Sleeping in until noon, pajama pants all day, and full-blown snack sessions whenever your heart desires? What can be better than that? It is true, attending high school through your laptop definitely, has benefits such as those. In recent years, online high school has rapidly become an alternative option for teens across the globe and has developed into the same curriculum as you would receive in a brick-and-mortar school. Whether public school negatively impacts your mental health or you are a parent who never had the time to get their high school diploma, this may be the option for you. At the beginning of January of this year, I began my online school journey, and it felt like things were finally falling back into place.
Now, I don’t recommend this progressive way of learning for everyone, since it is one hundred percent up to the student to get their work done. All online programs are different. Some have due dates, and some don’t. You need to be determined, driven, and completely independent. You need to be okay with the fact that a lot of your time will be spent with your PC and insufferable re-runs of Saved by the Bell. Although you can email, call, and skype with teachers, a huge portion of this is self-taught.
Before finalizing the decision to join your program of choice, hours upon hours of research are essential. If you live on the West Coast or Midwest, congratulations! You’re most likely going to find a school free of charge since there are plenty of public online programs to choose from. Unfortunately, my state that is New Jersey isn’t very familiar with this new way of learning, and my mother pays a small fee for a school that resides in Georgia. If you have any plans of sailing off to college once you get that diploma in the mail, there is something way more important than prices. Accreditation.
A school that is accredited is a school that is documented either internationally, nationally, or state-recognized as a valid form of education. If your school of choice isn’t accredited, colleges you apply to can argue that your diploma isn’t real. There are a lot of schools that aren’t accredited and have a sneaky way of hiding it. When you think you found the school just right for you, watch YouTube videos, read reviews, and try to contact past graduates and ask them what their experience was like.
When I started back in January, I thought that family and friends were going to look down on me for not continuing my traditional educational path. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised with comments such as, “Wow, that’s so cool! Tell me more,” or “Hey, high school isn’t for everyone.” That last comment is so entirely true. High school isn’t for everyone, but neither is a program like mine. This is a huge decision, and you need to be sure you’ll get a diploma out of it. Thanks to this, I get to graduate early, focus on my passions, and be happy all at the same time.
