In high school research papers become sort of a normal assignment. Most teachers have given me time in class to work on them, which includes grabbing one of the class Chromebooks and working on it. It’s awesome that teachers give us the opportunity to work on it in class, especially since some students might not have access to the internet at home. However, what’s not awesome, is being restricted from so many educational websites.

It’s understandable that there are boundaries, but why do they have to be so strict.  I specifically remember trying to look up something for anatomy and it not even letting any website suggestions pop up just because the word “sex” was in the question.

Obviously, there are good reason for web restrictions. Thus being that it may help students stay on task by having gaming websites blocked. But there also seems to be loopholes. For example, CoolMathgames.com is a website I know many students go to, just to get sidetracked, or simply because they just don’t want to do their work. But that website isn’t blocked.

Unfortunately, when I try to look up something educational that could potentially help me with whatever schoolwork I’m doing, I have to click through 10 blocked websites just to find one that isn’t blocked.

It would be a lot more beneficial to students if the website restrictions were refined. Making it easier to access educationally-oriented websites would improve things so much, especially for high school students. Our school districts should work to lessen the restrictions in order for the students to succeed.