This $40M AI Company Is Using AI Tutors to Teach 2 Hours/Day | #233

If we're going to recreate school that's going to get our kids ready for the AI age going forward, first principles, what would you do? The first and and most important, which is the most

radical thing we say is US high schoolers at our historic lows in reading, math, and science. Americans

today have perceived college as uh far less important. Today, college

less important. Today, college graduates, they're the longest being unemployed. That's not sustainable.

unemployed. That's not sustainable.

We've known for 40 years how kids could learn two, five or 10 times faster.

Unfortunately, it doesn't work in a teacher in front of a classroom model.

>> We've really figured out how to use technology to um deliver these really incredible learning results and do it in a fraction of the time.

>> Is everything perfect? What do you guys worry about? I love what you're doing. I

worry about? I love what you're doing. I

just understand what's the flip side of the equation here.

>> You know, the the biggest issue >> now that's a moonshot, ladies and gentlemen.

Everybody, welcome to Moonshots. Today

we're going to be speaking about the future of education and the role of AI in education. And this is not just for K

in education. And this is not just for K through 12 university. It's also for reskilling, right? Something that this

reskilling, right? Something that this rapid pace of AI is going to require every major company to start doing soon enough. This is a topic that we've been

enough. This is a topic that we've been very outspoken about here on Moonshot.

Specifically, how secondary and post-secary education is failing us.

It's failing our kids. It's not

preparing them for the near-term, let alone the medium-term horizon. We're

going to be diving into a new education model called Alpha Schools. I'm a fan.

Um that's gotten rave reviews and discuss the pros and cons of AIdriven education. Uh today we're joined by the

education. Uh today we're joined by the leadership of Alpha Schools, Mackenzie Price and Joe Lamont. Uh McKenzie is the co-founder and CEO of Alpha Schools.

It's a K through2 program built around a 2-hour learning model that she helped to pioneer. Uh prior to Alpha Schools,

pioneer. Uh prior to Alpha Schools, Price was for 17 years in the lending business and also working at Trilogy, a Stanford grad with a degree in psychology. Uh she began questioning

psychology. Uh she began questioning traditional schooling when she saw her own kid begin to lose enthusiasm for learning. I'm also proud that McKenzie

learning. I'm also proud that McKenzie is an Abundance 360 member. All right.

And Joe Lamont is the founder and CEO of ESW Capital and Trilogy, a billionaire entrepreneur who is actively playing a central role in funding and scaling

alpha schools and playing the role as the principal, which I find incredible.

He's built his fortune by buying and systematizing software companies, a playbook he's now applying to education.

So, uh, first off, welcome McKenzie, welcome Joe. Good to have you guys.

welcome Joe. Good to have you guys.

>> Thanks for having us, Peter. We love

talking education and excited to be here.

>> And of course, >> I've got my much smarter, much more brilliant, uh, uh, Moonshot mates, Selma and and DB2. Guys,

>> good evening.

>> Welcome. Welcome to the party here.

>> And let me start by saying thank you for your service. uh because you don't see a

your service. uh because you don't see a lot of highly highly successful people turning back to work on K- through2 education. There's no real big money in

education. There's no real big money in it and it's purely a work of good in the world. So, thank you so much for for

world. So, thank you so much for for working on it.

>> Yeah. Uh for sure. What I'd like to do is actually kick off by sharing a few slides that show the state of education

in America today. Uh and it's not uh that great. Um so uh let's uh let me

that great. Um so uh let's uh let me share these here. Uh so here we go. This

is unfortunate and very shocking. So US

high schoolers at our historic lows in reading, math, and science. Uh only 35% of seniors in high school 12th graders are at or above the reading proficiency

level. This is down from 40% in 1992.

level. This is down from 40% in 1992.

uh only 22% of seniors are math proficient and only 31% are proficient in science. Right? And this is going

in science. Right? And this is going into a world where math and science and reading uh is so fundamentally critical for us. Uh on the flip side of of

for us. Uh on the flip side of of secondary education going towards college, uh here are some other numbers that are seriously troubling. Um, and

these blow me away, but they're very real. So, America, Americans today

real. So, America, Americans today perceive college as uh far less important. So, back in 2010, 75% of

important. So, back in 2010, 75% of Americans thought that college was important uh for your kids. Uh that has dropped down from 75% to 35%. And as a

result of this, we're beginning to see colleges going bankrupt. Um, at the same time, tuition uh has grown 893%

uh since 1983. As as we're demonetizing and democratizing everything else, uh the cost of going to college is going up. And then here's the killer uh that

up. And then here's the killer uh that today college graduates are the group that are out of jobs the longest.

They're the longest being unemployed.

Uh, and so for me that just cannot that that's not sustainable, right? Um, I

mean uh Joe and Mackenzie, you wanna you want to lean into those challenges right now?

>> I don't know where to even start other than it is a very disappointing uh picture and you know half of seniors in high school today graduate knowing as

much math as a 99th percentile third grader. Uh and that's a pretty troubling

grader. Uh and that's a pretty troubling statistic along with what's going on.

But I think it really points to the fact that um you know schools aren't preparing people uh for you know the near future as you mentioned and more importantly what this world is going to

look like in you know with AI. Uh, and

it's even more critical that in addition to making sure that young people have academic knowledge in their brains to be successful and be great critical thinkers, we have to instill all of the other life skills that are going to be

needed so that they can um be adaptable in this new world and uh be able to keep up and not just keep up but stay on the frontier of what human knowledge is required. And we see this with parents

required. And we see this with parents all the time. Uh parents are coming to us with their little children saying what in the world should school look like in this day and age? What is it

supposed to be delivering 10 15 years from now? And uh that's the challenge

from now? And uh that's the challenge that Joe and I are uh excited every day to take on.

>> You know the data shows that at Alpha School you're able to deliver a full academic program with only two hours a day of academic education. We'll talk

about the life skills se uh portion in a moment. and that uh you're educating

moment. and that uh you're educating your students at I think it's like two and a half to three times faster uh and still scoring in the one top the 1% top

2% of the country. And I I looked at some numbers here and it shows that uh on average SAT scores uh alpha school

graduates are at 1410 uh compared to the national average at 1,024 roughly 400 points lower. And that puts alpha school graduates in the top 94

percentile.

>> Actually, um I'll I'll I'll correct you on that. 1410 is actually the average

on that. 1410 is actually the average for our entire high school student body, freshman through seniors. Our average

SAT score for our seniors is 1535.

>> Okay.

>> Um, and the reason I think that's important to say isn't just to brag on how awesome our students are, but really to to show and highlight how easy it is

to excel when students get a masterybased uh kind of tutoring experience, which is what has been made possible in this model of education. Um, we believe, you

know, any student is capable of being 99th percentile when it comes to reading and writing and math and science and being able to crush your APS. Um, and of course, the beautiful part of it is it

doesn't take all day chained to a desk plus hours of homework at night in order to get those results. Um, we've really figured out how to use technology to um, deliver these really incredible learning

results and do it in a fraction of the time.

