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- [00:00]
A
Foreign. What it is. Welcome to Planet Tyrus and today I'm taking on an educational tour into the new frontier that is AI. That's right, AI learning. We're going to talk about today with Mackenzie Price. Mackenzie Price is the founder of the two hour learning and co founder of Alpha school and an AI powered K through 12 network built around a 2 hour daily academic model. She's a Stanford alum and an educational entrepreneur. She promotes personalized mastery based on learning that compresses core academics into focus app based work so students can spend the rest of their day on life skills, projects, athletics and passions. Under her leadership, Alpha reports students progressing significantly faster than peers and scoring among, listen to this. The top percentiles nationally while adults in the room serve as guides who coach motivation and habits. So it's a very interesting concept. They're in their opening schools all over the country. So please join my guest now as we talk about all things education. Again, this is an educational episode of Planet Tyrus. For those of you who are wondering who this amazing woman is sitting off to. Me, this is Mackenzie Price, Stanford University graduate. All right, psychology. So don't pick my brain, please. And prominent education entrepreneur. Which is. Education and entrepreneur is an interesting combination.
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B
It is sorely needed in education. Right. That whole industry has just been this kind of languishing, you know, babysitters. Yeah. I mean, and you know what, by the way, that's an important, we need that in society. Like we need a place for kids to be able to come together, be socialized, all that. The problem is the way the traditional school is doing it now is not doing a good job at that.
- [02:05]
A
No, it's random tablets and they've taken a lot of the core life skill classes that kids need, especially boys when they don't have the ability to burn off energy. Not just with pe, but then we had wood shop, you had mechanic shop, you had all these different, you had art, you had all these different music, you had so many different outlets, sports and stuff. And they had so many different outlets and they seemed to reduce it to just classroom break time. And as a teacher I just remember seeing it was such a big change from traditional classes to all of a sudden it became grouping and then dumbing down the. Once the curriculum and the lesson plans dumbed down, you've lost. I think you've lost because when you're not learning, you're also not interested.
- [02:52]
B
No, it's a losing battle. And you know, one of the things I find so sad. I'll have kids come up to Me and they'll tell me about, you know. Oh, yeah, we get, we get recessed twice a week for 20 minutes or you know, PE is once a week or we've had. This is a crazy one. Tyrus. I can't even believe schools do this. I've never, I, I need to ask someone who actually implements this at a school. Silent lunches, you're not allowed to talk during lunch. And you know, it's. Yeah, stuff like that.
- [03:16]
A
Most of your friendships issues were solved. Some of the greatest lunchbox trades in the history. I mean, I used to, I learned how to wheel and deal and negotiate at the, at lunchtime. You got, you got an extra thing of Oreos for mom and someone has an extra thing. That's a negotiation.
- [03:31]
B
You got a trade for sure. Yeah. And I, you know, when you think about the few bright spots that are in, you know, a school day, it's lunch, it's pe, it's recess, you know, and those are all great things, but school needs to be so much more than that. And you know, where you're spent sending your kids for 13 years, five days a week, six hours a day, it's just gotta be more than what it's been and.
- [03:54]
A
Okay.
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B
So did you like school growing up, by the way?
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A
I liked school because for me it was a safe place.
- [04:01]
B
That's good.
- [04:02]
A
And I liked. I didn't have to focus on home life. So I liked school a lot. But I also was really into the books and libraries. Like school was a great escape for me. So I took advantage of every activity. I volunteered for, like after school program I'm in, you know. So for me, school was a great place and I got lucky. I had some really good teachers that kind of had ways to inspire me and challenge me. I think being challenged was probably. And being brutally honest at times, I think really helped me. I remember a PE teacher would, you know, if you couldn't pass the fitness stuff, he'd tell you, like, hey, stay out the Twinkies. You know, if you want to pass this test, but it would build up. And I just remember like, failure was not feared. I guess that's the difference I've noticed as an educator. When I was a kid, failure was not feared. Like if you failed, that was the blueprint for how you pick up the pieces and get going.
- [05:01]
B
We, and that's at our schools, failure is fuel. We want kids to fail forward and often. And you know, I think sometimes too, one of the things we say is that kids will, sometimes they'll struggle, they will fail. They may even cry a little bit on their road to success. And unfortunately, I think in society, kids are pushed away from failure. And some parents don't like seeing that. But that's where you can learn so much, right?
- [05:26]
A
Well, not to mention the fact that you, you have to as a parent, not just as a parent, but it's the scrapes and bumps and scratches you get in life that molds you, and you can't shield them from that. And when you do shield them from that, you do more disservice to them because you're not always going to be there. And the first time in the real world kicks in, you don't walk on the job and hit a home run the first day, there's going to be failures. There's going to be people better than you. There's going to be people who are not better than you, but know how to manipulate better than you. You know, there's going to be situations in life and, and when you take all those things away in a, In a, what should be a closed setting, which is education, where that's a good place to experiment with failure and success and being challenged and, and improving. But it seems like they wanted to take that all away by dumbing down everything. So I remember if you got. I remember the first time. My, my, my kids are pretty good in school. I only had a couple issues, but I remember it was one test that my daughter had done, and she got a 64 on it. And I was like, man, that's almost a D minus. And she's like, what are you talking about? That's C plus. And I just, I was like, I'm sorry, what? How? Yeah. And she's like, it's C plus, not just C or C minus. C plus. Which means you can go a little. Yeah, you can keep going.
- [06:47]
B
No, they've. They've gotten rid of grades. In fact, I live in Austin, Texas. One of the very best school districts in that area just came out saying that they're going to give for, like, elementary school kids, they're going to get rid of grades and they're just going to give A's or M's. So the M's are mastered and then the A is approaching mastery. So think about how long that Runway is in approaching mastery could be from, I don't know, Jack, anything to, you know, maybe I'm there and, you know, it's just parents. That's another problem is parents don't get any real transparency or view into how their kids are doing at School these days, right. And teachers, and I hear from teachers all the time, they're lacking the ability to really, you know, give. Give truthful responses on this. They're, they're basically like, I can give A's or B's or A's or M's in this situation. And you know, that's part of the problem we talked about just when you were saying entrepreneur in education, like it is time for something different because what we have, it's, it's not working well.
- [07:49]
A
And I was just, while we were talking, it just popped in my head. When parents, they want the A and the M, you think that has a lot to do with how much social media has influenced parents behaviors. Because everybody wants to put on their social media their best foot forward. And it's usually nothing like their real life. But my child's a straight A student.
- [08:11]
B
Yeah, a straight A student, which means approaching on all is the worst.
- [08:15]
A
But it's like, I'm weird. We're a great family. But then when you get a camera inside the house, everyone's sitting on their phone in different directions in the same room and you could drop a pin. So it frustrates me because I think I remember if I was to. I remember one of my buddies and I, we got answers to a test and I usually got about a 78 or an 81 on like an average score on my test. And all of a sudden I had a string of tests, like 99s and I remember when I brought it on, I always missed one. Cause.
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B
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were being a smart che, huh? Yeah. Okay.
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A
And I remember coming home and wanting to put it on the refrigerator. My mom just staring at it and staring at me and staring at it and staring at me.
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B
Something's different here, huh?
