Thanks for the comment and link. I will check it out.

From my own education, some of my favorite classes were those where the educator challenged me.

The idea of reducing student/teacher ratio is, of course, excellent if difficult to enact in the present socio-economic culture.

Take a look at some of the higher level institutions with low student/professor ratios – higher retention rates, higher graduation rates, more students going on to advanced degrees, etc.

On a much lighter note, good luck on the home schooling.
I quite enjoy this blog – http://www.madeditor.com/ written by the editor of Secular Homeschooling Magazine.

Yes, yes, secular; but it’s extremely well written and I think you’ll enjoy some of her insights/ramblings into the world of homeschooling (she’s very vocally non-religious, not anti-).
Good luck.

@ Tom – Well I never said this would be easy.

And truth be told I could probably start another blog on this very topic (you know in all my spare time).

But to start with one of the main issues I see is the fact our teachers are paid like crap.

In order to be able to get to this ideal situation I think we have to cut the student to teacher ratio way down. That way we could almost cellularize the way our kids learned.

But man it’s a daunting task indeed. But one worth attacking!

I was thinking more about “pulling” topics or subjects rather than the pace. If kids pulled “what” they wanted to learn, I’d be afraid that we’d only teach “fun” subjects instead of stuff that’s necessary.

I absolutely agree about kids being able to learn at their own pace. I was very lucky to have some excellent public school programs that allowed me to learn at my own pace… I guess I assume that sort of education is maybe more the exception than the rule??

I tend to agree with you but am not sure how to change it.

How could a public school allow 30 kids in a class to pull as you call it?

With only 1 teacher I can’t see how it would work.