Iserious research recently published in the journal Epidemiologyconclusions were drawn – once again – about how shutdowns and online learning ended up being very damaging to children's emotional and mental health (obviously some groups of children were hit harder than others, with financial security playing a big part in the calculations). This is not a big surprise since both parents and students were dissatisfied with the distance learning environment.
However, despite the general consensus that online learning is not as healthy as brick-and-mortar school, a new trend has emerged post-Covid: the rapid rise of online learning for tennis players and other athletes. Parents and their young athletes believe that being able to play for a few hours a day instead of after-school activities will accelerate their progress in the sport while still leaving room for academics. And from my perspective, as the parent of a competitive tennis player attending a “regular” school, it seems that most advanced juniors are studying in an online school rather than a physical building, this is the rule and not the exception. I often find myself talking to the few other parents whose children continue to attend mainstream schools as our species rapidly dwindles.
Consider ICL Academy, the largest online school for tennis players. According to Dayton Hansen, Chief Operating Officer of ICL, “Since 2020, total enrollment at ICL Academy has increased 4,300%, with a particularly strong increase in the number of competitive student-athletes. Today, we serve approximately 532 competitive tennis players from across the United States and around the world. This is by far the largest number of youth tennis players attending a single school. What we are seeing is not just a surge caused by the pandemic; sustainable growth.” The shift is being driven by families seeking a model that will allow their children to achieve academic success without compromising their learning, competition schedule, mental health or long-term development.”
What about socialization in an online school environment? Hansen responded, “At ICL, socialization is not an afterthought; it’s a core component of our program development.” When we asked more about what this actually means, Hansen said, “We place a strong emphasis on face-to-face interaction whenever possible. A great example of this was just last week when we brought several of our staff to Florida to support our students and their families at the Junior Orange Bowl. We do this several times throughout the year, bringing our students together across the United States as they compete in various tournaments and events.”
Tristan Stratton, 16, is a supernaturally gifted tennis player and one of the top juniors in the United States. He is enrolled in ICL, which his mother Meg Stratton says is a good fit for now. “I didn't make the decision to enroll my son in ICL lightly,” Ms. Stratton told me. “Our intention was to keep him in full-time high school. And I'm glad Tristan spent two years in a regular high school. But the travel and logistics involved with him competing in national and international tournaments made that untenable after a while. Now that he's in online school, he's much more focused, and it's frankly made our crazy lives easier.”
This sentiment is echoed by another parent of a child learning online. Laura LaForce of Virginia enrolled her 17-year-old son Cole in Laurel Spring Online School. She stated that “since [Cole’s] With freshman year approaching, it seemed like the right time to make the move. We were no longer concerned about the loss of socialization since he had already been in high school for two years. Before going online, Cole felt it was impossible to miss school for tennis tournaments, leaving him with very little time during the day between school, tennis practice, and homework. Cole wants to play tennis in college, so taking this step to have more time to practice and be able to travel to tournaments was very important.”
In the tennis community, the gold standard for online learning is undoubtedly the Dwight Global online school. Dwight Global, an offshoot of Dwight School, a private school in Manhattan, believes it has found the perfect combination of online events and in-person electives. Since Dwight has its own physical school, this makes it an ideal option for New Yorkers. That is, if anyone can afford it, since Dwight's annual price is more than double ($42,000) than ICL and other online schools.
According to Blake Spahn, vice chancellor of Dwight Schools, “Dwight Global School enrollment has more than doubled since 2020, representing sustained multi-year growth rather than a temporary pandemic blip.” Additionally, Spahn states that “Dwight Global is the result of a 14-year start-up, deep institutional learning and continuous improvement rather than a quick pandemic-era pivot. We have been creating, iterating and perfecting interactive online education long before it became fashionable. This experience allows us to provide a level of academic rigor, personalization and student support that rivals, and in many cases exceeds, the best traditional schools, while offering flexibility that traditional models simply cannot compare.”
