I agree completely with ichMael in that our current system does severly limit kids... The teacher is always have to bfring up the rear and in doing so boring the crap outta everyone else...

Actually, we are not all that far from complete "indpendent study" for core curriculum courses where kids learn at their own speed on a computer with the teacher being more a tutor/facilitator... Yeah, I know that lots of folks will howl, "But, Bobert, kids won't learn social skills if they are learning from computers..."... Well, yeah, that does need to be addressed and I think a system that leaves the core subjects to the computer and social subjects and discussions to groups...

True story: My son Will-to-me-Ben-to-everyone-else (don't ask) was a terrible student... I mean, he went from school to school to school and by 9th grade he convinced his mother that he shouldn't have to attend school anymore and so they supposedly did "home schooling"... Problem is that they really didn't do any schooling... Well, one thing that Will did have going for him were alot of cimputer skills from playing virtual computer games, such as "Dungeons and Dragons"... Now I'd always heard that "Dungeons and Dragons" was a terrible game until I found out that in order to be really good at it, which my son was, one had to have a purdy decent understanding of alot of stuff that is taught in schools...

Well, to make a long story short, after a few months of Will supposedly being "home schooled" he took and passed his G.E.D. 2 years before he would have graduated from high school... He's now attedning college in Oregon and getting very good grades...

Will is just one example but there are millions and millions of kids who falt out won't thrive in a traditional school but would de very well with independent studies... This, IMO, is the future of education...

B~