Schooling without restrictions.

-Parent, Class of 2012

Our son attends the Online High School part time as one of several online programs he takes advantage of while attending a traditional school. Because of these online schools, he has the opportunity to take classes not available at traditional schools. Because of these online schools, he can take classes without age or grade expectations or restrictions.  Because of these online schools, he can take classes at his own pace and chooses from those that have the best reputation, rigor, outcomes, or suit his personal learning style. We have yet to experience an online school telling our son he can’t take a class, while we have had to fight numerous traditional schools, both public and private, for appropriate grade level or class placement.

Students in online schools, like those in traditional schools, have plenty of opportunity to find social interaction inside or outside of school in religious, business, professional, athletic, scientific, volunteer and other organizations. Often, they do it without the age or grade lockstep mentality found in a traditional school. In reality, the flexibility of an online schedule can give students more time to interact with their passionate peers as much as the demands of life allow.

In their online world the students are surrounded by highly motivated students who self-select to be there with likeminded souls. Within the limits of their online world they share, they struggle, they support, they giggle and they goof off just like everyone else. As parents, we occasionally get to watch them interact with their online peers and their instructors and provide them with comments on appropriate social etiquette and netiquette in the real and digital worlds.