Many people may think that attending school online is better than going to school in person. They say that it is better for mental heath and classes can be more advanced or personal for the one student. I would say that I disagree with that statement, although on some aspects I do agree. Yes, online school would be better for students' mental health now but what about in the future when they lack basic social skills? and yes, the online courses could be more personalized to a specific student on some softwares, not all. Even if online school is more personalized that would leave the student with a very self involved attitude that would not bode well for them in their future lives.

People with the idea that online school is the better option also have the misguided notion that waking up when one pleases is a good thing. This would be correct if it were in moderation, however, I would argue that practicing to wake up on time for school is a valuable life skill that will most certainly benefit students in their future lives. In the real world, employers are not going to wait around for whenever their employee wakes up, they are going to set a time when the employee should be at work and expect them to be there. Employers aren't usually looking for candidates that show up late to interviews or employees who show up late to work every day. Not being punctual can not only hurt people in their professional lives, but also in their personal lives. Friends, family members, and significant others are going to want to invite their loved one to breakfasts, lunches, parties, and more and are going to be upset and angry when they show up late or not at all, which could end up with that person losing a lot of people whom they care about. Compromise is a skill that is required in the real world because no one gets everything that they want and when there are arguments or disputes the only way to solve them is to compromise. This is another skill that is very frequently learned in public schools due to the amount of students and how different they are, it is also something that online school curriculum lacks because it is a commonly practiced behavior.

Often times, people who are homeschooled lack social skills, not all but as a generalization. Many public schools offer organizations and clubs such as DECCA or FCCLA for students to learn business, public speaking and organizational skills. It is true that online students most likely would be able to join these programs, but it would be more difficult for them as the programs are based on school activities and organized around the school schedule. People who attend online school may feel like outsiders in these groups of students of which all go to the same public school. To add to the social skills provided by public schools, students even attain social skills just by showing up and interacting with their peers, teachers, and administrators. Students who are schooled online may not know what type of relationship or the nature of interactions they should have with future employers or coworkers because that is something that puclic school students practice every day without thought, therefore it is not in the curriculum for the online students to learn. Branching off of social skills, online school students may not know how to interact with those who are different than them due to only being exposed to their family and neighbors on a daily basis. Public school students encounter people of many different races, religions, sexualities, ableness, and neuro activity. Because of this, these students have no problem facing the real world with all the people who are nothing like them. Online students may experience a type of culture shock when they go to college or enter the workforce and meet a person who is a different race than them, someone with a disibility, a person on the autism spectrum, or even a person who practices a different religion than they do. This is a sensation unknown to most public school students because of how they are exposed to many different and diverse groups of people at a young age. This type of culture shock could cause problems for these online students in our increasingly open-minded and progressive world.

One of the apparent reasons that students attend online school is to escape bullying. Statistically, bullying has reduced significantly in the past 30 years, yet these are the years when online school was introduced. No one can justify targeted and repetative bullying, however, light teasing can actually create thicker skin and teach students how to cope with people being rude to them and how to handle constructive or not so constructive critisism which are heavily prevailant in the real world. Consequently, the new technology that made online school an option also created a new type of bullying, cyberbullying. Even attending school online cannot prevent one from being cyberbullied as it is through the very technology the use for their education. In public schools students can learn how to deal with bullies and how to react when people are less than nice to them but online school students may not know how to handle cyberbullying and become unstable. This contradicts the argument that online school is better than public schools for the mental health of students. Many public schools now have zero tolerance bullying policies and have student clubs and organizations that conduct in-school activities to counteract bullying and provide safe spaces for students.

Ultimately, there are benefits and disadvantages to both online and public school and all students are different so it is up to parents and students to communicate and find what is the right choice for them. The question I believe should be posed when deciding between an online school and a public school is, how are people supposed to adapt and learn from the world if they are sheltered from the very world they are meant to grow with? The answer is very simple, they cannot.