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A
And like question 12 and read it to me and I just remember going, shit. She was like. And she made an appointment, went down to the principal and I had to out myself and my, my cohorts because she knew, whereas parents today wouldn't. Oh, of course my child got a 99. Of course he did. Like the arrogance of. I call it ignorant arrogance that we see when it comes to our kids a lot or the ones parents try to live vicarious through them or they set ridiculous goals for their kids to meet because it makes them better. But they're not actually meeting the goals that parents will. That's why I see someone as a teacher. I never saw pushback as much as I did. Whenever you came into talking to your parents about grades or homework or Things that kind of puts it on them. There's so much pushback now. Where before parents would be like, okay, even if they were working two jobs or whatever, like my mom did, she found a way to check our homework or to make sure they were doing even if it was a phone call, but they were always working in line with the teachers. And that relationship has been completely severed.
- [10:06]
B
It has. And I think teachers feel the brunt of that. Parents don't feel like their kids are really being cared for in that village kind of community environment. And you know, the bottom line is you have to have the, the importance, and you said this of a caring, supportive adult with high standards.
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A
Yes.
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B
That's going to hold you to high standards. That right there is the key to, I think kids happiness is high standards with high support.
- [10:32]
A
Nothing builds self esteem by setting strong goals. And coming up short is not a bad thing because you know, you can, you can measure where you were from where you started and there's improvement and then you can adjust and you can go. And that's what teaching is supposed to be. So which we're going to jump into this because, you know, this weekend I, I was on tour and I had my son on tour with me and he's 14 and he had his two baseball buddies and his cousins and they were doing, they were my heads of security for my sweet comedy.
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B
Put them to work early. I like that.
- [11:03]
A
They worked the tickets, they did the chairs. Like they, they pull their weight. And we were in the, I was driving with them in the car, getting ready to drive and they were talking about school stuff and they were all like, hey, you get in the AI program. I heard our school's gonna have it, so it's ironic. And I was like, what's the AI program? And he's like, oh man, it's like you can just do your math and your English like a short time and then you get it done, you know. And I was like, oh, okay. All right, fellas. So it's around there. This was in Orlando, Florida. They were talking about. Only one school in the district had it.
- [11:31]
B
Oh really?
- [11:32]
A
So everyone's trying to find a way to transfer, move their kids. And my kids were talking, if the kids are talking about it, which means it's, it's a thing. So it's a, the name of the, it's an alpha model. It's alpha school and it's a two hour learning. So can you break that down for us a little for those of people because they're going to ask a Lot of questions. Because you hear two hours core education. I personally think that that part of it is brilliant. I would the. And we'll talk about the life skills stuff, which that's where I kind of like, I have some questions because I always thought the less time they were actually in the school, the better in terms of education. Because we, in the beginning we talked about it being as a daycare, but it's more like a holding facility. It's not, you know, because it's, it's just not the same activities, not the same life skills, not the same, not change of pace. Because if you had, you know, you had homework, eck in the morning, where you learned, then you had English, you had math, you know, and then you had one of your cool electives, let's say wood shop, then you had recess and then you had another class and you had lunch and then homeschool, you know, you had your la. That's where you'd get ready for a physical education if you played sports, to go into sports afterwards or where you were programmed. But it was very like very different, very divided. So there wasn't a lot of monotony. You know, every day was different. I don't see that in schools anymore. And so take me through what a typical day at the Alpha school would be like.
- [13:01]
B
Not a lot of monotony at our schools. But here's the thing. Parents do want a place where their kids can go from, you know, 8:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon. I think in this new world of what's AI going to look like? How's it going to change our lives in the next 20 years? There's a lot of questions we don't know. But in 20 years I think parents will still want to drop their kids off in a building with other kids and caring adults that are going to be with them. And so, you know, really what happened is when I started this, this concept years ago, we started actually in 2014, before AI was even, you know, something I knew it's really supercharged in the last three years, basically since 22 when generative AI came out. But here's what we've always known is that when kids get like a one to one tutoring experience, they can learn 2, 5, 10 times faster than in a traditional teacher in front of a multi person school model where you've got one teacher, 20 kids, all at wildly different levels of knowledge and understanding. So what we've done is we've taken really what technology has enabled us to do, which is Be able to first assess and understand exactly what does a kid know, what don't they know? And then build out a personalized lesson plan for that kid. So when our kids show up to school in the morning, we always start each day with actually speaking of Tony Robbins, we call it kind of Tony Robbins for kids. It's called a limitless launch. Fifteen minutes, usually some sort of a physical challenge.
- [14:32]
A
Get it out. Yeah.
- [14:33]
B
Something that gets them going. And the key there is we're also teaching some sort of growth mindset strategy that we want these kids to be able to take into the rest of their school day. So, like I was at our Santa Barbara campus a couple weeks ago and we were doing this team thing where we had strings and we had to build a tower. Working together on this stuff, just something fun that helps us understand, like how do you kind of persevere and how do you communicate, you know, as you're doing something hard. Then our kids hop into their two hour learning block. During this time, they're basically spending about 25 minutes in each of the core subjects. So math, reading, language, science, they're doing that. They get some breaks in between. They're getting that one to one tutoring experience that AI gives. And as a result, what we're finding is in only two hours of work a day, our kids are learning twice as much as kids in a traditional school. Our classes top 1% across all grade levels, all subjects. So the results are amazing. But here's what I think is the coolest part is we can take a kid no matter where they show up to us. In fact, I was just looking at some of our academic results this morning because we just had our latest round of assessments. You know, we have kids who come into us in the 10th percentile and in four months have gone up to 60th percentile. We'll be above 90 by the end of a school year. And, and so we can help those kids, but we also can help that kid who comes into us in the 96 percentile and in a normal school would just be told, you know what, just chill out.
- [15:57]
A
Well, they would dumb it down.
- [15:58]
B
Chill out. You got it. You're, you're, you're too advanced right now. You just need to relax. And we can show growth rates there that are just insane. That's kind of the beauty of this. And then the other thing that's cool is by lunchtime, they're done with core academics. And so all afternoon we're spending on what we call life skills workshops. So these are group Project based experiences where kids are learning what I think is, you know, really critical to be successful. Leadership, teamwork, public speaking and storytelling, financial literacy, entrepreneurship. Beyond just the trading lunch.
- [16:32]
A
Survival class.
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B
So we have a survival class, learn.
- [16:35]
A
How to make fire. And I'm saying that for a reason because my, my, I like to camp and stuff and, but I think, you know, we always hear about, since we're all on the grid, if the power cuts off, what would most Americans do?
- [16:46]
B
We, we literally do survival workshops. In fact, we've, we've even opened a school that's based on outdoors and just nature. So all afternoon kids are outside. In fact, one of our schools, they're doing this really, really cool kind of Mars colonization workshop where they're building their own rovers. So they're getting that kind of mechanical experience on this. They're building drones, they are growing their own food, they're recording music and noise because on Mars there's going to be no noise and there. We call it a test to pass. Basically at the end of every eight week workshop our kids will go through some sort of a test to pass experience that's kind of evaluated by a third party. Like did you actually learn these life skills or not? And they'll spend two days camping out in the desert and their radio communication, they will have it, but there'll be a 20 minute delay because that's going to be mirroring what would happen if you're really on Mars. And so yeah, those kinds of skills are so much fun. Socialization and relationship building which I actually think I talked to hundreds of parents around the country now and I think what most people care about when they think about sending their kids to school is, is that socialization piece. But you think about again how traditional school does socialization, they just throw you in.
