The Seeds of a New System of Education

The classroom is primarily where schooling occurs. However, there are many new phenomenons that are developing that some believe evetually will have a bigger impact on schooling in the classroom. For instance, home schooling is prevalent now a days. Children are being educated at home by their parents. And, they have found that students who are home schooled achieve significantly higher test scores on standarized tests, which I was a bit surprised to learn this. Also, distance education is another very popular avenue for schooling. The virtual courses are very popular with college students, and it is said that soon virtual course will be used a large amount in high schools. In my opinion, I do not believe that the virtual courses are the most effective way to educate people. I think these virtual courses are impersonal and to me, learning is more effective when it is more personal. Just as an example, my sister is a freshman in college and took an online public speaking course. I think it is ridiculous to have an online course for a class like public speaking. It completely defeats the purpose of the course. However, I know there are pros to virtual courses ecspecially for people who may work full-time or have other conflicting time issues, or have a child. In addition, learning centers I view as a very positive, beneficial educational resource outside of the classroom. Leanring centers, like Sylvan, allow people to be tutored on topics that they do not know well and reinforce what they have learned.
One thing I want to mention was how the book stated that many adults return to schools to further their education, while others use the internet to gain new knowledge and learn about things that interest them. And, yes, I think it great to have access to internet at anytime; however, I hope that in the long run the internet is not solely relied on for education. I agree that we need to be life long learners and learn through other venues than the classroom, but I hope that all of these newly developing venues never discard the classroom. Even though the book states that they will not, no one knows what lies ahead in our future and I believe anything is a possibility.