At a recent press conference, Hal Shevers, founder and "head guy" of Sporty's Pilot Shop, mentioned a drastically different training technique that Sporty's Academy has been employing in its ab initio program. Instead of doing things the "traditional" way - planning for the Private Pilot practical test from the beginning - they start all students off by training them for the Recreational certificate as a stepping stone! They do this because they feel quite strongly that today's sophisticated airspace and equipment makes the private curriculum too complicated with too much for the beginning student to absorb.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/features/eye-of-experience-43recreation