- [18:02]
A
It's not the same anymore.
- [18:03]
B
Good luck. Yeah, hope it goes well. Find your place in the pecking order. And we actually believe you can coach kids on how to be interesting and how to be interested in other people, how to become creators and contributors, not consumers. There's so many skills like that and you can probably relate to this. You know, in the past and certainly growing up and I think now in traditional school most life skills are actually taught through sports, extracurricular sports. That's where you get so much of it and what we're doing, we bring so much of the sports ethos into our school classrooms. And so that's everything from, you know, master the basics before you go. You know, if you're playing basketball, you're not working on your dunking. If you don't have your dribbling skills, great. But for whatever reason, in academics, the way that traditional school does it is like you may not know your multiplication table, but we're going to move you up through the grade levels no matter what. And that's part of the reason we're seeing such an education crisis in our country where kids don't know anything because you can't build on top of a shaky foundation. And so we do a lot of that from, from, you know, kind of our academic perspective. But then it's just all those ways you can learn life skills. And here's the thing, there's like no limit to the stuff that kids can learn in a fun way. Actually, kind of near Wellington, we've got a school in Palm beach and, and they did a Navy SEAL training course this past semester. And the test to pass for that was kids had to, you know, be able to swim a full lap and then drag a person 25 meters, you know, do life saving kind of CPR on them. You know, free dive, 13ft, grab something. They actually did like a math problem as they were treading water for a certain period of time doing that. All judged by a retired Navy seal. And these are fun ways that you can get kids learning life skills and spending that time.
- [19:46]
A
So you also might have inspired some Navy SEALs not even knowing it.
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B
Oh, I mean, it's, it's so cool to see the things that kids can do. And I think that's the other kind of fundamental premise that we have at our schools, is kids are limitless. They are so underrated in our society today. They're given so little responsibility and they have so much top down, just like do this, sit here, be quiet, kind of here. Kids are limitless. So a school's job is to build an environment that helps unlock that potential. And that's what we do at our schools. Every day we wake up and think, how can we help these kids grow and develop and make sure they've got great academic knowledge so that they can be awesome critical thinkers and have those life skills that are going to help them be successful?
- [20:31]
A
When you get a new admission, when you get a new kid, what do you consistently see as the biggest difference deficit that they have in terms of education when you get a new kid? Come in. Is it math? Is it reading? Because we're hearing a lot about reading levels are just unbelievably behind.
- [20:50]
B
You know, less than a third of students in the US are reading or doing math at Grade level. And here's what we're seeing is we have kids who come in, even kids that were a students at their old schools. In fact, we had hundreds on board this past fall. On average, they were testing 2.2 grade levels behind where they were. Even though these are a student.
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A
Well, they're a students based off what?
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B
Nothing. Nothing meaningful or nothing meaningful in terms of what that is.
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A
When you can get a B plus and you get a 68, that's a problem.
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B
Yeah. And so, you know, we'll have a back to basics approach. We had freshmen in high school who were going in and learning how to write grammatically correct third grade sentences. Right. And again, when you build kids up and make sure that every level of foundation they have is strong, that's when we see just really fast improvement and where these kids are kind of shooting. So, you know, we'll get kids who come in again all over the board. We're a private school model. So a lot of times people will say, well, you've got selection bias. But again, we don't say, oh, you have to be this great student already to get there. We think we can make great students. What we actually look for in kids is just coachability. And we'll see. One of the common things we'll have kids do when they come in for a shadow day experience is say, hey, you know, try doing this puzzle or a Rubik's cube or building this IKEA furniture set and just sort of see how they go about tackling the problem. And then our teachers, we call them guides. You know, our guides will be kind of watching to understand, like, how do they look at something? And again, kids are curious, they're interested, they like the idea of being challenged. And you put them in an environment like that. What we often see is that within a day it's like these kids will be like, okay, I don't want to go back to my old school. Because, you know, when you can make school someplace that kids love going to, that helps us really unlock the ability to challenge them.
- [22:47]
A
No, one of the things. And as a parent, not as a teacher. And I was working, I worked at five acres and a couple other facilities, and I worked directly with a lot of kids that were delayed. Whether we had the crack epidemic all over, but in California in particular, where we had a whole generation of the horrible term is crack baby, but extremely delayed. Extremely. It means that at some point they can catch up, but it's a tremendous challenge for them. And a lot of times being in settings with their Peers was the worst because kids, when one kid is behind another kid, it's not all fun and games. And usually the bullying starts or the isolation or the other kid does things to seek attention, the kid who's behind. But I found that when they were given opportunities to be active and I mean, it's not just running. I mean controlled activity, whether it was having recess, an activity where they were moving around. Moving around. It seemed, especially with the boys, the more activities they had where they were moving around, the less behaviors we saw and the less of the ADD or lack of attention stuff. So I tend to think we over medicate a lot. Do you see a difference in terms. Because that's the thing in behavior, like all, all the kid ADD or spectrum, it gets wider and wider to bring more people in. And I always kind of was like, I don't necessarily. I don't agree with that at all. I think you're setting kids up for failure by putting labels on them before they do. You guys see a lot less in terms of attention. More attention with different activities, less medication, or is that something you haven't really even had to deal with?
- [24:34]
B
No, we see a huge difference. Physical movement and having a little bit more autonomy over just your body and the space that you're in makes a huge difference. And that's part of the reason why we start every day. We do this all the way through high school, right from kindergarten through senior year. We start every day with a launch, something kind of interesting. And then our guides are just the most amazing people. I think humans who choose to work in a classroom are heroes. Call them teachers, guides, whatever they are. But that's the other kind of key difference for us. And the reason that we're successful is because our guides, they aren't focused on teaching, creating lectures and giving lesson plans and all of that. Their whole focus is motivational and emotional support. And so they also have the ability to know, you know what, this kid Johnny, he needs a little extra exercise before he goes. And so you'll often see one of our guides will be outside, you know, running a lap with, with a kid because they know they need that help.
- [25:33]
A
Recreation therapist. And that's what we would do.
- [25:35]
B
I mean, that's a huge thing. And so I think one of the things we'll see is parents will come in and they'll say, okay, here's my, you know, IEP plan and here's what I've got. And my, my son has this, this, this and this and this. And you know, what we say is like, hey, let's have him come into our environment and, and see how it goes. And we just see a lot of improvement in terms of that. And that's everything. I was just in one of our classrooms the other day and I took a little video of this because I think it's something to show, you know, we're in this classroom and there we had, we had an exercise ball, we had a wobbly stool, we had a regular chair. And you have kids, six different kids all hanging out in the space, working, doing their work, focus. But they were all just a little bit different, you know, in how this is. And, and again, it's that one size fits all classroom model that has been around for almost a couple hundred years now. It's just, it's not serving people well now. And really personalized, individualized education is something we can deliver when you use technology to do it from an academic perspective and then allow our teachers to spend time really connecting with people.
- [26:37]
A
You mentioned guide, and guide is basically a new term for teacher. But in terms of requirements to be the guide, will it be the same?
- [26:47]
B
It is not the same. That's one of those things that, you know, of course, I get a lot of evolution.
- [26:52]
A
Things change. Listen, people who made buggy whips were at the top of their field and then this little thing called a car came along.
