Talkback: News

The benefits are many and the downsides are very few. But why not work from home, too? The point made about how schools haven't really changed much from a hundred years ago is exactly right... why should kids be limited to a 5 day a week, centrally located model?

The definition of education itself is expanding. Kids should be able to have contact with professionals in their field. They should be able to remotely operate telescopes and other tools. And they should be able to discuss and debate online, just as we are here, with other kids around the globe. Wouldn't it be great if, instead of having one teacher for a subject, they could have many?

I teach computer courses on the college level and I'm always reminding my students that they have the whole internet as a resource... I certainly don't have the time within the limitations of a semester to teach them everything. And education isn't limited to 12 years of public school and then college... education is a lifelong pursuit that must not be constrained by narrow avenues set down by a few.

Cut the chains! Kids are so much smarter than we usually give them credit for... many behavioral problems stem from boredom with a system that tries to treat them like cattle.

Kids WANT to be challenged... the fact is that often they get a watered down experience that they know intuitively is just another semester of 'going thru the motions'.

The really bright kids too often get held back, and the kids who need more help often get short shrift, because we still want to give them a 'one size fits all' experience. There's no excuse for not expanding their opportunities.

I am not sure where everyone gets the idea that kids that will take an online course offered through GHS will be doing so from their bedroom and not interacting at lunch time with other kids. I assume the students would take the courses while physically at GHS using computers at the school.

This seems an excellent way to offer a wide variety of courses on a wide range of subjects that could never be offered in the traditional way. Students could pursue courses in things that actually interest and challenge them.

In addition the courses are likely to be created and taught by someone who is a true expert in the subject matter.

In an era where we have little ability to hire teachers for "elective" courses it seems a very smart idea. For example, I imagine the number of foreign languages that would be available in this kind of curriculum would be many times the German, Spanish and French that were available when I was a student.

On the "socialization issue": Kids get into trouble for talking and otherwise interacting in the public classroom setting. ...for the most part, anyway. That government school setting is still modeled after a 19th century factory mode. So what's wrong with offering an on-line supplement? (And to the person who noted that homeschooled kids exhibit shining qualities, I agree.) Education (and "socialization") need not be a one-mode-fits-all scene. Let's open it up!

It's about time!!! The schools are already out of control, budget is a mess, kids are not learning enough to even pass the MCAS. My child who is in the 6th grade in Greenfield Middle School, who is doing very well according to the school, take a grade assessment test from an independent organization, and according to the results my child's education is at a 5th graders level. Not good, not good at all. All I hear from the my child is how crowded the class rooms are, the number of fights that take place every day, and how teachers are constantly yelling at the kids. Virtual Schools are not for everyone, but they are options. Sick and tired of old idealogy, out with the old and in the with the new.

ANY suggestion to get kids to learn is GREAT . I did an online course for my College PHD and LOVED it . THE ability to sit and do your work for your own schedule is wonderful. The trick is to be responsible and get the work done, for the kids learning online this would foster responsibility and self motivation, building self confidence I think that it is a wonderful idea, I hope this can go forward and I too wish I could go back.

This is an awesome program IF it is done right. For instance, participants can be structured at the 9th grade level and higher. This gives NINE years of standard social interaction before offering the virtual school.

I feel it should be implemented to ALL students from 9th to 12th. Some major changes need to be made on the state level that allows for accelerated learning by student able to move faster with adjusted graduation times that reflect actual scholastic achievement vs time server. Early graduation once a student tests at a 12th grade level.

All testing should be done in person, this eliminates the cheaters. You may not know if the student really did the work but you will know if the student actually learned.

That's what they go for right? Not to serve 13 years.

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And as usual the crowd has blinders on. This expands education into area's that have yet to be spoken of. Virtual Classrooms is the ultimate vocational school, technical school and academy connector.

Even teens in lockdown can have real education.

Teens in hospital beds don't have to "fail to graduate" because they got sick.

And yes, home schooling your kids just got a whole lot easier.

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I'm excited for the kids. Makes me wish I could go back..

Are the schools that pull kids from GHS through School Choice offering such innovation as this?

Will this stop the exodus?

Looks like more smoke and mirrors from a failing school adminstration to cover up lack of progress on any real issues.

Thom.. there are ways, obviously, to insure that the work is being done by the student, as anyone who uses secure banking or other electronic 'fingerprinting' knows.

