Editorial: Heading for future shock in schools

Monday, June 6, 2005 | 9:07 a.m.

The Clark County School District's "Virtual High School" fills a growing student demand, for sure, but it makes us uneasy about the future of education. And why wouldn't it? It's a school where students never have to show up in a regular classroom, except for standardized tests and final exams. All of the course work is absorbed and studied at home, via the student's home computer. Teachers deliver their lectures in real time. There are class discussions and questions are asked and answered, just like a real classroom, only it's not. It's probably a home office, or bedroom, and there are no classmates in sight.

Virtual High School in Clark County has a full-time enrollment of about 160 students. Another 7,000 students log on part time for various classes and such specialized programs as tutorials in proficiency exams. Virtual schools are the latest refinement in distance education, which caught on in the 1800s when colleges began offering correspondence courses to adults who couldn't take the time to enroll personally. What makes us uncomfortable about today's form of distance education is that it's moving rapidly into schools all over the country and making large enrollment gains each year. What's going on in the world today, when even kids can't take the time to personally attend school?

Is this the future of education? Millions of students sitting home rather than venturing forth into the world each day, there to meet, and learn to socialize with, hundreds of other people? What kind of agoraphobic society awaits future generations?

It's a question that deserves thoughtful answers as the next generation of distance education captivates our students and school administrators.