Many schools are beginning to challege the common practice of requiring in-person schooling. Some offer students the option to take the same courses at home at their own pace, as opposed to in school and at whatever speed the teacher teaches. For the average student, this is not a good idea to say the least. It gets rid of the social aspect of school, making it significantly more difficult to develop social skills; the lack of having to wake up early and travel somehwere makes them unprepared for higher education and the real world; and while some may need it due to a disability or an unsafe school life, it would be overall harmful for those who just see it as a way to stay home and should not be offered to those types of students.

The biggest aspect of school that makes it different from online schooling is the social interactions that come with it. Throughout school you are put in classes with other students and over time develop skills that help you make friends and become more comfortable talking to, and in front of strangers. By taking classes at home, this is stripped away from the student. They do not get the chance to develop socially and will be massively stunted once they either enter college or get a job. Take a student who wants to do something in finance for example: he belives that the mass amounts of students would only hinder his development in terms of the study of economics. He decides early on that he wants to take online courses and does so for all of High School. He graduates with the same honors as a normal student except when he goes to an interview for the college, he doesn't get in. He wasn't able to complete the interview as he was not comfortable talking to anyone but his parents or prexisting close friends. This pattern happens again when he goes to get a job and while he may have the expertize needed to get the job, he doesn't have the social skills required to flourish. That all could have been avoided if he just took normal High School classes.

As stated in the example before, taking online classes has the potential to hinder your succcess in the real world. By not having any social experience, one would find it difficult to make friends in college as well as later on as an adult. And not only making friends, but just talking to and in front of people in general would be much more difficult if the student has no prior experience of the sort. And it is not only social hinderance that will get in the way of success, it is also a lack of routine similar to that of a typical job. Let's go back to the student for a minute. Say he finds a job straight out of High School and is about to start it. He doesn't know what he is getting into in terms of waking up early and time management in general; he spent his High School years sleeping in, doing the school work in the middle of the day, and staying up late. He isn't going to be prepared for the time management that comes with having a real job. So by taking online classes, you are also missing out on key skills that could be crutial to success later on in life.

Now, for a minute, consider another completely seprate student. He has a diability that makes it very difficult for him to walk, and while at school, he gets bullied for it on a consistent basis. He is in pain constantly from walking around the school, and his mental health is fading because of the consistet tormenting from his peers; he is close to spiraling, but there is a light. He hears about online courses and how he could get all the same education but from the comfort of his home. He seizes the opportunity and starts classes at home; he is slowly but surley getting better and is finally happy. So there is a solid argument to be made for online classes: it can help those who either don't feel comfortable at school for mental health reasons, and it can be beneficial to those with diabilities. In those cases, the offering of online courses is justifiable. But they are courses offered to everyone, and that is where the trouble lies. Students could abuse this power and take the online classes just because they want to stay home, in which case it could be detrimental to their development as a person.

So in conclusion, there are only certain cases where students could benefit from online education. If a student's situation does not fall into those categories, then the student would only suffer from the experience, missing out on social development and other skills that would come in handy later in life. So unless a student has a disability, or just doesn't feel safe or comfortable at school due to a mental disorder or his or her relationship with their peers, under no circumstances should students be allowed to take online corses.