>> Yeah. So, back to scores and academics and you know the the two hours you know the um uh and I will as the principal I was just uh did the meeting this week where they're take they were taking some

practice tests the freshman and the freshman's goal this year is to have um a minimum of 1410 as their SAT score as freshman um so we have some who are

already over 1500 as freshman which you can think about when you talk about wow think of how much time that opens up for the rest of what they want to do during high school. Um, but aside from that,

high school. Um, but aside from that, how do we how do we do it? You know,

we've known for 40 years how kids could learn two, five or 10 times faster. So,

there's a whole field of learning science that very few people know of, but it's been around for 40 years. Um,

you know, the graduate schools of education of Stanford or Oxford or Harvard have been studying this, how kids learn and develop. you know, papers back when I was in high school, you

know, uh, Bloom's two sigma is a, you know, seminal paper where, you know, the paper talked about how kids could learn, all kids could learn and get to the top

2%, >> every kid, which you're seeing that data in alpha, you know, sort of 40 years later. And so what what we've done, you

later. And so what what we've done, you know, and the and and the reason it hasn't been implemented though is if you read the papers, you know, and there's probably 10,000 of them that have been published, you know, over the last 40

years, they all say kids can learn this fast. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in

fast. Unfortunately, it doesn't work in a teacher in front of a classroom model.

>> That's incredible.

>> And the Yeah. Well, it's it's what every parent,

Yeah. Well, it's it's what every parent, you know, one of the things I've realized, you know, after I became principal three years ago was every parent wants their kid educated the way

they were. And we don't know any

they were. And we don't know any different. And when I sit in the room

different. And when I sit in the room with some of these learning scientists, you know, they will sit and say, "We've known for 40 years teacher in front of the classroom is the worst way to teach

kids." And I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.

kids." And I'm like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa.

We like the people in this room, right?

Every parent in America thinks a teacher in front of the classroom is the best way to teach kids, right? And it's it's that dynamic fundamentally that, you

know, we have to educate parents on and show that this new way, right, that is grounded in learning science, right?

We've known how this works. We know the everything from the best ways to teach to the chemistry of the mind to to be able to do this.

>> And for the parents, it's it's what they knew. It's how they grew up, right?

knew. It's how they grew up, right?

Yeah. And

>> so you get this cascading generational effect.

>> Joe, I've heard you talk about uh what you called the five dimensions that make a school 10 times better than at least the schools that we all went to school.

And I if you could recount that cuz I found number one, the idea of being able to make something 10 times better is something you typically don't think about in terms of schools.

>> Yeah.

>> Um >> Yeah, please. So, you know, back to when Mackenzie and I were working on this, if you know, we you sit down and you say the school's been the same for over a

hundred years, and if we're going to recreate school that's going to get our kids ready for the AI age going forward, first principles, what would you do?

Just ground up, what are the core things you'd really want to do? And so, the first the first and and most important, which is the most radical thing we say, is kids must love school, right? If

we're going to put our kids in it for a decade plus, >> kids should love school.

>> And we actually measure it where over 90% of our kids love school. You know,

we measure every weeks we ask them. And

over the last year, we actually upped it where we actually say, would you rather go to school or go on vacation?

And 40 to 60% of our students say they'd rather go to school than go on vacation to be a lot of it depends on what the vacation is, depends on what the workshop they're doing. Um, you know,

the highlight of my tenure as principal was this before summer, uh, you know, six months ago, uh, the twothirds of the alpha high students sent an email and

said, "We don't want to take summer break.

>> Can you keep the school open?" And back to we all know I didn't like I was, you'd never catch me at high school asking if I could go to summer school.

Um and so but that principle and just talking about love of school, you know, it it's one where when you think about it like when we all build businesses, you know, just from the business world,

you want to build an organization that people love to come to work for, right?

Yet those same people when they sit and look at their kids and say, "What's school supposed to be?" They're like, "You're not supposed to love school.

It's supposed to suck, right? School's

supposed spinach. It's not supposed to be that." Like we have this mental model

be that." Like we have this mental model that for everything else in our life we're like yeah you totally should build an organization that people love right with school we just had this this backward way of of looking at it. So

that the first principle and the core and the reason we work >> is because of that core principle. And

when we talk to other schools about adopting this you know they all ask about the edtech. Oh you have this engine that teaches kids you know so much faster. and we stand up and say,

much faster. and we stand up and say, "Look, if you're not willing to rebuild your school around the concept that kids must love school more than vacation,

this isn't going to work." Right? And

that core principle really, really matters. Um, and that's what sort of

matters. Um, and that's what sort of everything that we do is downstream of that.

>> Mhm.

>> That's an incredible achievement, by the way. Congratulations.

way. Congratulations.

>> Yeah, those statistics are mind-blowing.

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It's it's actually when you think about it, if you step back though, you know, we spend an enormous amount of money on educating kids. Like you you talked

educating kids. Like you you talked about how people don't go into a business, but we spend over a trillion dollars for K through 12, right? I mean,

we're spending 20,000 plus a kid. You

know, some cities spend over $40,000 a student. And if you think about it,

student. And if you think about it, you're like, "Okay, I got a 10-year-old and you're going to give me 20 grand and I have to educate them and make them love every day." That's actually not the

hardest problem in the world, right?

It's that's a lot of money where you can actually build a day to have them both love it and learn.

>> So loving school is the first dimension.

What else follows that?

>> The second one is kids should learn 10 times faster. So back to this whole

times faster. So back to this whole concept and this is where sort of I got in is you know we we sat down um and built this engine uh over the last three

years where we basically took all the learning science and we took AI tutors not chat bots and we can get into why chatbots are cheap bots and if chat GBT

in schools is terrible >> you know um but if you take AI generative AI and you take learning science and you generate personalized

lessons plans for every kid at whatever level they are. Those kids can learn 10 times faster.

>> Did you build or buy did you build or buy that tech? I'm curious.

>> So, we started by using off-the-shelf apps and then building around it, right?

Sort of this AI wrapper around everything and we can talk of how to do it. We now for the most part have we

it. We now for the most part have we have both sort of the foundation this platform called Timeback and we use some thirdparty apps that are best-in-class. So for any of you

best-in-class. So for any of you listening math academy is the best app and then you can just go download it.

It's awesome. Uh if you actually care about learning science math the math academy way is 500 action-packed pages of all the concepts of these you know 40 years of learning science that you

should read. Um, and that that they're a

should read. Um, and that that they're a great team. We love to partner with them

great team. We love to partner with them on it. We've built a bunch of our own

on it. We've built a bunch of our own own apps, uh, Alpha Wright, Alpha Read, etc. that that sit on the platform as well. Um, we

put in over $100 million into this platform. So, it's a big lift, um, on on

platform. So, it's a big lift, um, on on being able to do this. But what we have today is a learning engine that teaches

kids basically K through 12 at 10 times faster than if they sat in class.

>> Okay, you got to love it. It's 10 times faster. What you hit number three?

faster. What you hit number three?

>> And then the second part is, you know, you come into school for two hours, right? And because we don't, you know,

right? And because we don't, you know, we learn over 2x in two hours. And so

back to what matters is then what do you do the rest of the day? because parents

don't want you to send the kids home right after two hours. They got to be there all day. And so then what do you do with the rest of the day? And it's

you teach them all these valuable life skills >> that we all think are important for the future cuz academics is not enough to get your kid ready. And so we have our

alpha life skills curriculum which is leadership and teamwork, right?