- [27:00]
B
So we do not require that they have an education degree. Probably about 40% of our guides did come from a traditional teaching background. And we're excited to be in there. But what we look for is people who are world class at motivating and connecting with people. We attract a lot of people who were in some sort of performance type role. They were maybe athletes or coaches, entrepreneurs, people who've come in and are really excited about that ability to connect with a kid and kind of go along with them. But they don't have to be subject matter experts. And when you think about this tyrus, okay, think about traditional teachers and the job spec that is there for them. So you have to be a subject matter expert, you know, seventh grade science. You have to actually be able to teach that. It's one thing to be an expert and another to actually know how to teach. You have to also have like that emotional component and motivate component with kids. You've got to be good with parents. If you're a teacher, you're constantly working with parents and then you've got this admin kind of bureaucracy side of things, a lot of paperwork, all of that. So five different kind of specs. In the job really hard. And the way that we've solved that in America is to pay them very, very little. Right. It's like, this is a hard job spec. So let's make sure we don't pay for it. And so what we've done in our model is we've actually taken away. You do not have to be a subject matter expert. So our guides are not seventh grade science experts. Right. They don't need to know how to teach because our AI tool does that as well. The AI tutor does it. They do need to focus on that emotional and motivational connection. We've taken out the whole parent interaction part. We have a. A position called the Dean of parents who works as an advocate for parents. Make sure they're totally up to date and understanding what's going on, and then minimize bureaucracy. And we pay them well. So we attract pretty unbelievably talented people who are excited about really having that ability to impact a kid's life. And I think you would agree with me. Right. We all had one or two teachers that transformed our lives. And that's what our guides are striving to do for every kid. And they give the time to really connect and do that. In fact, it's one of the things we're very data driven in terms of constantly surveying our students, our guides, our parents, and we'll ask students, you know, do you love your guide? And we'll say that question, do you believe your guide is transforming your life? And those numbers, you know, love of guide is like 96%. Do you believe your guide is transforming your life? 85%, you know, and that's what you want, is people who can really, really speak into helping kids develop grit, you know, the ability to do hard work and learn those skills, leadership. What does that all look like?
- [29:39]
A
Yeah, I think there definitely has to be a change. I know the teaching requirements have been lowered. I remember when I was in, you had to have certain core classes and you had to score. It was like PT 300, 200. And then you had to have a certain test score, had to be a certain level to even be able to in a. Nebraska didn't mess around. I went to University of Nebraska at Kearney, which is the teacher's school. So, you know, and it's also famous for Terms of endearment.
- [30:05]
B
Did you know that?
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A
Yeah, apparently I'm a number.
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B
I spent a year in Nebraska. I lived in Lincoln for a year. And I actually did some work. I worked at a hog farm in Hastings.
- [30:14]
A
So I've Been to Hastings a few times just to go to PJs. It was like the big. That was the big spot. That was the spot, you know, for. It was either that or chase cows in a cornfield. So went up there. But the change, obviously there's going to be a lot of pushback from traditional schools because they have been funding machines. And it has been more about indoctrination because I never knew what my teacher voted. I never knew what my teacher's religious beliefs were. I never knew. In a lot of cases, I didn't know if they were married or single, because that's not what they were there for. And there was a line. There was a strong line there. They were the teacher. They were someone that you're supposed to respect and go to guidance, but they were also an extension of your parents. So you would have to show them the same respect that you show your parents. And then there would be a united front. We've seen that become the other way. Whereas the parents come in and their. Their child's innocent, you know, because I remember my mom came in the principal's office. The first question was, what'd you do? You know, And I would be like, well, the teacher. I'm not here for the teacher. What did you do? And before you tell me, I already know what you did, so you better, you know, and. But there was a united front. So manipulation was kids. It wasn't worth it because the teacher's going to tell your parents.
- [31:34]
B
Yeah.
- [31:34]
A
You know, and that relationship has. And I don't know if it's just media or the. There was a huge shift in curriculum. It's become very super liberal. I don't think it should be one or the other. I don't think politics really has a place unless they're taking a civics class in education.
- [31:51]
B
There really shouldn't be. And it's been an interesting thing that I think has also been something our families appreciate. And you'll walk into school fairs. I was at a school fair in Austin probably a year and a half ago, and I walked up to this one desk and I mean, there was no information about their academics. It was a lot of the social stuff that they were wanting to. They had a very strong social agenda, and they were very upfront about it. They were very clear, like, this is really what we focus on here. And here's what we do. We've got three commitments. Kids will love school. Kids will learn twice as much in two hours a day. And kids will learn life skills. And when I have I'll have people come up to me like, are you one of those woke schools? Do you do this? Or like, are you teaching the fundamental values of whatever? And I always answer, but back with, this is our lane. We are delivering these three commitments and that's what our guides are working towards. And so as a result, our families, we've got schools all over the country. We've got families who are on all ends of the political spectrum, all ends of the religious spectrum, social, whatever. They've all kind of come together and united over this idea of delivering this great education experience for their kids so that they have the skills that they need to be able to have those nuanced conversations out in the world. And we start this early on. We have something called both sides where our kids will learn that if they are going to come to the table with some sort of an argument that they are passionate about, they need to be able to also present the oppos opposing side. And that's everything from your kindergartner saying, here's why I should have a later bedtime to here's why I shouldn't have one to. As kids are getting older, they're making decisions around the school, around what are our community rules and our standards and then having engaging discussions and debates. And those are the skills that need to be taught in classrooms. Not, you know, putting, you know, not putting that.
- [33:37]
A
And so bringing back common sense.
- [33:39]
B
Yeah, yeah, that's very much. And then the other thing I think is an interesting one. And again, we really, when we think about politically, we are like, we are not here, we're here to teach kids on these things. But I would say we are a family first school in terms of understanding. Like we want our kids and their families to make decisions about how they think about things, what they do. Our job is to educate and give them life skills and then let families kind of be able to do the rest. And I think our families really appreciate it and that's what we're seeing. I think it's part of the reason we've seen so much demand around the country is because they want that school to be a place for that.
- [34:14]
A
Right. You know, and it's like I said, I looked and just looking at the, the growth, you guys originally are in Austin, the micro school and it expanded to cities like Miami, New York City, San Francisco, and you know, tuition, you guys are private, you know, reaching. I think it says 65,000 a year in some locations, but private school is always going to be, you get what you pay for with Schools, I really believe that. Is there a vision of a condensed version maybe being in public schools? Because when I hear AI two hours, I'm thinking sitting at a desk with a laptop, with a computer explaining it to them. And I think most schools could probably do something. The pushback's gonna be, obviously the union's gonna have a problem with it. Do you run into a lot of issues? Because you don't strike me as a person who's trying to monetize and capitalize on education. You know, you know, you, you're making it available and you want something to where families can and build. Because if you have a bright future for our young people, it's better for everybody else.
- [35:23]
B
We've gotten a lot of interest from the public domain, from government administration, because I think they're seeing like, okay, this is something that could work.
- [35:32]
A
And I guarantee you China's doing something very similar.
- [35:34]
B
Oh, I'm sure. And they, I think the thing is, in order for our model to be successful, you really do have to kind of blow the day up. So you can't just say, okay, we're going to take, you know, this little two hour learning thing and then cram it into our normal school day.
- [35:50]
A
Right.
