It...depends?

I was attempting to beat back my inner cranky conservative while reading this interview, but didn't altogether succeed (thereby cementing my reputation as a young fogey, I suppose).  Specifically, this description of Davidson's classroom practices--"I structure my classes now with each unit led by two students, who are responsible for researching and assigning texts and writing assignments and who then are charged with grading those assignments"--strikes me as quite interesting, intriguing, and useful...for some students.  It strikes me as a disaster of B-movie epic proportions for others.  For starters, it assumes that the students can understand what they're reading, which, depending on the population, cannot be taken for granted.  It also assumes a certain kind of course (i.e., not two hundred and fifty students), a certain distribution of the student's available time (students who are not working full time in addition to coursework, who don't have families or other caretaking responsibilities, etc.), a certain access to electronic resources (not just databases, but also computers and decent internet connections--which you cannot assume all students have), and a certain kind of student (one who is willing to put up with an instructor who has the students do the grading, and doesn't regard it as an abdication of responsibility).   Moreover, it also assumes a certain kind of instructor (one with the time to invest considerable resources in the students--i.e., probably not someone teaching five courses at four different universities).   In the end, we all suit our instruction to the students; there's no magic potion that's going to "fix" everybody.