Storytelling and public speaking, entrepreneurship and financial literacy, socialization and relationship building, and grit and hard work. And so in the afternoon, you're getting all these

killer workshops, right? Team-based,

super fun workshops run by adults, right, in this environment that are teaching them all of those life skills.

Um, to get them ready for the real world. And that's where if you see all

world. And that's where if you see all the excitement and why we get so much hype besides the academics, you sort of see what these kids do. We have kids, you know, we have fifth graders, you

know, running food trucks and running Airbnbs for their entrepreneur workshop, right? And just all these crazy to TED

right? And just all these crazy to TED talks, right? just we have a we have an

talks, right? just we have a we have an Alphahigh student who actually today submitted her research to nature which no high school student in history has

actually been published in nature you know and so just crazy great accomplishments because they have this awesome you know afternoons to work on them

>> McKenzie can you know can you like dive a layer deeper for moms and dads and kids watching this to like you arrive at

the school and what's the experience what's the experience like? Can you sort of paint the picture for us?

>> You know, I it's such a great question because uh people just don't understand what a school looks like where kids actually cry at the end of the week saying why do we have to have breaks on

the weekend? You know, why can't we go

the weekend? You know, why can't we go to school seven days a week? They just

don't understand. And I think people often think, okay, this is some AI school. It's like Robo, Terminator,

school. It's like Robo, Terminator, dystopian, you know, antisocialized children. And nothing could be further

children. And nothing could be further from the truth. Um, in fact, what's happened is the model of the day, um, is one where kids get so much more time to

interact with each other and to interact with the adults that are in the school building, uh, because of how we've set it. So, uh, you know, you walk in the

it. So, uh, you know, you walk in the school, first of all, it feels more like a wei work space than a traditional classroom. Um, one of the things, you

classroom. Um, one of the things, you know, Joe and I both, uh, bonded over our mutual dislike and disdain for traditional school. And so, uh, we think

traditional school. And so, uh, we think again school should be a fun, exciting, uh, place that comes in. Kids start out.

>> Part the part that you didn't like about traditional schools were what the teacher in the front and everybody at the desk. you know, for me and I think I

the desk. you know, for me and I think I think Joe and I were similar was I was always wondering like how is whatever I'm learning going to relate to something I'm actually interested in in doing like where am I going to make you

know use for this in my life? What am I going to do? And it was just so boring.

I just found it incredibly boring. Um

and I also think school is fundamentally traditional school is fundamentally a place where they are teaching kids to sit still, raise their hand, don't talk unless called upon. ask permission to go

to the bathroom. And you know, it really hasn't changed that much. And what we're wanting to do at at our at our schools is is teach kids all these awesome life skills. And that starts with, you know,

skills. And that starts with, you know, you walk in at the beginning of the day and our kids all come together and they do what we call a limitless launch.

Think Tony Robbins for kids. This is a chance when they they get together and they'll do some sort of challenging, often physical uh sort of experience together. And it's when we start uh

together. And it's when we start uh incorporating some growth mindset strategies and practices that they take in the rest of the day. Uh then they go into their 2-hour core learning block.

This is the academic period of the day.

And this is when kids are on computers.

Um the key difference here from when people think of you know COVID Zoom classroom time is that kids are getting this onetoone interaction on the computer that's meeting them at the

level and pace where they're challenged.

they're in what we call like the zone of proximal development where it's the lessons that they're getting aren't too hard that they turn off and not so easy that they're sort of bored and

disengaged. Um throughout that time they

disengaged. Um throughout that time they take breaks every 30 minutes uh get time to stretch and play and uh be a little bit more flexible with kind of what their best learning environment is. And

by lunchtime they're finished with their academics and the rest of the school day is these super fun workshops. And so

that's everything from, you know, 5-year-olds who are learning how to climb a 40ft rock wall or swim in the deep end of the pool to high school students that are out building real

businesses. Um, and, you know, doing big

businesses. Um, and, you know, doing big things. Uh, and there's just so much

things. Uh, and there's just so much energy there. And that's what we found

energy there. And that's what we found is so cool about this kind of this this opportunity that kids have to get more socialization and time with each other.

Um, and one of the things Joe mentioned in those first three pillars of of what we believe makes a school 10 times better. Um, the fourth pillar is

better. Um, the fourth pillar is actually what enables us to deliver all of that, which is we have transformed the role of the adult in the classroom.

Instead of having to spend their time creating lesson plans and delivering lectures and grading papers and homework, which we don't even have homework, by the way, our teachers, we

call them guides. Their sole job is focused on motivational and emotional support. Basically holding kids to

support. Basically holding kids to really high standards, saying like, "Hey, you are capable. You can do big impossible things." And providing the

impossible things." And providing the support and the mentorship and the coaching that these kids need to do to be able to do great things. And so that

human element has been able to be put really front and center and that's what helps us make sure that kids are loving school and learning twice as fast in two hours and developing life skills. And

then that leads to sort of that fifth pillar which I think we all as parents can relate to. Ultimately what we what we really care about is are our kids

growing up to be good human beings? Do

they have character and integrity? And

so for us that fifth pillar is character and culture and classmates. Who are

these kids being raised to be and who are they surrounded by? And um that sort of ties everything that I think makes the culture at Alpha so attractive to so

many families around the country is you know when you can combine phenomenal you know kickass academics along with developing these life skills and then do

it in a nurturing caring environment where things like socialization is actually practiced and coached on as opposed to just saying hey we hope you survive you know the mean girl cafeteria

world you know and eventually get through. Um, I think that's kind of what

through. Um, I think that's kind of what we've done. And those five pillars is

we've done. And those five pillars is what, you know, every day everybody in our organization, you know, wakes up saying, how can we make sure that Alpha

is a 10x better experience? Um, and

really redefineses what what parents should expect out of their kids' school.

>> Dave, I see you itching for a question here. I I'm really I want to visualize

here. I I'm really I want to visualize even better this idea of a weiwork looking school because immediately it just jumps out at me immediately. You

you see all the little chairs lined up with the little folding desk and the lecture in the front and you've got rows and rows and rows of these rooms in any school, middle school or high school and it's all wasted space. And now you're

saying no, no, no, get rid of all that now. Make it feel much more like a a

now. Make it feel much more like a a work environment. But I imagine it's not

work environment. But I imagine it's not like our office, right? It's probably

somewhere in between cuz it's got to be more more schoollike. What does it look like?

>> I think it's it's picture like a really comfortable environment. In fact, I was

comfortable environment. In fact, I was in our kindergarten and first grade classroom at one of our schools this morning and you've got some kids who are standing at a you know a standup desk

because those are some of the kids who realize they like being able to just move their feet as they're doing their work. You've got another group of kids

work. You've got another group of kids who are sitting at a table and there's a guide sitting right next to them and they're working together. And my

favorite, and I always see this when I walk into one of those classrooms, you'll see some kid who's like laying on a bean bag with his feet up against the wall and he's got his computer on his laptop and you might look at it and go,

"What's that kid doing?" And I'll tell you what he's doing. He knows that he can get his work done and he can hit his goals and he's kind of earned that privilege of being able to relax. And

that's another thing, you know, motivation is is such a huge part of our culture at Alpha. And we've built in all these different motivation models to

help kids be successful. And that can be everything from earning the privilege of getting to do your core work in a little tent fort, you know, or a cubby thing with stuffed animals surrounding you.

