This article focuses on "gifted" students, but the reality is, and I am saddened that the writer, and the quotes from "educators", do not give credence to alternate styles and the differences in individuals in regards to HOW they learn. It is as if the "gifted" students get the pass to online learning while the other students are not smart enough. We all learn differently. I did not graduate high school, not because I was not "gifted" but I HATED classroom learning and still do. I missed alot of high school also due to family issues, but I managed to become a paramedic in my teens in Los Angeles County, make it through med school and now, for teaching purposes, I am pursuing a PhD - ONLINE. But due to my grades back in high school (when we didn't have online learning anyway yet) I would not today be "gifted". I do have a genius IQ, and have made my path as above in regards to my education. So...we miss alot of smart kids, or those who do not learn well in the classroom, but may learn well from reading on their own (that's me...give me the book or the powerpoint lecture papers that are simply repeated.) And adults? We "learn to learn".

Some years ago when I was on faculty in Health Sciences at a state university we had many older adults and teens mixed in our programs. We had tracked reading levels for years but had not set a defined entrance "level". Then they decided to set that level (pretty arbitrarilly I may add). I asked my department to let me research this first as my hunch said the older students - with the classically lowest scores in reading - were passing the class. I student 3 years worth of data and I was right. The older the student, the more likely to pass even thought they had lowest test scores in reading! I recall, and I have the paper before me now, that the top 5 reading scorers over three years ALL dropped out. Didn't make it! Older studentsw have learned to adapt and like I said "Learned to Learn!"