According to The Washington Post, 8 out of 10 of a surveyed group of students who voluntarily switched from attending school at home to online said that it has had a positive effect on their lives. School can cause difficulties and stress for many. Some students handle these challenges well, but others best succeed through a different type of learning. Students would benefit from being able to attend classes online because it would help students who are bullied at school, help students who have long commutes, and increase attendance.

Distance learning would help students who face bullying at school. In the novel

Love, Hate, and other Filters by Samira Ahmed, the main character, Maya, dreaded coming into school every morning because her peers would constantly terrorize and harass her solely because of her religion. As a result, the former excelling student started struggling in her classes and let her grades plummet. If Maya was given the option to take classes at home by way of online or video conferencing, she would be learning in a nurturing environment with her parents instead of a dreadful one at school and her grades would not have dropped. Taking classes at home also would have prevented any emotional trauma she had to deal with. Additionally, in the book

Wonder,

the protagonist was born with a rare genetic disorder which caused his face to look abnormal compared to everyone around him; his classmates would repeatedly bully him about his appearance. Distance learning would tremendously help students with insecurities who face bullying at school. At home, they do not have to worry about what they look like and whether they are being judged by their peers or not. The lack of constant anxiety from bullying allows students to focus on their schoolwork, thus enhancing learning by increasing both their grades and mental health.

Distance learning would benefit students with long commutes. In one of her videos uploaded online, social media influencer Natalie Lynn states that her drive to school every morning is ninety minutes long because she lives in a rural area; in this video, she mentions that she is considering switching to online classes because her commute is affecting her academic performance, mental health, and physical health. Long commutes require students to wake up and get ready much earlier, which affects their physical health by causing them to lose sleep. These students also need to go to bed sooner than students with shorter commutes if they want to get a healthy amount of sleep, which might not give them a sufficient amount of time to complete their homework. Attending classes online from their own home allows students to have a normal sleep cycle and get a healthy amount of rest, resulting in them being more focused and retaining more information during class.

Some people believe that distance learning would lead to low attendance rates; they think that students will sleep through their classes because their physical presence is not required. However, this is untrue, as being able to take classes at home would actually increase attendance. In the television show "Sam and Cat," the main character, Sam, attends online school. After skipping class multiple times due to laziness and oversleeping, the principal of Sam's school called her to let her know that she would be suspended if she had any more unexcused absences. This shows that while one's physical presence is not required when taking classes at home, students are still expected to attend class online and complete all their work, and will be rightfully punished if they do not do so. In a different episode of the same television show, Sam contracts a fever which is so severe that she is unable to get out of her bed. Regardless, she still logs onto the website for her online school and attends the video conference her teacher made because she has an upcoming test. If she was a student who physically attended school, she would have had to stay home and miss out on any new information that was taught that day, which would have set her back in her learning. With distance learning, sick students who have life threatening illnesses to common colds that do not allow them to leave their house can still attend class every day, increasing attendance rates.

Students would benefit from taking classes at home by way of online or video conferencing because it offers a solution for bullying and long commutes, and increases attendance rates. It can have a positive effect on a student's overall well being by increasing their physical health, mental health, and academic performance. There are no drawbacks to schools offering an option to take classes online. No two students are the same and and each person has their own individual style of learning; distance learning will help certain students excel and perform the best that they can. 