Because there’s more to high school than just classes. It’s important to learn how to deal with people as well. A purely virtual high school experience sounds extremely lonely and thin for the soul.
We need some kind of institution to facilitate social interactions between children. Till date that has been the function of schools.
Moving away from this model, without proper deliberation, is sure to cause problems afterwards. And then we’ll all look back and ask why the world’s feeling more isolated than ever.
I would argue that segregating children by age for schooling purposes is a relatively modern idea that probably runs counter to tens if not hundreds of thousands of years of evolution.
As long as high schools are facilities that push some people to extreme actions I think the 'social education' you would get there is too expensive for society as a whole.
Dealing and managing with other people who are incompatible with your ethics and morality is an important skill to learn. Not only does it help you learn asseriveness and diplomacy it also allows one to gain an insight into your own personal bias and teaches you how to respond and not react. A lot of grown, so called 'adults' still need to learn this skill set from my observations in day to day life.
My kids are all homeschooled, including parent taught as well as online education, and have friends of different ages with caring parents that are all very involved. They have outside activities including, music, PE, play time with friends at the park, zoo trips, museums etc.
Long story short my high school allowed gave credit for working, and going to a Communty College.
Once I got to the CC it was relief. My classmates were a lot older, but that was great. Their was no BS. I made great friends.
I didn't like high school much. I was respected because I was a good athlete, but hated high school. I also got a few brownie points because I survived a fight with the ultimate school bully. I went to the same school that our CA governor went to. He was ahead of me, but only graduated because his parents helped him out along the way. I could go on, but don't have the energy tonight. He is very open about his learning difficulties.
O.k. so back to my high school memories. My acne was so bad, I just wanted to hide. My hormones were crazy. I remember having to get to the school at 7:00 for no reason other than listening to some disenfranchised tenure teacher rattle on about their gripes in life. The only thing I liked about high school was a kind biology teacher, and looking at those cheer leaders.
Even at the time, I thought those four years in high school could have been condensed to two year if properly administrated.
If I had a kid, and they hated high school like myself, I would walk them into a CC admissions office.