By looking at the implementation of class_inheritable_accessor by ActiveSupport, looks like it is defining not only class methods as well as instance methods. Whats the reason behind defining both class level as well as instance level methods. Is there any alternative function that defines just the class level methods. Please see below for my requirement: I have a model Page for which I would like to define class level variable "title" that can be overridden in its subclasses. But I also have a column in the pages table by the name "title". But by using class_inheritable_accessor, I am getting nil for @page.title. Thanks in advance. -- Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.