Um, so it's just kind of fun. I think

it's really it's the kind of school environment that um again when we kind of are saying we get to reimagine what education looks like and what school looks like. Let's build a school from

looks like. Let's build a school from the ground up that just is a place where kids want to be. Right? We're asking

kids to spend a dozen years of their life most of the time in a place and it should be something that feels nurturing and caring and uh inspires just curiosity and exploration. Um, not one

of these what I honestly think so many schools are just depressing. Right.

>> So, so from the outside in, does it look like any other school with fields and and you know, fieldhouse, locker rooms and all that and then you don't notice the difference till you get through the door or >> No, I would say we're we're still a

little different on that. You know, our schools um we've opened schools all over the country and uh the way we've started this because again alpha is such a foreign um idea and concept to so many

families, they need to see what it is.

So, we've opened schools up throughout the country and we've started them small. Um, you know, so we'll have, you

small. Um, you know, so we'll have, you know, schools with 25, 50 kids that are in that. Um, you you get a playground,

in that. Um, you you get a playground, you know, kids need to be outside. In

fact, our students get, you know, an hour and a half of just nonstructured outside playtime every day because that's something really important uh to have. But yeah, it's not quite the

have. But yeah, it's not quite the traditional thing. And the same is true

traditional thing. And the same is true with the way we do our workshops. Like

for example, you know, I was at our our middle school uh this week and they're doing a an incredible band uh music class, but they're creating a rock band.

And as part of that, they're also learning about marketing and branding and mixing music uh in addition to playing instruments. You're not really

playing instruments. You're not really going to walk into one of our schools and see kids all playing the recorder, you know, as part of their traditional music class. Well, I see a lot of our uh

music class. Well, I see a lot of our uh you know that when they reach college, you know, because I I teach at MIT and a little bit at Harvard and at Stanford and u the kids that go to school in

England arrive a full year ahead of the US educated kids and they can use that to to take basically either a year of tuition back in college, you know, just getting advanced credits or they can

start a company while, you know, take a semester or two and start a company or just the extra time is worth its weight in gold. So if you start talking about,

in gold. So if you start talking about, you know, 10xing the rate of learning, I imagine and you know, 1400 SAT score as a freshman, I mean, you got to figure you're in that same maybe even a year ahead of that by the time you get to

college.

>> Yeah. When when you think about that time, for sure. Uh two points. One about

your England comment. Uh you know, we have the uh what we consider the the world's best team of learning scientists who work for us. And what's you know very amazing is you know most of them

come from England rather than the US that you know and the you know in England the academics actually have been going like this versus the US like that and a lot of it's like these this these

people from this team you know who have been for 15 years you know making sure that those concepts were put into the curriculum which is why they're they're ahead um you know we're now putting it

into our platform so everybody can get it but that that concept of just having lots of extra time. You know, in our high school, you know, they spend our our high school is a little different in

that you spend four years working on a passion project, right? So, you have four, you know, when you if you're going to come to Alpha High, it's not because you want to be quarterback of the Westlake football team, right? You'll go

to Westlake if you're if you're going to do that, but you're going to come because you have you want to say, "There's something I want to work on, right, that I really love." Now, they changed their mind, their kids, right?

and then they they you know these these ideas change but can you imagine if you said I had four years to work on something I really loved >> and get really good at it and so we do we have a you know we have a we have one

of our seniors who's putting on a Broadway musical >> right and it's going to be the first all teen all produced you know musical and she spent everything from I have to

source the singers off Tik Tok to music rights right to how do you fill a whole venue and all the sales and marketing all of those things was she took her.

Okay. I love I'm an arts theater girl, right? And now has had years to actually

right? And now has had years to actually work on it, you know, as as she loves.

>> Can I dive into a little bit about the guides? All right. So, um you don't call

guides? All right. So, um you don't call them teachers. Um you call them guides.

them teachers. Um you call them guides.

Uh and I'm curious how you source them, right? Uh super excited that Alpha is

right? Uh super excited that Alpha is going to be opening up a school in in my hometown in Santa Monica. Um how do you go about sourcing your your guides? uh

what's their background? Talk a little bit more about their their mission. Uh

are they just not traditional teachers?

Were they the top teachers someplace else? Help me help me get my handle

else? Help me help me get my handle around that.

>> I'll I'll give you from the business aspect in and then and Mackenzie can talk uh on the other side. You know, the the biggest issue back to scaling schools. Schools don't scale because

schools. Schools don't scale because you're limited by teachers, right?

That's always the the critical aspect.

And so when I first looked at the teacher problem, you know, how are you going to be able to scale this? You

know, the the the five things of uh what is required for a great teacher in a traditional school, not us, is you have to be a domain expert. I'm great in seventh grade science. You have to be

good actually in teaching kids, right?

And and you know, not just a researcher.

The third dimension is you have to connect and motivate students, right?

The fourth is you have to be good with parents. And the fifth depending on the

parents. And the fifth depending on the organization administration >> right? And and so you look at that and

>> right? And and so you look at that and sort of outside of the business world, you you ask an HR guy 101, he's going to say that's a complicated spec, right?

Those are different skills. It's hard to have all five skills in one person, right? That's a that's a hard speck. And

right? That's a that's a hard speck. And

so in our in education, what we've decided the way we solve that problem is to underpay them, you know, and then we're like, "Oh my god, no one applies for this job. it's

the hardest spec in the world and we're going to underpay him and you're like well this you know and so you know fresh eyes coming in here if we're going to rebuild this you know every HR guy is

like well simplify the spec or pay more or both and so at Alpha that's what we've done very much in our model is

those first two items which is seventh grade science expertise or how to teach it to kids the 10,000 papers of learning science of the best way to instruct

kids. We don't need because the AI

kids. We don't need because the AI tutor, right? Our software, time back

tutor, right? Our software, time back software does that for them. The third

dimension, you have to connect and motivate kids. You have to be the

motivate kids. You have to be the world's best, right? We push that to the max. So, if you look at our students,

max. So, if you look at our students, um, you know, a great book that, um, you know, I don't know if you've Dr. Joerger's 10 to 25, how to motivate kids

from 10 to 25, right? This is this is psych psychological motivations, right?

>> Correct. And he has this concept of the mentor mindset which is teens need high standards and high support, >> right? And so he actually has developed

>> right? And so he actually has developed our training program for our guides, right? Which is how do we have guides

right? Which is how do we have guides who are able to hold high standards for kids but also provide the high support to get them there. And so you have to be the world's best. And so about uh what

is it Mackenzie at the last count it was like half come from traditional teaching background.