Additionally, Spahn says, for those students who desire more personal interaction, “We have brick-and-mortar schools around the world where our online students can gather in person for a variety of activities. For example, we host an annual orientation; Steam weekend (Science, Engineering, Computer Science and Robotics) that allows students to do labs together; music concerts; Model UN and many other events.” I asked Spahn how many online students participate in face-to-face activities and thought he didn't have an exact number. He stated, “I can confidently say that many tennis players are involved in some form of personal activity, be it orientation, extracurricular activities, simply using the library at one of our schools, and almost all of them attend prom and graduation in person.”
While most children and parents seem happy with their decision to go online, I spoke to several parents, who preferred to remain anonymous, who said their children were unhappy with the online setup. “Hitting tennis balls and staring at a screen all day for school was stunting his emotional and mental development,” one New Jersey mother told me.
Is there a type of child who thrives best in an online environment? From my point of view, there seem to be two groups of children who are best suited for online learning: children with very high academic achievements and top ratings are ideal candidates for distance learning as they travel a lot; and then those children who had problems adjusting socially in mainstream schools, whether due to bullying or other emotional problems.
Mary Beth Finegan, clinical director of the New York Division of Sport and Performance Psychology (NYSPP) at the Child and Family Institute, says online learning may be beneficial for some students. “Online education for student-athletes has its benefits in terms of reducing the stress of time management due to the flexibility that online classes provide. Elite-level athletes often require extensive schedules of in-person competitions in multiple locations throughout the United States and beyond. For the mental health of student-athletes, consider research that shows that specializing in one sport too early leads to burnout and how social support networks help prevent burnout.” But when asked an either/or question about which is more optimal, Finegan said that “in my personal experience, face-to-face meetings promote better social interaction among youth, including the ability to read facial expressions and nonverbal communication of others.”
In addition to the massive increase in the number of athletes choosing online education, over the past couple of decades in the United States there has been a sharp increase in the number of young athletes – often at the insistence of overinvolved parents – who are now deliberately “overclassing” (staying one or even two classes back) to gain an advantage for college and, in the minds of many delusional parents, professional sports. In no other sport is this practice of reclassification more common than in tennis.
And there is probably no other sport more excruciating to watch your loved one compete in than tennis. In my opinion, the emotional and mental pressure that children (and parents) experience far exceeds any other sport. Watching Little League baseball games and road trips in years past has been mostly fun and joyful. Watching high-level junior tennis is agony and stress-inducing, and grueling relief is often the best outcome one can hope for. In fact, tournaments should be required to provide portable blood pressure monitoring devices for distribution to parents.
So why then do we allow our children to engage in such a painful activity? Because the clichés are certainly true: sport builds character, and the path of junior tennis prepares children to cope with adversity and learn from failure. Lots and lots of failures. After all, we were taught: what doesn’t kill…
Since the chances of becoming a professional tennis player are infinitesimal and getting into a high-level Division I tennis college is extremely difficult, parents need to be brutally honest with themselves, if not their child. No one wants to suppress the dream of becoming a professional athlete, an accomplished musician, a dancer, or any other activity that they are passionate about, as they are all worth putting in the effort. But what is the real purpose of a child's education in a distance learning environment? All other things being equal, would any parent really doubt that communication with peers and personal dialogue with teachers is not better?
Every loving parent strives to give their child the best opportunity to prepare them for life. Who wouldn't always want the best for a child? But there is a fine line between wanting the best for your child and doing what is right for him, making him stronger and more confident by giving him opportunities and advantages, but at the same time showing him that life is not fair and that obstacles will always be present.
What is certain is that online learning is here to stay and will likely only continue to grow. It will be interesting to see if this forces traditional schools to change and offer some sort of blended learning so they can keep up with the times. In our increasingly fragmented, isolated society, where life has become more à la carte in how we receive and process information, and universal shared experiences are less common, online learning contributes to this trend.
