The Covid-19 pandemic in 2020, which required all students to do remote learning, shifted the perspective of students all around the world. Online classes introduced an entirely new concept which has changed schooling for the long run. 

The average school day ranges between 6-8 hours. However, students who complete their work at home can often complete an entire day’s work in only 2-3. Aware of this, students are becoming more and more subject to online learning. 

Studies have shown that online learning not only is more efficient, but also more effective. Self paced work allows for far more flexibility and student comprehension than a time intensive physical class. Retention rates can be up to 65% higher in an online class.

An estimated 50% of students’ time at school is wasted time. “At this point, the school is not offering anything that will help me in the degree that I am looking for, so I feel that my time at school is wasted,” stated senior Savanna Schieffer. 

Whether it be in long passing periods, study halls, or unuseful Gen-Ed classes, students feel that their time isn’t being used to its full potential. 

With more online accommodations to their physical classes and more variety in course content, online learning allows for loopholes in students’ inconvenient schedules.

When behind on work, many students take a day off of school to do work at home. When working at home, students can complete all of their work from the current school day, along with any work they may be behind on. “On days when I’m not able to go to school, I get so much work done in only a couple hours. I’m done with an entire day of learning before it would even be lunchtime at school,” senior Bobby Chiarelli said. 

This efficiency can make it tempting for students to stay home from school when they are behind, but this can lead to issues of its own.

Confining a student to only online classes can cause poor social habits which other students their age thrive in.

A lack of classmates and staff can contribute to social isolation. In turn, this strips students of the necessary knowledge of how to handle colleagues and criticism in the workforce. The lack of student-teacher interaction can also accustom students to seclusion and not wanting to ask for help.

Working with other people is very important to the mental development of kids. Doing partially online, partially in school learning can give students the best of both worlds while still maximizing their learning. “Online classes were very beneficial for me because it allowed me to get more classes done in a short amount of time in order to graduate school early,” Schieffer remarked.

While it is not strongly advised that students convert completely to online classes, there are some sizable benefits to engaging in both online and in person classes to get the most out of their high school education.