Read it here.

We used to be too cool for school, but now we might be too old for school — especially online school. As older students, online learning can be difficult. I spent my childhood in the classroom, face to face with my peers, teachers and the workload. The only time I worked from home was when we would have leftover schoolwork, or if our teachers were just cruel. 

I remember banging the erasers for the chalkboard and seeing my first whiteboard. I was in the first classroom in our school to get a Smartboard, and good golly, was that an adventure. We barely had any schoolwork at all that day because the teacher didn’t know how to work it. Eventually, we gave up and just used a dry-erase marker. 

But now, as students again for the first time in a decade and a half, some of us are the ones navigating software that we’ve never seen before. Sometimes we’re the same age as our instructors­ — and much older than our classmates. Thankfully, schoolwork seems to have gotten easier, but how do we do school when we need to learn how to use new digital technology? Even just learning how to work on a computer can be stressful. 

Working alongside our younger counterparts is an eye-opening experience. Many came into post-secondary fresh out of high school. They haven’t had years, sometimes decades, between education. 

Some of us have been working for so long, we forget what it’s like not to be in charge, to ask questions again instead of answering them. Some of the students coming into post-secondary had a head start learning how to do online school because of COVID-19. Even though they lost out on many in-person experiences, the familiarity with online learning is an advantage. How do we compete? 

For example, my classmates started a Discord group to communicate. I had never even heard of it. Downloading the app and learning about it just so I could ask my fellow classmates to clarify something the unfamiliar, asynchronous instructor said took me almost an entire day; a day some might have spent away from work, kids, household chores and other schoolwork. 

To my younger readers: can you imagine asking for help learning technology from someone in junior high (or even elementary) just so you can do your schoolwork? For some older learners, that’s what it’s like. You are entering the adult world, and technology is growing with you. Meanwhile, education surpasses your senior counterparts who are just trying to relearn their place in this world. 

I thought online school would be as easy as clicking the thing and answering the questions. But I spent the entire first week of school struggling to meet deadlines because I could not, for the life of me, figure out how to work Brightspace. Even with all the tutorials, I was lost. Thankfully, my 12-year-old nephew showed me where to find individual assignments. 

When you see someone walking through the halls with a backpack who looks like they could be a student’s parent, just remember: they might be an older student who feels like they just lost their reading glasses.