As Seattle U continues the push for online classes, I will continue to be in vehement opposition of the entire movement.

Let me preface this by defending my current professor, merely a victim of the hybrid course experimentation, who did not choose the online path of her own accord by saying that she has done a marvelous job giving up extra hours of her week to clarify concepts lost in the cyberspace of this obscure online course.

An “education” that is sought out purely for convenience sake no longer continues to be education in the purest meaning of the word. Seattle U is a liberal arts school, a concept whose sole purpose is to educate the whole person in several areas of discipline–rather than merely slapping down a degree for every person who takes a few math classes and calls it good.

Here, as students focus on major-specific classes, they toil through works of Aristotle, together. Talking through subject matter exceedingly difficult to comprehend, together. They think, question, discuss and arrive at realizations pertinent to life beyond the career and classroom, together, that would never come close to being breached at an ordinary university. Let alone in a class that is “taught” via online discussion boards and “interactive” modules.

It is my opinion—as a nursing student thrown unknowingly into an online course, who is looking for an education including real people—that it is precisely because it is the 21st century that education should remain in the classroom.

It is because our generation has lost touch of the concept of togetherness and has adopted the values of efficiency and convenience rather than enrichment and enlightenment.

If paying $60,000 a year gives me an “education” comprised of taking online quizzes and filling out mindless worksheets, count me out.