One might argue that the last two years have been the most eventful in all of time thus far. There are so many different things going on it might be hard for people in the future to figure out what is important and what is not. If I were to make a this moment in history starter pack, the things that I think would best capture our social climate are the covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 election, and the Black Lives Matter movement. 

The first thing that needs to be included is COVID-19 because of how widespread and detrimental it is. This virus only surfaced at the end of 2019 and at the time no one really thought much of it. In the beginning there was not much reliable information about it yet and I think everyone kind of down played it, but it finally made its way to other countries in March and almost the whole world decided to go into lock down. There have definitely been other disease outbreaks in the last century but none got as far or were as serious as this. Almost the entire world has had to adapt to COVID-19. Not only has this claimed many lives, it has also affected adults working situations as well as students' learning situations. Students have had to adapt to online learning and this has posed many challenges for both students and educators. It is harder to learn online and it is much harder for students to find motivation to do so at home. This has led to grades dropping all across the board, although some subjects are taking this worse than others. Take math for instance. Students are, “returning with less than 50% of typical gains,” and considering that math is a subject that builds from year to year, that is a devastating hit (Lewis). We still have not recovered from COVID-19, and while I do not know when we will have completely recovered, I think it will be at least a couple of years. There is no question that this was one of the most important things that happened in 2020 and is vital to the starter pack.

The next thing that needs to be included in a starter pack would be the 2020 election since it was so controversial. There was a lot of build up to the election this past year, and people knew it was going to be a close one. Some people thought that the election results were fake, and even though “Trump’s allegations of massive voting fraud have been refuted by a variety of judges,” some people still could not be convinced (Yen). One thing we can all agree on is that politics this year have nearly torn the nation apart- people even went as far as storming the capitol. Donald Trump was ultimately impeached for this, but ended up being acciquited. While this may only directly affect the United States, I believe it was significant enough to include because if our country does not unite again soon there could be serious detrimental effects. This election will certainly be remembered and is impactful enough to include in the starter pack.

The last thing that needs to be included in a starter pack would be the Black Lives Matter movement. This movement was not founded in 2020, however this year is when it gained significant traction in its fight to end police brutality. George Floyd was a black man who was a victim of police brutality and someone filmed what was happening to him and it went viral on social media. Things like this happen fairly often but this time it was different since everyone was at home because of covid. People had time to do research and since then there has been a “change in public attitudes regarding racial and social injustice” (Lemaire). This needs to be included in the starter pack because it started in America however it quickly spread and soon there were protests in countries all around the world. People opposed this movement because sometimes these protests would turn violent and people would break into stores. But it makes you ask yourself why are these people more worried about material goods than innocent lives being lost? A lot of terrible things happened this year but the progress we made in achieving racial justice was one of the good things therefore it should be included in the starter pack. 

In conclusion, COVID-19, the BLM Movement, and the 2020 election are the three things I see to be most important in looking back on this time period. Some people might say that climate change is just as important if not more important than these. I somewhat agree however climate change has been around for a long time and it is not going anywhere any time soon so it is not 2020 specific. Let us all just hope that the next couple of years are not nearly as eventful as this one has been. 

Works Cited

Lemaire, Sandra. “How George Floyd’s Death Has Impacted American Life | Voice of America - English.” Www.voanews.com, 26 June 2020, www.voanews.com/usa/race-america/how-george-floyds-death-has-impacted-american-life

Lewis, Megan Kuhfeld, Jim Soland, Beth Tarasawa, Angela Johnson, Erik Ruzek, and Karyn. “How Is COVID-19 Affecting Student Learning?” Brookings, 3 Dec. 2020, www.brookings.edu/blog/brown-center-chalkboard/2020/12/03/how-is-covid-19-affecting-student-learning/#:~:text=In%20almost%20all%20grades%2C%20the.

Yen, Hope. “AP FACT CHECK: Trump’s Claims of Vote Rigging Are All Wrong.” AP NEWS, 3 Dec. 2020, apnews.com/article/election-2020-ap-fact-check-joe-biden-donald-trump-technology-49a24edd6d10888dbad61689c24b05a5.