text: Despite the many bonuses that distance learning offers, there is something that can be said about the social aspect of traditional public schooling. By forcing students to interact with one another, traditional schools facilitate social interactions between peers. While performing this function does seem to advantage traditional schools, it is not necessarily a bad thing for distance schooling. In fact, students are quite often put in social situations outside of a school setting. Whether interacting with family or speaking to friends, students experience social interaction rather often in their lives. Additionally, as many distance learning programs use video conferences as a means to teach, they can provide a means to teach further social and emotional interaction as well. Schools are not the only means by which students may develop social skills, and distance learning would genuinely not hinder any sort of societal interaction or ability that traditional schools seemingly provide.