More and more youth are attending high school online, experts say. In fact, about 506,000 students took public school classes using the Internet or two-way video during the 2004-05 school year, according to the National center for Education Statistics—a 60 percent increase from 2002-03.
Reasons to take such classes vary widely, from students taking specialized courses not available locally to fulfilling overdue graduation requirements. While many question whether these courses are as effective as those taken in traditional classrooms, some virtual teachers feel online education has its benefits.
One student wrote to online teacher Trinity Wilbourn, confessing, “[W]hen I first went to high school, I did not know who I was for awhile … I tried being someone I could not be.”
“I feel like, what kind of guy is going to say that out loud in his class?” said Wilbourn.
(Washington Post)