>> Just about half of our um of our guides come from a traditional teaching background. And these are generally

background. And these are generally people who were you know phenomenal love the idea of working with kids but you know realize that you know that

traditional system is is just built to fail on there. But we get people who uh we have a guide who was the principal of the year in the state of Florida in

2020. And after 14 years working as a

2020. And after 14 years working as a principal, she was attracted to come back to Alpha because her desire was to get back in the classroom and you know impact and interact with kids. But in

addition to that um we get the majority of our guides come from different backgrounds. They uh you know wouldn't

backgrounds. They uh you know wouldn't have been interested in a traditional teaching world but they were experts in motivation. They come from professional

motivation. They come from professional and college level coaching in athletics because think about how much motivation and life skill development is taught through sports. In fact, that's the way

through sports. In fact, that's the way most of us got a lot of our life skills development growing up. Uh they come from uh corporate backgrounds, executive backgrounds. Um what they all have in

backgrounds. Um what they all have in common though is this idea of like, okay, I want to be able to positively impact and mo motivate and connect with kids and serve as a mentor. Um, and then of course to Joe's point, uh, we've

taken the opposite strategy as traditional education. We believe that

traditional education. We believe that anybody who is going to put their blood, sweat, and tears into working with, you know, this next generation, they deserve to be paid well. So, our guides start at

six figure salaries. And that's part of what has enabled us to really attract incredibly talented people. Um, and I will say our process for uh applying to

be a guide at one of our schools is it's very challenging. I mean, we really have

very challenging. I mean, we really have a high bar for who we want to be impacting and mentoring and coaching.

>> It's really fundamental though. That's a

like if you said so, so you know, in any given high school or middle middle school, you're going to have a math teacher, an English teacher, a history teacher, and their their branding, their personal branding is tied to this very

narrow kind of topic. And so by throwing all that out, of course, you're going to get a much better standard in terms of the other baselines, the motivational skills and everything else. So is there

any concept of a specialist at all across the guides or everybody is purely >> Yeah. So and and just to put some

>> Yeah. So and and just to put some numbers behind it, right? Um we had 80,000 people apply for our teaching roles, right? So in our world we have

roles, right? So in our world we have just you know >> how many guys per school >> and so uh and this is where to to answer that second follow-up question at the

kindergarten level we actually have five six to1 ratio of student teacher at alpha and the reason for that is that's

the one place where our apps aren't fully developed which is bootstrapping kids into reading we're it's still not there and so when you talk about specialists we still have reading specialists

to make sure kids get bootstrapped. Once

you can read, I can teach you math. I

can teach you all the other subjects, but the basically the the detection of a fouryear-old, the AIs aren't good enough yet. You know, we think we need another

yet. You know, we think we need another 18 months before AIS can do that.

>> Oh, so that'll that'll crumble, too.

That's interesting.

>> It will. It will, but even then, you'll still have five to six to one. Oh, good.

Yeah.

>> Yeah. Let me add a mom's perspective in here. Um because in addition to reading,

here. Um because in addition to reading, think about I I mean you guys all went through this with your kids like kindergarten. We want our kids to feel

kindergarten. We want our kids to feel loved and welcomed and we want kids who come into school curious and excited to maintain that and we believe having these awesome adults who are who are,

you know, supporting these kids and helping them do big things. You know,

our kindergarteners learn how to ride a bike and do a fivemile bike race as a team together. And you know, as they're,

team together. And you know, as they're, you know, I was just I was just talking to um one of our guides who was talking about a kid who was really feeling challenged around riding a bike, but

this guide knows that he loves animals.

And so she has a stuffed kangaroo and she runs alongside of him and says, "Can you go faster than the kangaroo?" Now,

by the way, our guides are having to get their exercise points in, you know, on that, too. Um, but that's the other

that, too. Um, but that's the other thing that's just so critical is what is the point of of school in addition to obviously education and socialization and relationship building. We need these adults who are kind of mentoring. And

one other thing I'll bring up, Dave, when you were talking about specialists, the other fundamental skill that we have to learn how to teach uh young people is the ability of learning how to learn

something. And when you talk about kids

something. And when you talk about kids who are going off and building businesses, you know, in fourth grade doing jewelry making businesses or building mountain bike parks or Broadway

plays or mental health apps, how in the world would you find a specialist, you know, who's an expert in that, you know, as a as a teacher? Instead, our guides also have that skill of, you know what,

we're going to come alongside each other and we're going to go learn how to become an expert in that field. We're

going to learn how to connect you with experts in the field. I actually today I spent time with uh two of our high school students who are meeting with a really successful Hollywood producer who

was connected by the school to give these kids some mentorship around you know movie production and marketing and that's one of the skills that our guides

are really good at is saying okay I can connect with a kid see what they're interested in and then help them go figure out how to go become an expert and jump in that field. So be careful cuz we'll probably be reaching out to

all three of you now for uh mentorship and connections with our students.

>> I'm not sure I'm qualified.

>> See, you had a question, buddy.

>> And then the other the other part of our model though, as you get older, we increase the ratio. So, you know, and you guys have 14-year-olds. You said,

you know, by the time you're adolescent, you're like, whoa, you know, there's too many adults around here. Give me some space. And so we actually on the

space. And so we actually on the business model side, we take that money out of the guides and we put it into these workshops, right? These crazy

afternoon workshops that they can go do everything. But if you also think about

everything. But if you also think about motivation, right, and and these alternatives, right? We have ex

alternatives, right? We have ex aathletes, right? I have exNBA assistant

aathletes, right? I have exNBA assistant coaches. Germaine O'Neal is teaching a

coaches. Germaine O'Neal is teaching a middle high school program, right? And

you're you're just like one I mean those those kids will one cuz motivation is so important right they'll do anything right with these set we have exolympians

right sets of um coaches and athletes who are able to connect with these kids and provide that motivational emotional support that you really want. Um, and

that's a lot of the magic that makes this work is making sure you hire those, which is why we pay more, why we built our business model around doing it and source 80,000 of them, you know, to find the right ones.

>> Well, that gives you a real head start on what's coming, too, because, you know, the whole uh college curriculum at MIT moved online years ago, and it it got off to a fast start, but then it completely fizzled. And the reason it

completely fizzled. And the reason it fizzled is because it's so insanely boring to learn on your own through a browser. Uh but what's coming next is

browser. Uh but what's coming next is the interactive AI version of that and it's going to have exactly your favorite personality on the other side. So, you

know, right now when you talk to your high school math teacher, the person is who they are. They're not your perfect soulmate to talk to. The AI version of it, it can be any voice, any

personality. It could be it could be

personality. It could be it could be Shaquille O'Neal, you know, reincarnated as a math teacher, whatever. It's going

to be so incredibly engaging and it's not quite ready yet. It'll be there within a year, but you're going to have such a head start having seen how these guides interact with the kids who are just, you know, the most naturally

engaging people on the planet and seeing the the motivation that that creates.

