As a teacher, it IS hard to find a good balance of what everyone knows. Sometimes quilters take a class just to socialize, and they really don't NEED instruction. Others are such beginners, I've had to help them thread the machine! It makes teaching the class very difficult, because what ends up happening is that you seem to have to teach an indivudual class for each student as they progress to the next step. I don't want to bore students to death, but also don't want to leave others behind. I've taken classes, too where I am much faster than the rest of the class, and it does makes it frustrating. Sometimes, in that instance, i will work on several of the class project at one time so i can keep working, and not just waiting. As my skills have gotten better over the years, I find I don't take nearly so many classes because there ARE a lot of things I can figure out on my own.