We had a small private k-8 school in my home town that employed this same model (White Oaks School Monticello, IL). I considered sending both of my children.

We had a small private k-8 school in my home town that employed this same model (White Oaks School Monticello, IL). I considered sending both of my children. Sadly, tuition was a little out of reach for us. The school is closed now (they only lasted about 10 years). In addition to the one-room style of education, they had older students mentor younger one, an instruction model that enabled students to learn at mixed pace (accelerated for subjects the student was "good" at, slower for those they were't), music education that included learning to play an instrument at the kindergarden level, and foreign language at the 1st grade level (language choices included: french, spanish, russian, cantonese and many others) Edit: Specifically, the school employed the Reggio Emilia approach (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggio_Emilia_approach)