So, that'll match the AI version that comes onto that two hours a day when they're in front of the screen. Yeah, we

we have one where um our middle schoolers are allowed to pick their avatars and you know so for history like or in a uh AP world history they're all

like okay Genghask Khan right it's going to be my avatar and it yells at them if they're not studying right and the kids are all like okay we love this they pick it >> so >> yeah you know actually I met with a

couple of MIT junior or sophomores today actually that um we're saying that the the Taylor series is now taught by Taylor Swift and I got a real kick out of that. It's like, oh, okay, that's

of that. It's like, oh, okay, that's kind of cute that they're her avatar that suddenly knows how to do do >> I have like a thousand I have like a thousand questions here, but let me um kick off a couple. One is uh when you

hire a teacher from the traditional side, there's obviously a transition period to kind of operating in this new modality. How what's the average length

modality. How what's the average length of time that does that take? Well, you

know, one thing that's interesting, the last step in our hiring process, um, when they've gone through a series of interviews and and uh tests, everything from cognitive aptitude tests to case

studies and having to design workshops.

Uh, the last thing that they do is they spend time in one of our schools shadowing and basically working. And

what's really interesting about that is um uh once they get to that point, um the the most common reason for falling out and not getting hired is actually

traditional teachers. And the reason is

traditional teachers. And the reason is they're not willing to jump in and engage with the kids, kind of get at their level because traditional teachers are so used to kind of standing forward

or standing back and sort of pointing do this, do that, you know, and being here.

Um, but for those traditional teachers who do make it through our process and come into our school, we've got some really great training that uh they're able to jump into and just being a part

of uh being willing to jump in. And so

that's everything from designing the Limitless Launch uh activities that we do and the workshops. Um, and the other big thing is helping them remember that their job is no longer to teach

academics. So, if you walk into one of

academics. So, if you walk into one of our schools, you're not going to see one of our guides sitting down and showing a kid how to carry the one, you know, or what to do. Instead, um, they're going

to be helping kids again develop that skill of learning how to learn. So, they

might say, "Hey, did you check your resources? Were you able to find a

resources? Were you able to find a video? Were you reading the

video? Were you reading the explanation?" Um, and they're really

explanation?" Um, and they're really working to coach uh on that. Now,

they're also focused on motivation. An

example of that we just um today in that kindergarten classroom I was watching uh a couple of kids when they would hit one of their academic goals. They would give a secret signal that the guides are

watching touch your nose and that would signal I hit one of my academic goals and then that starts get ready for it a silent dance party. And that is a 5-second dance party where the the

guides would do this and the kid would do it and then that was enough to get that kid psyched up and ready to say, "Okay, let me go hit my next goal." And

it's just those little things that they can do. And then the other part of it,

can do. And then the other part of it, Dave, that you mentioned about how much more engaging, you know, um personalized, truly personalized learning with AI can be. Um I just want

to take it also to to what it looks like when you walk in a classroom. You can

walk in a classroom and have two seven-year-old boys sitting right next to each other, but each of them is working on something that's exactly at their pace. So, for example, you can

their pace. So, for example, you can have one seven-year-old kid who's doing algebra while the kid right next to him, his friend, is working on his multiplication tables. And that's the

multiplication tables. And that's the beauty of personalized learning. It's

not isolating. It's not making that kid have to march up two grades, you know, to go sit with older kids or even worse, being told by the school. you just need to chill out a little bit. You're too

advanced. Um they can keep going and yet be right next to each other doing that and then having that collaborative environment. I also have to say the uh

environment. I also have to say the uh the roller coaster that uh the kids incorporate when um when a kid hits a big goal, the whole class does a roller coaster ride, which again looks a little

like this. Those who are not listening

like this. Those who are not listening on video are are missing the magic of this movie.

>> Incredible. dance. But that's the thing that these guides are so good at doing is figuring out what is that motivation and that's everything from the silent dance parties to the fact that we pay

our students alpha currency uh and teach financial literacy concepts for hitting goals. All of that is really going

goals. All of that is really going developing self-driven learners. Yeah.

>> So, so then what happens uh what's the impact of that on the peer pressure? You

know, everything I see in schools, you you either care about your grades or you don't and there's no there's no no room in between. And you know, if you're near

in between. And you know, if you're near the top of the class, you get into this group of people that are really competitive about their GPA and you those are the ones that end up going to MIT and Harvard. And then you're like, "Oh, I can't compete on that. So, I'm

completely competing on the basketball team. You know, I'm going to put all my

team. You know, I'm going to put all my energy into that." And it's really sad actually because because most of these kids would be great at both. But the

basketball coach cuts them from the team. So, you're not you're not, you

team. So, you're not you're not, you know, allowed to excel over there. And

then the the math teacher only cares about the top five students every year.

And so you don't make the mind share of the math teacher and and everybody ends up bucketed in very irrational ways. And

that peer pressure is just pathetic. But

it must be completely different in your school.

>> Yeah. On on the academic side, this is the difference between a timebased system and a mastery based system. So

all our kids, right, master their grade level of material. So they get hundreds on their standardized tests, >> right, for each level. And so if you

actually this is back to this dichotomy of as adults because of our system we see the world so differently was if you ask alpha parents and say can you get a hundred on the you know in our case the Texas star is the the state standardized

test you know fewer than 10% of the parents are like yeah of course you can get 100 on the Texas star only you know GT kids right that kind of thing uh if

you ask the alpha students 95% say you can get 100 because they have right which is in a mastery based system. You

don't move up to the next grade level until you master right what you're on and the tutor is going to sit there right the system's going to give you the personalized lesson so you can

>> so all our students know they can crush their academics in two hours it's also a function of when you have when your classes are all top 1% every grade level every subject all the students are like

oh I can absolutely do well academically and so back to the competition you know it moves it in a in in a timebased system, right? The two things that

system, right? The two things that determine academic success in a standard school is it's IQ coded and it's big five conscientiousness coded. Are you a grinder? Right? And those are the people

grinder? Right? And those are the people who do naturally well, right? And that's

10% of the market, right? 90% of the kids don't in a mastery based system.

Everybody can. And it what if you ask your average alpha student it's not about IQ it's about effort you know and that's why we call our software time

back where it literally tells the kid you're 17 hours away right you're 5 hours away and so it moves everything from I'm not smart

enough or I'm not capable which is so right debilitating right that's such a bad model that we just inflict on these kids to oh okay well I'm five I'm five

hours away from mastering it and getting a hundred, right? And that's just a huge unlock around self-confidence and resilience and all that. And once again, can't do a teacher in front of a classroom.

>> I I love this. I just want to say this for everybody listening here. You know,

the traditional school models are you start school at 100% score and every time you get something wrong, your score goes down. In the traditional video game

goes down. In the traditional video game models, you start at zero score and every time you learn something, your score goes up. It's completely different motivational system. And if you can tap

motivational system. And if you can tap into that, as long as well as you know what you said earlier, the the best video game designers know how to just come in at that perfect level of of

challenge and frustration. Yeah, that's

great.

>> If you think about learning and you think about this engine, because it's it does everybody's like, "Oh, these AI tutors and they're terrible." And you know, you can imagine generating personal lessons for every kid that's

based on what are you trying to teach them? What is their knowledge graph?

them? What is their knowledge graph?

What do they know and not know? What is

their interest graph? Right? This is

back to your oh Taylor Swift my interest graph or Gascon or whatever it is, right? And then actually you can

right? And then actually you can actually take into account cognitive load theory which is actually the chemistry of your brain. how many

working memory slots you have, how many reps you require to store a long-term memory to, you know, change your schema.

