This blog post by Will Richardson really got my brain going.

I’m going to go ahead and admit it — I have frequently judged people who homeschool their children. I’ve judged lots who put their kids in private school, for that matter. That probably has a lot to do with the fact that I live in the deep south and those choices are usually made based on religious reasons that (I feel) negatively effect the actual content that those children are allowed to come in contact with. I’ve always figured that I’m a product of public school, and I turned out pretty darn good (note: low self-esteem has never been a struggle of mine). But reading this post and watching Seth Godin’s video, in conjunction with my recent filter fighting battle, really caused me to take a step back.

For a moment, I had a vision. I imagined homeschooling a small group of (5-10) children and having the freedom to teach them to explore, create, share, and learn. I imagined the incredible learning experiences they could have, the discussions that would take place, the creativity that could be developed working with a small group and teaching through project-based learning. I imagined loading them up and taking them places, giving them opportunities to explore and experience things and places. I imagined having no technology restrictions, where I could teach them to be safe but creative, brave citizens in the digital world. It would be so fun, so thrilling, so exhausting, so much work. But I would get to see excitement from these kids and help them create their own powerful learning experiences and then share it with others. Ahhhh…what a utopian world!

It’s a very interesting thought. For now, I’m going to stick with my battles and accomplishments in public schools. But if I ever decide to have children, this though may very well be revisited.

It all brings me to this question, though:

Is it more powerful to impact a small group of children in an incredible way or work with and fight for the masses?