There has been yet another school shooting, and this might look like yet another hot take. But the solution is literally in front of our eyes. You are all reading this on an electronic device that can provide you with almost all the information you could ever need, and yet we insist on physically delivering each and every student to a brick and mortar school. We force bullies and their victims to sit in the same room day after day. There are thousands of acts of violence committed by students that never make the news because the schools can′t or won′t do anything until it escalates to the point where a parent sues or a child dies. Kids can just easily learn at home as they can inside a school building.
So I propose that students grades 6 through 12 be allowed to attend class through the Internet. In past decades, this proposal would have been dismissed out of hand because not enough parents had Internet access and the technology wasn′t there yet. Today, Americans are constantly buying new gadgets and throwing out last year′s toys that still work. We could be providing each child in this country with a donated, second-hand computer and home internet access for those who can′t afford it.
I′m not calling for the abolition of public education. Most children benefit from learning in the company of their peers. But some kids create problems and should be separated from the student body. And other children learn better without the distraction of other kids around them. In-school education should not be a mandatory obligation or a guaranteed right. It should be a privilege to be earned by each student. Adolescents who are old enough to be alone without a babysitter should be allowed to study at home. Our education system should be more flexible to accommodate children with a wide variety of needs rather than forcing everyone to go to school in the same building.
Or those on the right can continue to offer thoughts and prayers, those on the left can continue to sneer at those thoughts and prayers, and the violence can continue.