And the AI can generate a personal lesson for you that makes sure it's at 80 to 85% accuracy, right? Not too easy, not too hard. At 99% you're not learning, right? It's it's you already

learning, right? It's it's you already know it. And every game designer will

know it. And every game designer will tell you if you drop below 66, the kids disengage because it's too hard. So you

can just imagine this unending stream of personalized content right for every kid right at their zone and this is why you can learn 10 times faster you know and and we

>> what do you do with what do you do with kids that are some are auditory listeners some are visual learners etc how do you navigate between the different learning styles that different kids have >> fundamentally you know in learning

science right there's dual coding which is it is better to get it both visually and auditory at the same time, right? So

even though internally you think I'm a visual or I'm auditory, the actual science will show it's better to give it both at once. And so it uh even though

you have a preference, right, you need the reinforcement of of both channels at once.

>> Let me ask some of the difficult questions that you probably are asked.

So, you're asking parents to trust uh more screens in the classroom at the same time that there's a backlash a backlash going on uh for screens with

kids. Um so, what do you tell parents,

kids. Um so, what do you tell parents, you know, who don't want their kids on computers all the time? And uh and then are you able

the time? And uh and then are you able to enforce sort of a distractionfree use of their laptop so their kids aren't going off to play Minecraft or or some

other video game?

Yeah, that I I those are super valid concerns. Screen time and you know bad

concerns. Screen time and you know bad screen time even AI and bad AI. So these

are all super legit concerns by parents and you know here's here's how we look at it and you know parents who come in you know how they look at it which is we believe there's good screen time and bad screen time which is if you can learn 10

times faster >> right then and it frees up the rest of the day to do all these great workshops and life skills it's worth that tradeoff

right even if you don't like screens and there are parents at alpha who would say I'm a no screen time household and they're like but if my kid can actually learn the academics in two hours instead

of six and get that afternoons to do all these great things. That tradeoff is worth it. That would be sort of

worth it. That would be sort of dimension A. Dimension B is to that

dimension A. Dimension B is to that point of AI. You know, if you give kids chat GPT in a school, right, 90% of them

use it to cheat, right? Chat bots are cheat bots. And so unmanaged

cheat bots. And so unmanaged AI is bad, right? And so we don't have in our mornings, we don't have chat functionality enabled. Like even in our

functionality enabled. Like even in our world, we've tried and even our best kids, they all use it to cheat, right?

And you're all just So we >> I have to imagine people people's preconceived notion of alpha school is using chat GPT in school um as a as a

mechanism for learning, but it it's not.

So, you're when a per when a kid's on your platform, um they're not able to go to to Gemini 3

or Gro 5 or whatever the latest is. And

and are they disallowed from going and playing their favorite video games as well?

>> Yes, you are. And so, when you talk about chat functionality, what we tell the kids is if you're using chat in the morning, you're probably cheating. But

if you're not using it in the afternoon on these life skill workshops, you're probably failing, >> right? The student who's trying to do a

>> right? The student who's trying to do a a a musical needs help, right? So

there's it's it's that dual sense that you have to have of of that. But for

putting facts, ideas and concepts in kids' brain, chatbt sort of >> steals that away from the kids and we you want to fill kids with ideas. Now

what our our AI use is basically there's two dimensions of the AI use. one is

generate the personalized lesson right and so it's the generative part of AI it generates a dynamic lesson for the kid now the second part of what it's doing

is the vision models so it is watching the screen coaching you so one of the things it's doing and it's actually the more expensive part like we we basically

will stream the screen at you know to a soda model you know it's we spend like 10 grand a kid right now you know uh in AI tokens because we're doing this because the AI

is watching the screen and it's saying look you know you're scrolling you're guessing the answers or when you miss the question you're not listening to the

explanation and you're just trying to drive the next question without listening and so it's coaching them into good self-driven learning habits and the

core of this and this is sort of a key and why edtech isn't the solution You know, we talk about edex like 10% of the answer, >> which is, you know, everybody says to

educate a kid, you need a motivated student and you need to put them in lessons of the correct difficulty, not too easy, not too hard. Edtech does the second really well, but how do you do

the motivated student part? For us, it's give the kids their time back, right?

Where you say, "Look, engage in it. Once

you finish the lessons, you get to do the workshops."

the workshops." Well, if you're not using the apps correctly, right, if you're skipping or guessing or, you know, doing any of these anti-atterns, uh, you're not going to finish in the

two hours, right? And so, we literally have a waste

right? And so, we literally have a waste meter in the corner where it's like, dude, you're wasting 50% of your time.

>> That's mind-blowing. You know, those vision models only came into existence maybe a year ago >> and you've already got them deployed.

That's that's incredible. 10 grand a kid is a lot of token usage, though. That'll

come down a factor of 10. But it's

impressive that you're >> we're going to get it down to on device.

But that is our And to be honest, like 3 years ago when we started when I became principal, we literally had humans >> reviewing the video at night annotating

>> like, "Oh, wow. This isn't this is these kids aren't learning." Cuz you have to train a model. It's just like the, you know, Tesla, you know, autopilot. Yeah.

>> You have to train this model up of, okay, this is good learning. This is bad learning. What are these kids doing? Oh,

learning. What are these kids doing? Oh,

wait. They're switching to another screen to ask chat GPT. Oh, wait.

They're playing Minecraft. And so all of those things, we're monitoring those.

And you know, our our our unit of measure is XP, right? Which every video, right? Is one XP equals one minute of

right? Is one XP equals one minute of learning.

>> Yeah. One one XP is one minute of of learn of focused learning. And so the kids know the AI is deciding, was this a minute of focused learning? Okay. You

get credit for it. Yeah. So,

>> I mean that's that's I mean just to make an analogy for the audience here, like if if you've ever coached soccer or football or tennis, uh if you just imagine you could look at every single kid and study every footstep they take

and say, "Oh, wait. That step to the right should have been a step to the left." But you're in their AirPods

left." But you're in their AirPods telling them one-on-one coaching of every single move. That team will just take off. and that the the vision

take off. and that the the vision technology to actually do that through AI with the AI looking at every single motion that's brand new in the world and it would work in coaching just as well

it wor as it works in screen monitoring for teaching but I can just completely see how like every single action in the learning experience is now a measurable

piece of data that can be personally analyzed and it's brilliant to me that you actually had human beings trying to do that at night that must have been the most laborious thing in the history of the world but that's how you get a head start into knowing how you're going to

deploy it with AI very soon thereafter.

That's just >> take your system and put it into a traditional school and see how much time is being wasted there.

>> 90% is being wasted. I can tell you in any school 90% is wasted. Right. For

sure. That's that's for sure. But back

and then just taking that last part that you were talking about the data what we have now and why our learning keeps increasing is we have the we're the only ones in the world with a closedloop data cycle.

>> It's reinfor it's reinforcement learning for kids. It is. And so our our learning

for kids. It is. And so our our learning science team comes up with an idea and they're like, "Okay, let's implement this new idea and see." They put it in, right? Generate the lessons. The kids do

right? Generate the lessons. The kids do the lessons. You measure the learning.

the lessons. You measure the learning.

