Online school has become popular due to the covid pandemic in early 2020. Covid exposed kids to online school options causing more students to convert to online learning. Students loved the flexibility of online school; however, in-person school is better for student outcomes. In-person school benefits students because they have a structured schedule, more motivation to do their work, and the opportunity to increase social interactions. 

Online school suggests a schedule for when work should be done; however, there is little consequence for the students who do not reach those deadlines because many teenagers lack the executive functioning skills to be successful. In-person, the school provides a schedule that students must meet. If the students do not meet the deadlines, penalties like a 50% deduction or zeros are given. Those deductions may harm a student’s grade, but it teaches them to be better about deadlines and will prepare them for future jobs. Students also do better with an enforced structured schedule because the work actually gets completed. I know a few students in an online course who are not even close to completing their classes after being provided months to complete them. When I was working on my online course, it was harder for me to finish my work because I knew the due date was just a suggestion. My other classes were in-person, and having the teacher there to help and push me to work helped me with due dates and getting my work done on time. School is important, and kids need to complete their work to have a structure for their future.

With in-person learning, teachers can give you that push in motivation to get your schoolwork done. It is the teacher’s job to help you pass their class, so they make it a goal to have students complete their work. An online class does have a teacher, but most students ignore the emails sent to them. The push to do your work over email is not as effective as the push in person. I know students who have hundreds of unread emails, and that one email telling the student to do their work is lost in their inbox. When the student is in person with a teacher present, they have someone to watch them do their work, and to ask questions if needed. I was always more motivated in my in-person classes than in my online class because I had someone to help and motivate me. Students will have more motivation to do their work in in-person school versus online.

Online school gives more flexibility and allows students to learn responsibility on their own. The problem with this is without proper guidance, the students won’t learn that responsibility properly and will end up with incomplete classes. Most students do not do well with flexibility and do not get their work done. It is also easier to cheat while doing online school, so the content that needs to be learned will not be. Without adult supervision, while completing online school, students are more likely to search for answers. The child will pass, but they do not really know anything about the subject. Also, online school gives students more screen time. Excessive screen time can give students health problems and can harm a person’s eyes. The goal should be to reduce screen time each day, and online school prevents that goal from being achieved. 

In-person school allows a child to develop social skills that will benefit them in the future. Most jobs need people who have great social skills, and keeping your child at home to do online school gives them little to no social time with other kids. Having social interactions with other kids is healthy for a child. They need an opportunity to make friends. While making friends there will be some conflict, but conflict can be good for kids, as conflict gives kids the opportunity to learn how to communicate effectively and ethically in the context of disagreement. Without the proper social skills, a student is less likely to be successful because jobs need people who can communicate. 

Overall, in-person school better benefits a child educationally and socially. Online school is not as effective in making sure kids learn the content needed and deprives students of any social interaction. In-person school will better benefit kids and should be the primary option when choosing schooling for a child.