What does the future of school look like? Studies show that 60% of Americans say that traditional education systems are failing today’s students. There are many flaws in today’s education system that have led to detrimental outcomes. These include 6 million students being considered “chronically absent” each year, university freshmen barely remembering the material they studied in high school, teenagers being five times more likely to suffer from mental illness than previous generations, and much more. Finally, more than 168 million children globally do not have access to in-person learning to date.
These shortcomings of the current education system have triggered the Great School Migration, as schools and students slowly make the transition to online learning for the foreseeable future. Studies have shown that 57% of students feel better about online schooling in a post-pandemic world, and only 19% of teens prefer in-person school. Professionally designed virtual schools offer greater flexibility, improved memory of content, enhanced performance, less bullying, and are more time effective, which is why more and more families are choosing to make the switch.
There are also many useful and lifelong skills that virtual schooling promotes, such as analytical thinking and innovation, active learning strategies, and original thinking. Studies show that active learning in a virtual platform helps students to build critical thinking skills, learn creativity, and improve their knowledge in multiple different core subjects. Future schooling initiatives are also including a grade-free environment, as it is believed that grading limits learning and puts too much emphasis on the number rather than the learning and retention of knowledge. Sora is a community that is making an impact on academics, sees the value in online learning for students of all ages, and is taking initiative to spark the future of the virtual classroom.