An unknown number--but a growing one--of Americans find traditional times, locations, and even formats of education to be inconvenient. As a professor teaching graduate students at Hofstra, I am accustomed to meeting in person with my students once each week, for slightly under two hours each time. My colleagues who have classes with undergraduates see them twice weekly, for even shorter periods of time. This calendar is more than a century old. (That's why it is so impervious to change!) Yet for many people, it's a very inconvenient plan. Far better, for some, would be three-hour classes, every other week, so that fewer commutes to and from campus would be required. Some of those same people would find distance learning (see Chapter 6) even more convenient, because it would require very little, or actually no, commuting. Distance learning uses telecommunications technologies to deliver instruction at a distance. This holds obvious appeal for parents with very young children, older adults who risk injury when they travel during inclement weather, and people with severe disabilities or health conditions who cannot commute at all or only with great difficulty and at great expense.

Distance learning also appeals to individuals for whom traditional education is inconvenient because it disrupts family routines. Recalling that for some cultures, in a conflict between the quality of family life, on the one hand, and the level of academic achievement of an individual family member, on the other, the family's needs outweigh the individual's, we can begin to understand that traditional approaches to education that place stress upon other family members might be perceived as harmful. Alternatives to traditional approaches may minimize such stress. This raises, as do some of the other accommodations discussed in this book, conflicts in K-12 teachers and in college or university professors. I can understand such approach-avoidance conflicts. On the one hand, I want each of my students to be comfortable with my teaching and capable of performing at their optimal levels in my courses. On the other hand, however, I am a university professor. My role in my students' lives is to be a teacher and a guide. How to resolve such conflicts? I believe that, at minimum, those of us who teach should be aware of, and ensitive to, the dictates of different cultures, even if we insist that students from those cultures adhere to our standards while they are in our educational programs.