The perceived shortcomings of American public schools have made them the object of numerous reform efforts in recent years.

This is nothing new. If one looks back on the history of public education in America, it has been under attack at one time or another at least since the 19th century, sometimes for not doing enough, sometimes for doing too much.

There are numerous reasons for the situation, but probably the most significant one is that schools reflect the culture in which they exist, and that culture is always changing. Change may come in a slow, incremental fashion, or it may by sudden, triggered by big events, such as war or major economic disruption.

Society’s institutions of necessity change with the society, and adapting to those changes is especially true of schools. In recent years, America has become economically and culturally more diverse.

For schools, that has meant demands for broader choices and more attention to the individual needs of students. Many schools have moved aggressively to address those demands, and, with the help of technology, they have been able to do so.

As with many changes, this one is likely to cause some problems, and it won’t be popular with everyone. One might question the wisdom of a child growing up in a virtual world, where most of his interaction is with faces on the computer screen, for example. Moreover, virtual schools may pull resources from regular schools and make it more difficult for them to educate the vast majority of students, who, at least for the foreseeable future, probably will attend those schools, because virtual school is definitely not for everyone.

Still, the concept of virtual school is here, and it likely will become a bigger part of public education in America as our culture struggles with the question of how to educate our children. If virtual schooling helps us educate those kids, it’s worth adopting.