High school students resist returning to structured environments because they won't give up the autonomy and self-paced freedom they've experienced. Adolescents value independence so much that most choose personal freedom over social benefits, even when offered.
Where my brain went when you asked. It actually had less to do with the building or the network, or the connectivity between schools, or even the size of schools. And it had more to do with decision making, power and agency, and whether or not the high school was self paced, whether or not there was freedom. Because I think once the high schoolers live and move and have their being in a space where they can decide, they typically do not want to give that up, even for the social, the component. Now, some will, but most are like, they value that more, it seems like, and maybe it's because of this developmental stage that they're at where they're really valuing that independence and that freedom, and they just don't want to go back to an environment where they're having to listen to whatever and follow whatever.