- [35:51]
B
The whole benefit. And in fact, the name of our learning platform is called Time Back because we're giving kids their most valuable resource, which is time to go do the things they love. And so basically the agreement we have with kids is, okay, you give us two hours in the morning, morning of what we call productive struggle. It's focused time. Our guides are motivating and helping support kids through that time to be successful. And then you get the rest of the day to go do all these cool things to do the camping and the, you know, the ninja training and all that kind of stuff. These are things that you get to do. And so in a traditional public school system, what I really don't want to see AI do in the traditional system is people put on is this little band aid, which is, okay, teachers, you can still give your classroom based lecture, but the AI has helped create your lesson plan for you or whatever. Or even worse, putting a chatbot feature on a kid's computer and saying, oh, look how AI forward we are. Chatbots and education are cheap bots.
- [36:49]
A
Yeah, because they're not learning.
- [36:50]
B
They are not learning. And to be clear, we tried, we tried a chatbot feature at one point. And kids will figure out how to get, you know, game the system in terms of being like, how do I get this done? And so we don't have a chatbot feature enabled. And I think that's one of the problems is the opportunity that we finally have in education is to truly reimagine the model and not have this. Be kind of a. Let's just have this as a band aid.
- [37:17]
A
Yeah. Because they are clever. I remember during the pandemic, and I think my daughter was eight. Maybe she was eight. Yeah, she was eight. Seven or eight. And she had to go in her room and sit on the computer and do her classes. And then apparently she figured out a way to print a paper and type the word buffering on it and tape it to her computer screen and just hung out in her room and played. Yes, she did.
- [37:40]
B
A smart girl.
- [37:40]
A
Yeah, it was hard to be mad at that.
- [37:43]
B
That's so funny. And I think that's the thing, too. A lot of people will go, oh, well, you guys are doing zoom. School screens are bad. We saw this in the. In Covid. Not at all. What we're doing. Right. There is a huge difference between staring.
- [37:56]
A
At a screen while your teacher's staring.
- [37:59]
B
At their phone or staring at a teacher in a traditional classroom not interacting very much. And what our kids are getting, which is this very engaged thing. And that's the other cool thing that technology has enabled us to do, is there's been learning science that the science of how people learn has known for 40 years that kids can learn 5, 10 times faster through a lot of these different kind of strategies that we can now actually put into that. So, for example, we can meet a kid where we put them in exactly what we call the zone of proximal development. Not too hard. Where they've turned off because they're like, this is too hard, not too easy. Where they're zoned out. You keep them in that 80 to 90% area. And that's what keeps kids going and engaged and then being able to understand, like, okay, wait, Tyrus is struggling on this problem. You know what? The reason you're struggling is because you need to go back and revisit a lesson from a year ago. And then when you get that, oh, okay, now this makes more sense.
- [38:51]
A
Because that's one less thing that you will stress over in the thinking process. Like if you're going to move into trigonometry, but you're still struggling from first algebra, isosceles triangles or whatever the deal is to go back and re establish that skill to when you go work, then you can focus on the new information and not be hung up on the old information.
- [39:10]
B
And that's called cognitive load theory. Right. Which is don't overtax your brain with something when you're trying to learn material. If you're still struggling with, wait, what's four times five again, what's 90 minus 35? And you're struggling on that, you can't learn the stuff. And they often say the worst time to be learning algebra is in your AP chemistry course.
- [39:31]
A
Exactly.
- [39:32]
B
Worst time to be learning calculus is during your AP physics. And so build those kind of basics. And that's what we can, we can do with this.
- [39:39]
A
So it's an individual lesson plan in a group setting.
- [39:42]
B
Exactly. And so that's the other thing that's cool is you can have, you have two kids, you walk into a classroom, you can have two seven year old kids sitting right next to each other. One of them's working on algebra and the other's doing fast math. And there's no world where that 1-7-year-old is having to march down the classroom three doors down to the older class. Or again, being told, yeah, or being told, you know what, you can't move forward. You're going to sit here boring. Even though you already know this information or could learn it so quickly and then that other kid doesn't have feeling that different. But I'll tell you, Tyrus, here's probably one of the most pure ways to see it and where I could see this working well in a public school setting. So I'm in Texas and we have started launching these Texas sports academies all over the state and they're coaches who live in different towns who are doing whatever their sports stuff is. So for example, we've got Jermaine o' Neal, who is an NBA all star. He's out in Carrollton, Texas. He's got a school called Dynamic Prep. He uses our time back platform for education in the morning and then he's got his kids out on the court starting at noon doing those things. And so in a public school setting, Public schools actually have a lot of the activities that kids will get motivated by. They just Normally start at 4:00'.
- [40:52]
A
Clock.
- [40:53]
B
It's performing arts, it's band practice, it's football, it's, you know, robotics team, speech and debate, whatever that is.
- [40:59]
A
It's after school.
- [41:00]
B
It's after school. And if you said, all right kiddos, give us this two hours, crush your goals and then it unlocks that time in the afternoon to go out and do sports training, development, you know, theater, whatever that activity is. It's, it's finding the thing that A kid's excited about and loves and being able to do that. And guess what else public schools already have. They have the coaches who. Who are able to train in those different activities. And again, that's where so many life skills are learned, is through those extracurricular activities, whether that is, you know, being part of the band or being out on the baseball field, whatever that is. And so I think that's something that hopefully we can get done now. We're getting pushback, of course.
- [41:42]
A
Change is always going to get pushed back.
- [41:43]
B
Change is definitely we're getting pushback. And what we're trying to do is I'm very transparent about our results. We publish our results every year in order to show, like, here's how our kids are actually performing and what they're doing. We have awesome parents and families who are willing to talk about the experience that they're having. And I think that's the other big thing that happened, you know, with COVID People gotta look under the hood of what was going on in schools and they started realizing, like, okay, we gotta find something else. But, you know, I tried for charter status. I got totally denied in, like, nine of 10 states. So realize, okay, they don't want me there. I'm the kind of gal that wants to go where I'm invited, right? And I'm not going to try to push some door down where it's not. So we've been kind of just opening up a bunch of private schools throughout.
- [42:28]
A
The country, you know, because if you build it, they. From the great movie, if you build it, they will come.
- [42:33]
B
Well, and you think about it, in Texas, they just passed a big education savings account plan. So we've got a point now. Like, our least expensive school is currently $10,000 a year in tuition. So that'll mean free for kids when they have ESAs. You know, we've got other schools at 15, you know, kind of go. Go up from there. And I think that's going to be, you know, key thing for us is, is make this accessible, make it more scalable. And at the same time, and you mentioned the. You get what you pay for all of our schools, whether you're doing, you know, the. The sports academy that's in a small town in Texas, or you're at the Alpha School in Miami, they're all getting the same academic experience. It's the afternoons, what we do with our life skills stuff. And, you know, at Alpha, we had, for example, you know, kids who learned to sail. They learned teamwork and communication, and then they Sailed from Florida, the Bahamas, over five days, you know, and talk about.
- [43:26]
A
Skill, putting it to use and then it's in their bank. And then all of a sudden one day they have kids and be like, hey, I know how to sell. It's cool. Yeah, it's very cool. It's a very. Like I said, I guess just for what would you. Because when you say pushback, and I as a guy who lives in the pushback world.
- [43:42]
B
Yeah.
- [43:42]
A
What, what is their biggest criticism? Like, what is their, what is the most thing that you hear that is wrong with this?
