Which is better, In-person School, or Online School?

With school starting back up, and more and more people attending in person, the question arises is Online School better or worse than In-person school. Now as a high school student, I have been trying to make this decision about which form of school I like better.

Pros of In-person school:

1. Better teacher/student interactions: Students are able to ask question and receive answers from teachers more easier and effectively.
2. Students get to interact with friends: Students can work together and have fun with friends at school, which doesn’t happen much online.
3. More class time and thorough curriculum: In- person school offer longer class periods so teacher can teacher more material and build a better curriculum.

Cons of In-person school:

1. Less free time: Since In-person school takes much longer than Online school there is less free time for students to study or to have fun, which create added stress.
2. Still not completely safe: Even though the COVID-19 pandemic is coming to a close, and more people are getting vaccinated, there is still a chance that students could contract the virus.

Pros of Online school:

1. More free time: Students have more time to study and pursue extracurriculars from the comfort of their homes, which reduces stress in class
2. Hard classes and Exams become easier: For example, Honors and AP classes become less rigorous and AP exams contain fewer items than if they were in-person.
3. Class can be taken from anywhere: Online school is very versatile, as a student can take class from anywhere that has Wifi. This makes it easier for all students to attend class.

Cons of Online school:

1. Easier for students to goof off: Since everything is online, teacher don’t have very much authority over their students. In classes where students’ cameras are turned off, who knows what they are doing. It is much easier for students to get distracted and miss something in class.
2. Less thorough curriculum: Since classes are shorter, teachers can’t teach as much material. So when everything goes back to in-person school, Online school students won’t be as fluent with the material.
3. Little human interaction: Human interaction is a big part of learning in school. Teachers help students and students help each other learn. This is pretty much wiped out in Online school, meaning a lot of self study, which can be hard for some students.

My conclusion is that, while Online school is more appealing to students because of the large amounts of free time, it also carries around some negatives that could hurt students in the future. I would say that In-person school is still better, even if it isn’t as appealing, since it really teaches the values of hard work and studying, which are very important when moving up to higher education.