If you were an elementary school student in the 1970’s like I was, then you remember predictions of what it would be like to like in the year 2000. I remember dreams of moving sidewalks, I remember talk of hovering cars, I also remember predictions of being able to press a button and having dinner ready. Some of these technological advancements have come to pass on a small scale such as the moving walkways in airports and microwave dinners, but in general, they just turned out to be fairy tales… with one exception.
I distinctly remember teachers talking about the Schools of the Future, where children could attend classes and interact with teachers from the comfort of their own home. This wasn’t something that parents and children made up. These predictions were announced in my classroom. As this prediction comes to pass through the evolution of homeschooling and public virtual academies, I have noticed resistance from the same place from whence the predictions came. But like it or not, schools of the future are here to stay. A recent report on a Canadian website called “National” reports that “thousands (are) choosing computers over the classroom”.
The LearnNowBC program has almost tripled its online student body since it began less than three years ago, says Barry Anderson, executive director of the Virtual School Society, the non-profit agency that promotes the program for the Ministry of Education…
About 17,000 students signed up for Kindergarten to Grade 12 distance-learning courses when the provincial government initiated them for the 2005-06 school year; the next academic year, 33,000 signed up. This year, the projected enrolment is 48,000, Mr. Anderson said.
Canada is not alone in this endeavor to bring the classroom into the home. Australia schoolchildren have been able to access school lessons via radio and computer for years, as some children lived in areas far too rural to access a school. This has also been quite common in Alaska for some time now.
I think the only reason this trend toward school at home has not reached the masses is that two parent homes have made it nearly impossible to monitor children as they do their work.
However, times are steadily changing as more and more two-income homes become homes where one or more parent also works from home.
I am sure some will not see this as a good thing. Teachers unions are afraid of change. School administrators worry about job security. People resent computers taking their jobs. Nevertheless, progress is progress and homeschoolers all over the United States and beyond have proven that children learn better and faster in an environment that is comfortable and nurturing than they do housed in a sterile room full of issues and distractions.
Why I used Time4Learning for Elementary Level Homeschooling