- [43:48]
B
Yeah. So Alpha school biggest criticism and complete, you know, misconception is oh, you have no human interaction. These are kids sitting on, you know, computers interacting with robots. Well, they won't even, they're just like.
- [44:04]
A
But I'm just, I'm just saying for two hours.
- [44:06]
B
Yeah, exactly. Which is, by the way, less time, less time they spend than in traditional schools. Well, traditional schools are actually doing Wall Street Journal just came out in May of 2025. You know, the average kid is spending like two and a half hours a day on screens on this. And so what they forget about is the fact that we have these amazing adults in the classroom who are focused even more, more on the connection with kids and that motivational support and motivation thing. And so that's the biggest kind of misconception. When people see it, they walk in, they go, oh, okay, yeah, there's tons of human connection here.
- [44:41]
A
It's kind of like what you see today. They take one aspect of it, cut out the other stuff and blow it up and then try to make it.
- [44:48]
B
We've been the school with no teachers. Now I will tell you though, Tyrus, that it's gotten me a lot of attention, which all, all press is good press, right? And it's that now it's true we don't have teachers, but we do have human connections. So that's one of the things you'll hear people talk about screen time, which by the way, I, I think, I think screen time is a huge issue. Right. And it's one of the things that we spend time helping our kids understand that, you know what, instead of doom scrolling TikTok all day, why don't you focus on going out and building an.
- [45:16]
A
App that helps someone green crunchy stuff called Grass. It's amazing.
- [45:19]
B
Or, or instead of playing video games, how about learn to code and build your own video game and host your own tournament. Right? Like there are so many things that you can do where you take kids interests and you find a Way to help them grow and develop and learn life skills through following that interest. The other thing that I think, just fundamentally when you talk about what's missing in traditional education, there's no focus on motivation. And we find 90% of what creates a great learner is you've got to be a. Motivated.
- [45:46]
A
Motivated. Yeah.
- [45:47]
B
If you're not interested, whatever. And in traditional school, all of that motivation is put on the kid. Right. So if a kid's not doing well in school, it's the kid's fault, because either he's not the sharpest knife in the drawer or he's not willing to engage in our system. If a kid's not doing well, it's our system's fault. That means we haven't plugged into the right motivation. Maybe we need to tweak to make sure we're delivering that level and pace. But that's what our technology is so good at. So there's something around the motivation that we have to work on. And I think that right there, it is a huge unlock that. Again, our teachers, our guides are the ones focusing on, and they're the reason our model works so well. It's not about the technology. That's good, it's fine. But just putting our technology in a room and giving it to a kid and saying, let me know when you graduate high school. You know, not gonna do that. It's that human connection. And so I think that's something I would, I would love to see more of a focus on, you know, across the board. And I think we're doing a pretty good job of helping people kind of understand, like, oh, I haven't, you know, ever really focused on that. Now, of course, what a teacher is going to say is, when do I have time to spend focusing, motivating kids? How am I possibly supposed to do that?
- [47:00]
A
Those who come along for the ride, hop on. Those who don't, we'll just lower the expectations. So you just, you'll get through.
- [47:06]
B
Exactly.
- [47:07]
A
And then you end up with an adult who just got through.
- [47:10]
B
Yeah.
- [47:11]
A
And good luck because. And I, I, like I said, I, I, as a teacher, you should always want what's best for the student, and you want things to evolve, you know, and one of the things that the, the reason. I, I also think the reason why the traditional education setting, the school setting doesn't work anymore because the average households are so much different now. There used to be a consensus there was, like, neighborhoods, and everybody kind of. They all play together, kind of grew up together, and they went on to school. So when you went to school, you usually knew everybody that you went to school with, but it just seems like there's so. Everyone's so closed out from each other that, you know, by the time the kids are ready for school, the parents have already kind of built them up to where anybody who's not in your circle, there's something, you know, there's.
- [48:04]
B
That you should be scared of them.
- [48:05]
A
Yeah. You know, you can't. You know, you can't. I mean, everyone cries the first day in kindergarten or whatever, but. And then your parents support you. Be like, you know, hey, well, you're gonna get through this. They don't take you home. Well, and I've seen the teacher like, well, he's just not ready yet, so we're gonna sit this week out. And I'm like, you're so. He's gonna cry harder next week, lady. And then. And of course, guess what he did. He even fainted.
- [48:26]
B
Yeah.
- [48:26]
A
And then, of course, they went home. And I said, you know what? Until you leave him here, he's gonna be fine.
- [48:31]
B
Yeah. Well, and that's what I think as schools, we have to create those opportunities for kids to learn to interact with each other. I was just talking to a young mom who has a two and a half year old, and she said she was at a restaurant and her daughter was kind of making eyes at another toddler, and they were kind of starting to do the like, are we gonna play with each other? Thing. And then the mom of the other toddler hands her kid a phone, and all of a sudden, that kid just flew to his phone because the mom.
- [48:55]
A
Needs to be quiet so she can talk.
- [48:57]
B
And so this other two and a half year old is like, wait, what happened to my potential play date? And so, you know, that's something that is going to be an extra requirement that we have to do at schools is help kids learn how to socialize, how to connect with each other. We have workshops around how to become a spy, where we're actually teaching how to read body language, how to engage in conversation, how to look somebody in the eye, how to shake a hand, you know, and be able to talk to someone. And, you know, we do a simulation of the mean Girl Girls cafeteria from that movie with Tina Fey where, you know, kids go in and practice. Okay, how do you be engaging to someone? How do you connect with someone that you don't know who's your age? You know, and. And as much as, you know, it's kind of sad that that's the level of coaching that's needed now. It needs to be. And traditional schools aren't doing that when you add silent lunches in there, you know, or compartmentalizing kids so much. And those are some of the skills that kids need to do. And so, you know, we also do something called rejection training. You know, we have kids will go out as high.
- [49:57]
A
That's that you get more of that when you do wins.
- [49:59]
B
Absolutely. And you have to put yourself out there when you're, you know, wanting to go become an expert in something and you're reaching out. So we'll have fourth and fifth grade students who are, you know, studying a subject they're interested in marine biology or whatever it is, and they identify experts and they have to reach out with an intelligent, thoughtful email. So they're learning communication in that way and be able to say, hey, you know, I read your book and here's a question I had and you know What? Out of 50 emails, maybe they'll get four or five responses. But that teaches them, you got to put yourself out there, right? You got to be able to, you know, go out and connect and grow in the world. And that's the other thing when you think about like what. What does a person need to be prepared with in this AI world? It's to going. Going to be collaboration and creativity and communication as well as knowing how to learn that skill of learning to learn. I don't know how much you played with AI tools, but it is insane.
- [50:54]
A
I avoid them like the play.
- [50:55]
B
Do you really? Well, I gotta tell you what's unbelievable about it.
- [50:58]
A
I just don't have the. I'm a book reader. Like I. And my brain is kind of set. Like I have like apparently I got tested when I was. I'm dyslexic, but I have a really high iq. So like I'm. I learned how to, you know, because the backwards and the moving around. Once I figured it out, when I see the new stuff now I'm like, I'm just gonna get the book. I know it'd be more, a lot easier to just do the, the Kindle, but like for me, I'm sick. But here's the. I'm not close minded.
- [51:24]
B
Is this why this dinosaur is sitting here?
- [51:26]
A
Yes.