I think you're just stuck in thinking that if it was good enough for you growing up, it should be good enough for kids now. There IS a hostility towards computers by some who don't understand or use them.

This is THE tool of the 21st century, get it? It's an essential skill in today's world to know how to use a computer.

Not to say that educational computing doesn't need oversight and careful screening to prevent 'crapware' and fraud to prevail, but that's just a matter of course.

The same faults you give to computer based education already exist in traditional classroom education (cheating, intellectual theft, etc)... it's not like we're abandoning a perfect system. In fact nobody is talking about doing away with classroom time at all, so what's all the fuss?

Retired teacher... many people do work from home now, and do fine. There's no reason why people should have to drive 30 miles to a job where they spend all day at another computer when they can log in from home. This means less pollution, more efficiency, and gives parents with young kids more flexibility in keeping their kids at home and not having to spend a fortune on child care.

Gee, The children of today are going to get a rude awakening when they have to haul their fannies out of bed and actually show up for work 40 hours or more a week. They are barely in school now. Maybe they can get virtual jobs ;)

Kids these days are already lazy,,,who can tell if the kid is the one actually doing the work behind the computer. What type of motivation is going to have a child learn from behind a computer at home. The kid will never learn the skills to socialize if he or she is locked away at home. We thought we had lazy generations of kids now in town ...this will be worse!!! VERY DUMB IDEA !!!

Kids take to computers like ducks to water. It's only rational that we take advantage of this and give them as many avenues to an education as possible.

There are many subjects that can be taught BETTER using computers, either at home or in the classroom. Kids can learn at their own pace, and can access media, interactive tools, and indeed the whole planet thru a computer.

I personally am all for the expansion of computers in the schools. Traditional textbook-based education is mired in high costs and cannot respond to changes in the world quick enough. How many years after the breakup of the USSR did our kids continue to rely on outdated maps, for example? With electronic publishing, this isn't an issue... material can be updated quickly and inexpensively.

beg to disagree, reega . It's the wave of the future, with schools going broke, and parental concern about some of the "socialized" kids that you may not want your kids "socializing" with. All of the homeschooled kids that I've met, are the most educated, polite, and mature kids you'll ever meet. There are plenty of other methods to "socialize" - we go to school to get an education, not socialize. The people you speak of, must not have taken alot of interest in their child's well- being to start with, or they wouldn't be lazy, inactive, or disrespectful. I speak from my own experience, I've been in classrooms that the teachers had absolutely no control over the students, let alone try to teach them anything. But, of course, one parent must be able to take on the responsibility. Parents are their kids' first and most important teachers. teachers.

It is so clear to me that most of you have absolutely no idea what you're talking about! The idea that virtual or on-line classes "is just going to produce inactive, lazy, disrespectful, unsocial children" is absurd.

You know a 'few other people'.

Well, that's certainly enough evidence to shoot the whole thing down, eh?

Seems like a way to make lazier kids... I know a few other people in other states that have this option of "Virtual Schools", and they are lazy, they sleep all day, do not exercise, do not eat right. There is no interaction with Virtual Schooling, no friends to hang out with during lunch or between classes. To me, this seems like the School Boards way of being able to cut class sizes, and reduce spending at the "brick and mortar schools" Yet, leaving teenagers to spend all day at home while their parents are at work, doing who knows what... I say they need to think more about this option, as it is just going to produce inactive, lazy, disrespectful, unsocial children.

@spicoli - You're right, but these alternating Greenfield public school stories are just too fun to pass up!

One day, the earth is opening up and swallowing the school system due to who-knows-what problem, and the next day the Recorder trots out a story on a great and wonderful innovation by the staff.

Right through the heart!

I lie bleeding on the floor!

"Out to Lunch" - you're absolutely correct. We choiced out in Middle School and I'm out of touch with day-to-day at GHS.

Where have you been, Snark? Numerous GHS students take freshman level courses at GCC already with this year seeing a record number of participants. As the parent of a child who has participated, I can tell you the counseling office at the high school has worked hard to make this happen. But I guess it's more fun to get up and comment on things of which you apparently know nothing. Maybe your time would be better spent researching your snipes.

If the high school would drop the rotating block mess, kids could travel to GCC and take freshman level college courses.

But this would probably reduce the classroom count at GHS and lower their state funding.

I hope they've improved this offering since the late 90s/early 2000s - it was known as an 'electronic slacker course' back then.