With the growth of the Internet, schools are becoming less and less important to real life every day.
If a kid wants to learn it is all there on the computer/cell phone.
If they don’t want to learn, then nothing will help them.
Right now the dinosaur teacher unions, leftist propagandist and pervert teachers, and public schools are hanging on for dear life, but they are headed for the dustbin of history.
There _will_ be a better way. Hopefully some young Freepers will have the vision and the work ethic to create it.
If people want to learn, they have the ability to do so at very low cost. Even in the 1800s, Abraham Lincoln studied law by the fireplace in his log cabin.
The Internet has made it possible for people to get a good education without even leaving their house.
Public school for most is a horrible experience. Some affluent suburbs were fortunate to have decent public schools but that is the exception to the rule. Most people in my day got the "Welcome Back Kotter" experience.
Hybrid is probably the best answer for middle through high school.
Have the basic courses online. Lecture can be prerecorded video.
Have one recitation session per class per week for Q&A and progress monitoring. Students will advance through the course at different speeds and that’s OK.
Labs would probably still need to be in person. As COVID has demonstrated, you CAN do microscale versions of labs at home if you have to, and you can even use a simulated lab online, but let’s face it, the cool stuff that really motivates needs a proper lab.
So that’s one or two meetings a week for each class compared to the five we have now.
For the sake of academic integrity, exams would need to be monitored somehow. There are so many ways to cheat even when having a webcam on that having a testing center for exams with a proctor might make more sense. Teacher just sets a date and time and students check themselves into their local exam centers and take it.
Many don’t have time to surf the internet outside of when is their next riot.