Online school: YouTube or Skype?

As the summer of 2020 winds down, a generation of students casts wary eyes upon the dawn of a new school year. With it will come many familiar bugaboos—homework, early mornings, regular bedtimes —as well as any number of new challenges related to the present pandemic.

More specifically, for many students from the sixth grade on up, at least some of the new school year will take place online. (And when I say “sixth grade on up,” I mean all the way on up – Whitman is moving wholly online this semester, as is Harvard.) Now I’m not an expert, but my GPA and I survived a whole quarter of online law...