School has always been a place of learning. It is a a place where teachers and students interact, paper tests and quizzes are taken, and life long friendships are made. However, all the new technology and new ways of learning from that new technology have affected what is done in the classroom. That being said, many may say that online classes or video conferences might be more beneficial and time manageable, but this is a debatable topic. I believe that attending classes from home would not be beneficial for students because it would allow them to be open to more distractions, prevent them from making friendships, and take away the ability to have face-to-face learning from the teachers.

When students are at home, there are a lot more distractions that could get them off track than when they're at school. Their cell phone and other electronic devices are right within reach, and there are not any teachers telling them to put their devices away. Students could also think that it is okay to skip the video conferences or not do the work that was assigned online; this could lead to worse problems such as failing classes because they fail to complete assignments or take assessments. To attend classes at home, people have to be very disciplined and have good time management skills. To be honest, most high school students and younger do not have that type of discipline. They get easily distracted and choose to do more fun activities instead of focusing on their schoolwork and studies. At school, students are in an environment where they are forced to do the work, and they get more done because they are also competing with the other people in their classes. This allows them to be more motivated to get work done faster and focused on what they have to complete. There are just too many distractions at home that could prevent someone from finishing what they need to and learning everything they need in school.

Attending classes online in the comfort of one's home may also prevent friendships that could have been made at school. One of the best things about going to an actual school is the people. The friendships that a person could make in high school could last a lifetime. Staying at home and taking online classes would only prevent the opportunity to meet all these new people that could be someone's best friends; why miss out on an opportunity like that? Sure, some people could make friends from other activities or sports that they do, but the friendships made in school are so special. The friends that someone could make through school are those who would go through the same struggles, emotions, and problems together. Classes from home might make someone feel lonely or bored because there would not be any interacting with people face-to-face. Talking online and in person are two totally different things.

Learning can especially be hard when teachers and students are not physically in the same room together. In order to optimize the amount of time and effort put into teaching a student something, a teacher needs to be able to stand in front of a board and do the work right in front of them while being able to answer question. An online course or video chat may not give a student all the attention and help that they need in order to understand the concepts that they are learning. Some may say that learning at home benefit the students more because there is less stress from the teachers and more time to self manage. This is true to an extent because a lot of people may procrastinate and become even more stressed when they miss a deadline for an assignment or their grades drop; this may be especially stressful because there is no way for the students to get immediate attention and help from a teacher if they are attending classes at home and online.

Overall, the amount of disadvantages to taking classes at home overrule the amount of benefits that there are. Students do better in an environment where there are others around them doing the same work. Students motivate each other to do better without knowing it, and that benefit is not something that can happen from online schooling and video conferencing. People feed off of each others energy and become more competitive at school, and it allows people to grow and thrive. School is a place of interacting as well, and it allows friendships to be made. There are just so many things that someone could miss out on and lose from attending classes only at home, and it really isn't worth missing all of that.