Online classes are a wonder of the 21st century that have been gaining popularity dramatically over the last few years. This distance learning has had many pros and cons, though, it has been improved ever since its beginning. Many students have already taken online classes, and though responses have varied from student to student, the overall consensus is that online classes have ultimately proven to be beneficial. Distance learning is a foreign concept to many schools, similar to online classes, that would allow students to sit in classes from wherever they may be while unable to attend school. While some students believe distance learning would prove to be too stressful and taxing, distance learning would be beneficial for students not able to attend due to illness, family vacations, and instances in which students have no method of transportation to school.

Distance learning would be beneficial to students with illnesses or injuries that prevent them from attending school. Just last year, I had a fellow student in my biology class get held out of school for more than four months due to a stomach ulcer and later diagnosis of celiax disease. I kept in touch with him while he was out, and he told me that his school work was being sent to his house for his completion along with a mentor for guidance. Upon my friend's return to school, he had completed all of the work assigned to him for biology. However, once our teacher began to lecture about cell organelles, he had a very poor knowledge of the prerequisite work assigned needed to understand our discussion. Work assigned to kids on home-bound is normally not difficult to complete, but a true understanding of the concept cannot be achieved without the guidance of a teacher and classroom environment. With the addition of online seats to listen in on the class discussion, my friend would have been able to get the help he needed to pass biology, and the rest of his classes, as if he were at the school itself. Kids on home-bound often fall behind the rest of the class, since they don't have access to as many resources: teachers, other classmates, extra texbooks, extra practice work, etc. Distance learning can offer students on home-bound the ability to listen in on teachers' lectures, and class discussion, making it an indispensible tool for schools and students.

Another use for distance learning is for students unable to attend class time due to vacations or other outings their parents may require them to go to. Last fall, my family took a weekend trip to Generic_City, Canada, but they insisted on leaving on Friday morning. Even though I told my parents that I was missing our most important lecture in US history before the test date, they insisted further. On the long ten hour drive up, my thoughts only consisted of how poorly I'll do on my history test with my lack of opportunity to study. Upon receiving my grade for the test, I saw the lowest score on this test than any other assignment in that class. Distance learning would have provided me with the opportunity to sit in on our class lecture and get the study material in the same style of lecturing that I was already used to from my teacher. This, thereby, would have improved my grade, and many other students with similar scenarios, in the class by a whole letter grade.

One final useful situation that distance learning would be greatly beneficial in is during situations in which students have no method of getting to the school itself. One of my best friends is a very hard working student, but he frequently falls behind his classes. The reason he falls behind is because he misses some days of school without notice. This is normally due to him sleeping in from a faulty phone alarm, which he has no control over fixing. He lives too far from the school, so he can't walk there, his single parent is at work by the time he is awake, and he does not have access to a vehicle; this leaves him no option but to stay home for the whole day, missing out on valuable class seat hours to give him the best possible educational opportunity. Distance learning would provide him, and many other students with similar stories, with equal opportunity to learn with school provided chromebooks in the household. I've watched him and many other students temporarily fall behind in classes and watch their grades drop from only one missed class. Distance learning has the power to provide access to maximized classroom learning time for all students.

The gateway to true equal opportunity in the classroom began with the distribution of free chromebooks to all students in Generic_City, and it will become true equality once missing school due to uncontrollable circumstances isn't indirectly penalized. Whether it be illness, family emergency, vaction, or any other situation of similar likeness, the student almost never has any control over these events. For those students who must miss extended periods of school, equal opportunity is not given, thus making our school unequal until distance learning is implemented.