This is actually not a grammar question, not even a language
question, but one having to do with education itself.

I'm wondering whether any of you can point me to any information --
discussion, studies -- on the value of the classroom experience over
"distance learning," particularly for the high school student.

It's my feeling that learning within a classroom, with other students
participating in discussion, with a teacher who responds as needed to
each individual and to the class as a whole, is a completely
different enterprise from that of the individual attempting to learn
a subject on his/her own, in front of a computer at home, through
guided lessons and video lectures.

I believe that this is the case for any of us -- that classroom
interaction contributes to the richness of the experience, that
education engages the whole person, not simply the intellect, and
that even the intellect is driven by the excitement of discovery
shared with others, discovery in part shaped by others -- but I think
it is even more crucial for the younger student, for whom so much of
this learning will be at the core of who he (or she) will turn out to
be.

I have perhaps an idealistic view, and I know that not every
classroom functions at this level all the time.  But I do fear that
the teenager who misses out on the classroom experience altogether
misses out on a great deal.

This is not what is often called a "purely academic" question (though
I happen to like academic questions myself).  Anything you can point
me to, any websites, any books, anything, would be helpful and might
make a difference.


Odile

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