Resistance to change is universal. Consider the automobile, the airplane, the refrigerator or the Computerized Railway Reservation System. All these improvements are valuable and widely accepted today, but were vehemently opposed when first introduced. So it's only natural that teachers and schools fear they will be threatened with extinction, and be loud in rejecting a new type of education.

Let's take a closer look at the facts:

• Online education will never destroy the position of teachers and schools. Remember how people in the banking industry had the same fears - that computerization would put them out of jobs? On the contrary, computerization created new and better jobs!
• Although parents may feel that authorities such as teachers and administrators, who are intimately involved with education, strongly oppose this innovation, this is not really the case. The fact is, many administrators are openly dismayed by what is happening in education today and sincerely want change.
• Teachers who have had no previous experience in online education, and were opposed to it at first, have become enthusiastic supporters. These are capable teachers with a history of success. They discovered that facilitating the learning of students online is pleasurable, rewarding, stimulating and satisfying. They can see what their pupils are accomplishing, and how they are assisting the children.
• A surprising study, conducted as early as January 1997, at the California State University at Northridge, showed that students learning in a virtual classroom (using online education technologies) tested 20 percent better across the board ("… more flexibility, understanding of the material and greater affect toward math, at semester end …") than their counterparts who learned using only traditional methods.

At compassbox.com, our teachers have many years of classroom experience. Yet, in their day-to-day activities such as preparing study materials and their interactions with students, they are not bogged down by the mundane restrictions and limitations that bind their counterparts in the traditional system. We are proud to have such forward looking teachers who realize the value of moving with the times.