- [51:27]
B
Is that what it is? Okay, I get it.
- [51:28]
A
Yeah. Well, it's technically it's Godzilla. He's not really.
- [51:31]
B
Oh, I'm sorry.
- [51:31]
A
He was a dinosaur at one point. Gamma radiation kicked in and it's a whole thing.
- [51:35]
B
I got to get better on my comic book lore.
- [51:38]
A
Yes.
- [51:39]
B
I've been. I've been too busy doing that. Looks like a dinosaur gives you the same idea, but, you know, it's. It's helping kids have that skill. We have all the information in the world at our fingertips, and change happens so quickly. And when you think about AI tools, you know, an AI tool that couldn't do something a week ago is now really good at it. And those are the skills that kids are going to be able to need to be adept at. Right? Their jobs are going to constantly evolve and change, and they have to be able to stay there. And one of the things we think we're doing is we're raising the generation of kids who are going to be smarter than AI. They're the ones who are going to be able to live out in that gray frontier of creating new knowledge, not just knowing what's out there.
- [52:17]
A
Okay, a couple of. Real quick. What is your. You guys are big on homework. Because I know that's. I hear a lot of parents who, like, yeah, they're already at school the six to eight hours a day. Why do they need to have homework when they come home? I never. I wish I would have heard that when I was a kid.
- [52:31]
B
We are not a homework school. So our kids can get their work done in the two hours a day. The one thing I will say is we do have some kids who come in so far behind that they need an hour a day to catch up. Case by case, case by case. But no, we are not a model that's built around homework. And it's one of the things now what we do have is kids have goals. They've got. We use this XP term borrowed from video games.
- [52:58]
A
Well, you have a deadline in the real world when you're an adult and.
- [53:00]
B
It'S like, okay, every. Every day, your goal is to get 120xps. And so kids can come in, they lock down and say, so they'll have kids who are like, all right, I've got this work done. I'm able to work ahead. I'm able to catch up, whatever it is. But no, homework is. Has not been shown to be helpful. And I think, you know, you and I grew up in a world where you'd come home and you. You did your homework and your parents would. Would talk to you about it. Look, and now. And that's where this, you know, all started. I remember when my oldest daughter went off to kindergarten and, you know, I was excited for her to start her school journey. And she comes home with these worksheets and I'm like, this is the dumbest thing I've ever seen. Like, you already are reading and you're having to fill out, you know, a is for aunt. And you know, I talked to the teacher about it and they're like, well, it's required. You have to do this.
- [53:46]
A
And it is part of the plan.
- [53:47]
B
Yeah. Again, it's. It's got to be personalized. That's the whole key. And we have the ability to do that now.
- [53:52]
A
And then, of course, you guys with cell phones, Kids with phones in the classroom.
- [53:55]
B
Yeah. So cell phones are not a good thing to have in the classroom. Elementary school, we don't allow them. Then what happens is, starting in middle school, we start helping kids to learn how to use them as a tool. So, for example, they can earn time where they could use their cell phone during part of lunch, or they can have this as research. But they've got to have that show the responsibility and the privilege so it can be taken away. We are very much a meritocracy culture where kids will earn the privileges they have.
- [54:25]
A
There's nothing wrong with cause and effect.
- [54:27]
B
And they can also have them taken away. And so that's the thing is I don't think the environment of. You never see your cell phone From K through 12ever. Because we need to teach kids how to be responsibly using their stuff. But I. I think screens are a major problem in our society. I think cell phones are a major problem. And I think.
- [54:46]
A
Well, it's a new pacifier.
- [54:47]
B
It absolutely is. And we have to help kids learn how to use these so that they control them and not the other way around.
- [54:53]
A
Yeah. And even like. Cause you mentioned it when I wrote my daughter and I wrote my children's book, which we're only trailing Harry Potter. I'll take that. But like, I was thinking about. Cause the new. When I looked at new books, they're so unappealing to kids. First of all, they're all, is it AI or computer technology drawings? They're very bubbly.
- [55:14]
B
They all look the same.
- [55:14]
A
Very, very unrealistic.
- [55:16]
B
Yeah.
- [55:16]
A
So when I was doing that, when I was writing this education book as a teacher, I was like, well, I remember how my third grade teacher did it. So I made it super big because I remember, I'm sure you remember this. They would hold it like that. But when you have an actual artist that does the drawings, it draws you in, you know, and it's like, you read it, it's an actual story. And the kids would sit, you know, crisscross applesauce. And so that's how I remembered it. Right.
- [55:38]
B
I gotta tell you, on my vision board for 2026, I did not expect that Tyrus would be reading to me.
- [55:43]
A
Oh yeah.
- [55:43]
B
And I am so excited.
- [55:44]
A
And I'm not even usually I charge a fee for bedtime stories for Tyrus.
- [55:48]
B
Oh, well, I haven't left yet. I'll pay you on the way out.
- [55:50]
A
No, I'm just kidding. All good. But the point is, was like I remember those interpersonal moments. I was in the third grade and she was reading Boxcar Children didn't have the cool photos, but she was holding a she. And I just never remember that. That I've. I'm 52 years old and I can still remember Mrs. Schroeder reading that. Mrs. Freeman, like those books and those things. But. And one of the biggest thing is I make you cry at the end. And I got some, I got some pushback from parents who are like, my kids are crying like, do you ever see Old Yeller? Where the red fern grows? Animal Farm, when Boxer.
- [56:21]
B
Oh, like.
- [56:22]
A
I'm just saying, it was like Charlotte's Web, you know, Ring a bell, Bambi. Like all the good ones, they cried like, well, what happened to the horse? Well, I guess you have to read the other book. But it was such a funny thing to like taking an old formula, they're like, brilliant, genius. I'm like, no, I just did something from when I grew up, you know, like frog and toad. It was the reading thing.
- [56:43]
B
Well, and I'll actually tell you, that is one place where technology is not there yet. For our early kindergarten, first graders, preschoolers, we have reading specialists, human reading specialists. Because that one to one out loud reading is critical.
- [56:57]
A
That's how you inspire a generation.
- [56:59]
B
So we are not there yet in terms of. You cannot totally outsource all academic learning to AI technology. We're close, but right now that is still the thing. And so our schools have a reading specialist who has the time to be able to do that one to one, pull out reading with every.
- [57:14]
A
That's what I could do when I retire. I could just be a reading specialist. I'm really good at reading bedtime stories. It's like my thing.
- [57:20]
B
And you know what else I get? I'll get parents who just are so excited about what we're doing at our schools and they'll come to me and they're like pregnant, you know, or have.
- [57:28]
A
A one year old.
- [57:29]
B
They're like, okay, how do I get my kid ready on AI? What do I do. And my answer is always the same. Read, read, read and play with them. Just read and play. That's what you should do. Let them go, get, let them go get their, their hands dirty. Play in the mud puddles and read to them. That's the key.
- [57:43]
A
That is absolutely awesome and I thank you so much for this. I learned a lot. And as a, as a former teacher who still has credential, I couldn't be more in favor of this if that means, and I've always said the same thing, if evolution comes along for a better way for our children to learn and that makes my teaching career obsolete or I have to change or adjust because I don't think it'd be too hard to be.
- [58:06]
B
It transforms that job.
- [58:09]
A
You should never be against improvement. Yeah. Because there's an. If you're a teacher and this form is shifting to guides, it's not a hard bridge to build.
