Project Based Learning Sounds good, but . . .

When learning and seeing it in action on the video it sound really good. I just wonder if it would work across the board. Introduction to Project Based Learning article has some very valid arguments for PBL; collaboration, tools and skills, performance-based assessment, authentic learning connected to real world issues. All good. As a elementary school teacher it would work, it is like across-curricular projects. Some of our curriculum lends itself well to this approach. I still worry about the time and the resources and different learning styles. Is this another band-aid approach to the education system - like moving from Phonemic Awareness to Whole Language learning? Is there one solution to upgrading the education system to make learning relevant to the 21st-century? The idea behind PBL is exciting to me as a teacher, I start thinking about what I teach and how I could do this and maybe have done this already, but do I want it to be mandated as the way we will now about teaching - no. And the reality is with the amount of curriculum we are suppose to cover I don’t see how this is possible. The article mentions “. . . making deliberate decisions about topics that you want to teach in depth versus topics that can be simple ‘covered.’” What about those students who need more time on some of those ‘simply covered’ topics - we want to shoot for excellence and mastery do we not?