A 'virtual' teacher's view

"Some educators are aghast when I explain how delighted I was to receive my world-literature student's proposal to film a documentary instead of the standard analytical essay on 'The Epic of Gilgamesh.' The ancient Sumerian legend of a man devastated by the death of his closest friend resonated deeply with my student, who had recently witnessed the murder of her best friend. Her work on this documentary ensures that she'll never forget the Sumerian king and his sorrow, so like her own," writes Melissa Hart in the Christian Science Monitor. This is just a taste of the extraordinary rapport Melissa - an English and history teacher at Ojai, Calif.-based Laurel Springs [online] School - seems to have developed with her distant students, contrary to the pronouncement of one educator of elite young athletes that virtual school "offers endless possibilities," but "you will never have that wonderful teacher who inspires you for life." If you click to Melissa's commentary, be sure to get all the way to the bottom. BTW, she has taught championship figure-skaters, young Hollywood actors, Olympic hopefuls, and world travelers, as well as recovering drug and alcohol addicts, victims of bullies, and children who are in bereavement and chronically ill - "students for whom a traditional five-day-a-week school is impractical."