- [58:20]
B
There has never been a more exciting time to be a 5 year old or a teacher in my belief because I think teachers, and again, I know they get scared and wonder, but teachers can understand that. They have this ability to implement technology that allows them to guide students. Instead of being the sage on the stage, they're the guide next to a kid. And I think that's what, that's what people get into this job to do is transform kids lives, make that impact. And so I think that's the other thing that we're seeing is teachers, as they learn more, they're realizing, oh, this is gonna be better for me.
- [58:54]
A
I don't think I could have put it any better myself. And for people who want more information, how do they get ahold of you?
- [58:59]
B
Tons of information. So on social media, on Instagram, future of education. I share a lot of videos and stuff around what a school day looks like, what we're doing there. And then I'll focus dot school. And we've got schools opening up all over the country, coast to coast. I think we're at over 20 now and they just keep going. Yeah, we've been, we've been really, I think fortunate because we've got families who are just standing up saying like it's time for the future of education to come here.
- [59:26]
A
And your, your passion speaks volumes.
- [59:28]
B
Oh, thank you. Well, thanks for having me.
- [59:30]
A
I love you. Actually. Lily Windomis, thank you so much. I feel, I feel as a parent, I feel hopeful.
- [59:36]
B
Oh, you know what? It is a hopeful time.
- [59:38]
A
Yeah, I think that's the best way. Well, thank you so much.
- [59:40]
B
Thanks.
- [59:42]
C
Hello, Mackenzie.
- [59:43]
A
Hey.
- [59:43]
B
What's happening. How'd I do?
- [59:45]
C
You did great. You did great. Normally he's a lot meaner, but he must like you. He's very nice to you.
- [59:51]
A
Awesome.
- [59:51]
C
I appreciate you taking the time.
- [59:52]
B
All right, I'm ready. You prepped me for, like. You got some questions?
- [59:56]
C
Yes, yes, I do. My first question. Have you thought about creating a uniform for all of the students to wear at Alpha School?
- [60:05]
B
I have not. Why would I want to create a uniform? Do you have a reason for that?
- [60:09]
C
Well, I think it'd be cool. Like a cool, futuristic, like, silicone, like one piece that they could all rock.
- [60:15]
B
You know what? I think one of my favorite things about when I walk into schools is, you know, seeing all these different kids, getting to know their personalities, having that kind of individual, you know, thing. So I, I don't know. For me, uniforms scream out like, you know, stodgy. Be told to do everything, you know, things. So I don't, I don't know. I, I, I think we do have some really cool swag, though. We've got really cool office swag and we've got schools all over the country and it's fun. Like, I was in Santa Barbara and they've got like some surf clothes that are, that are here versus, you know, when we're in Brownsville. They've got their things. So I'll keep it in mind, though.
- [60:51]
C
Appreciate that. My second question, second and final question. I went to a school where in middle schools they implemented iPads. And the whole point of that was they thought they were like bringing in.
- [61:05]
B
They were being built technology first. Yeah. And really they were just putting like your stuff that was on paper just on the iPad.
- [61:10]
C
Right, Exactly. And they ended up giving an opportunity for students to all play Minecraft together in class.
- [61:16]
B
Yeah.
- [61:17]
C
So how do you use technology as a tool and not censored is the right word, but almost like funnel it into something that's completely productive for students.
- [61:27]
B
Yeah. So we have. First of all, I totally agree with you that technology for technology's sake, which is what so many schools have adopted, they're like, look, we have kids on computers doing the exact same thing they were doing 20 years ago. Our technology is instead giving kids this one to one tutoring experience. And then it's got the guardrails in place so that you're not off to doing, you know, something. In fact, what our AI technology does is it's, it's able to notice, like, what a kid is focusing on. It can see if a kid switches, switches a window and is Going to something else. It's like, whoa, you're not getting your work done.
- [62:01]
C
If they open Minecraft, that's.
- [62:02]
B
Yeah, no Minecraft.
- [62:04]
C
All right, here's Ryan. Thank you very much, Mackenzie.
- [62:06]
B
Appreciate it. All right. Thank you. Good job.
- [62:08]
D
They're kicking you out.
- [62:10]
B
Okay, now it's your turn. Okay, we're.
- [62:11]
D
So I have one question.
- [62:12]
B
All right. What's your name?
- [62:13]
D
I'm Ryan.
- [62:14]
B
Hi, Ryan. How are you? Nice to meet you, too.
- [62:16]
A
Okay.
- [62:17]
D
Did Tyrus talk about me?
- [62:18]
B
No, he did not talk about you, Dan.
- [62:20]
D
That sucks.
- [62:21]
B
Sorry.
- [62:21]
D
All right, I do have one question, though.
- [62:23]
B
Well, he told me a bunch of young, great looking, smart guys were going to come in to interview me.
- [62:28]
D
You know, they saved the best for last.
- [62:29]
B
Here we go.
- [62:30]
D
Okay, so I do have a question. I feel very strong about how the education system has kind of formed over the past few years, especially with politics, you know, the whole trans issue, all of those big political and social issues that have now been kind of enforced and implemented in schools.
- [62:50]
B
Yeah.
- [62:50]
D
So do you think that if AI becomes more of an asset in schools and education, do you think that that could help keep things more mainstream? Because I went to private school growing up, my parents didn't really want me and I didn't go to the. Have the best public school area where I was living. And I feel pretty strong about it. And my fiance and I want to make sure our kids are in a good school district where some of these values that we're seeing across the news aren't forced on our kids. So what do you have to say about how maybe AI could help benefit that kind of thought? Because it's a big concern with a lot of parents.
- [63:31]
B
Well, at our schools, the curriculum that. That we're using is very clear, and there's no kind of nuance that a teacher coming in and saying, hey, let's teach this. So that's, I think, one of the ways that we've gotten away from that hazard of having a human influencing what's being taught in front of a classroom that instead it's going through. And so we actually have the ability too, for parents to be able to look at our curriculum. And if they say, you know what, there's certain things I don't really want my kid to be, you know, focused on at this age or have that, especially when you're thinking about social studies, current events, all those kinds of things, there's some more control around that. I still think, you know, your. Your core curriculum, we have an obligation to teach kids that stuff. What we shouldn't be doing is instilling our points of view that people have on this. And so I think the fundamental issue, though, is it's still going to be a cultural issue at a school. And the key is find a school where your administration and that leadership is clear about what the goals are. For us, our goals are teach kids the academic information, not instill beliefs or values. We're focused on that. Families should do that, focus on these things. But one of the things I feel like is happening more and more these days is schools are getting a little more outward about saying, hey, here's what we're about, or here's what we're about. And. And so at least they're giving parents maybe a little bit more of a. Of a peek of this is the kind of thing that we're going to want to. Want to teach. And I think it's also a great thing that we're getting more and more school options popping up, especially in the private sector, as well as support, so that families have the ability to take funds and use that to go find an education that works for their family.
- [65:14]
D
Great. That's a great answer. I know that they want me.
- [65:16]
A
It is an amazing answer. You just asked the longest question. Well, hold on. Thank you so much. You have been an absolute pleasure. You stay.
- [65:23]
B
Thank you so much.
- [65:24]
A
Thank you so much. You are amazing.
- [65:26]
B
Can we do a picture? Because I know my producer is.
- [65:29]
A
Yeah, don't do it.