>> Did was this a better way to teach the kid in this particular kid or whatever.

And then they can see the scores based on standardized test results and then adapt to the learning. And so to give you a a concrete example, so in August, I stood in front of all the parents. to

Mike, we got a new math curriculum, K through 12. Kids are going to learn more

through 12. Kids are going to learn more in 20% less time, right? We've made

improvements. It's going to be 20% better. And 8 weeks later, at the end of

better. And 8 weeks later, at the end of the first session, I got up. I'm like,

okay, in good news and bad news, 4th through 12th, we're crushing it. We're

above our thresholds. We're beating the 20%, you know, um, uh, metric. K through

three, we're not. The kids are getting lost right in the path. We we gave them too much freedom, you know, freedom of choice got too much. So, we're going to

be changing that and changing that for the next eight weeks, right? And I can tell you now it's we're back on track on that one. But that kind of science, it's

that one. But that kind of science, it's learning science. It's literal science

learning science. It's literal science how it's identical. Peter and I went to 1X Robotics to interview Burnt Borick and and he had the exact same thing for the robots that are in the home. They

gather every single motion. and all the data comes back gets transmitted into a nightly, you know, learning process that retrains the model. So you've got the exact same thing in education with, you know, probably much

>> calling our kids robots.

>> Well, >> well, you know, Eric, when we when we podcasted Eric Schmidt, he said, you get these loops, you know, Google, but but this is a perfect example of one of Eric Schmidt's learning loops where the the

model will improve with that data.

And Dave, you were talking about sports and think about how much time is spent studying game film to see how you can improve. And that's never been done when

improve. And that's never been done when it comes to learning in academics. It's

like again just hopefully you're good at school or you're not good at school, you know, and that's where we'll be. And we

actually give kids the coaching where where they learn, you know what, the best way to to to go forward is actually to slow down, read the explanation, watch the video, and then take your time

to, you know, look at the question, you know, before you go answer it. And

that's part of what really puts learning in the kids' hands and gives them a sense of ownership over it. And they're

they start seeing, you know what, I can get better. I can do better. I have the

get better. I can do better. I have the agency and the ability to improve if I put in the work and the and the good practices. And again, that completely

practices. And again, that completely changes the way that a kid sees themsself. And that's really the magic.

themsself. And that's really the magic.

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>> I want to hit on some um psycho emotional side. So I mean some kids in

emotional side. So I mean some kids in particular I think male teenagers probably need more scaffolding than

others, right? Um how do you how do you

others, right? Um how do you how do you think about that? And then the other side of the equation I want to ask is

you know how do you deal do you measure levels of stress and uh sort of uh uh you know sort of the psych the psychology of the kids to provide uh

feedback and safety. So scaffolding

first and then sort of the psychological side of the equation next. Yeah, it's

interesting from a scaffolding perspective in this way, you know, the earlier that we have kids come into our system, you know, the better we can build on those habits, right? But you

take, as you mentioned, a teenager, you get a kid who comes into us in middle school or high school and they've had years of conditioning in, you know, the traditional model, which is be passive,

sit back, wait for someone to give information to you, and then move along whether you know it or not. And so,

>> which is the worst place to be in life, right? It is. the worst place.

right? It is. the worst place.

>> Yeah.

>> Yeah. And so, so there are some bad habits that kids have picked up. Um, but

here's the good news is you can pretty quickly put kids into a into a situation where they're suddenly in a culture where they feel a sense of ownership around the culture and where they've got

adults who are, you know, practicing this mentor mindset with these kids of saying, "Hey, you were capable of doing big things. You may have thought in the

big things. You may have thought in the past that you weren't a math kid, right?

you weren't a good at science, you're dyslexic, and therefore reading will never be your thing. That's not true.

And let's let's put in some growth mindset. Let's give you some some

mindset. Let's give you some some training around receiving feedback around, you know, being able to connect and and do that. And so, they get that help and then when they also are met

with the level and pace and, you know, here's a pretty scary statistic that um I think it makes most most parents kind of blood turn. Uh we brought hundreds of students from all over the country into

our alpha school at the beginning of this school year and as part of their onboarding they do assessments so we can figure out where they are. And Joe stood in front of our um our parents at the back to school academic night and he

said guys I got some bad news for you.

Uh this will be a little hard to take but basically we looked at where students are and we compared them to their to their transcripts from their previous schools. And here's what we

previous schools. And here's what we found. If they were an A student on

found. If they were an A student on their transcript, you know, in math class, for example, they were anywhere between one year ahead and three years

behind in their academics. If they were a B student, they were between three and seven years behind. Three to seven

years. And so, here's the other part,

years. And so, here's the other part, and Joe's a Joe's a pretty forward principal. He said, "Your schools have

principal. He said, "Your schools have been lying to you. You know, gone are the days of of teachers giving out C's and D's because you know what? Parents

don't pay $40,000 a year to send their kids to schools where they get C's and D's right?

>> Worse yet, they don't get grades at all.

They get they get sort of a written evaluation and then like, okay, I need some objective measurement. Is is my kid doing well or not?

>> And they don't they don't give that out.

Um, now here's the next part that that Joe said is he said, here's the good news. It's not going to take years to

news. It's not going to take years to catch up. we're going to go and we're

catch up. we're going to go and we're going to fill in some holes, give some personalized lessons that that gets you caught up and you can do that pretty quickly and going through that exercise.

Um, which by the way, it sometimes takes a little bit of motivation, right, modeling to get these kids excited about going back and revisiting fourth grade, fifth grade, sixth grade to catch up, but they do and that kind of changes.

And then on top of it, when you think about kind of mental and emotional stuff, you know, all of our students, every week they get a one-on-one 30 minute uh meeting with their guides.

Every single week they're getting that connection. And did you know the average

connection. And did you know the average amount of onetoone time in a traditional school with a teacher and a student? 22

seconds a day. That's it. And when do they ever get those those 30 minute times? It's that stuff. And uh here's

times? It's that stuff. And uh here's another thing that's really interesting.

We have an emporium in our school where kids can take the alpha currency that they earn for hitting their goals and they can buy stuff. It might be a Lego set or stickers or snacks or you name

it. The number one most popular item in

it. The number one most popular item in the emporium is a special lunch with their guide. Uh kids love that

their guide. Uh kids love that connection and that mentorship. And then

the other part of kind of coming in as a middle school student or a high school student, um you know, we are really serious about creating a culture where we're helping students understand that

they can be creators and contributors, not consumers. And when you think about

not consumers. And when you think about what society does, it naturally pushes kids into the consumer mode. Scroll Tik

Tok all day, watch YouTube, play video games endlessly. Instead, we spend time

games endlessly. Instead, we spend time helping our kids see one, what are their values, what are their talents, what are they interested in. They go through an eeky guy values workshop that they then

do a workshop where they spend 168 hours of their week tracking, right? How do

they spend that time and what are they actually doing with it? And pretty soon our guides are working with kids to realize, you know what, instead of playing a video game, why don't you go learn to vibe code and build a video

game and then host your own uh tournament. Instead of scrolling TikTok,

tournament. Instead of scrolling TikTok, build an audience that's promoting an a message with a great, you know, app that you've built. And we find young people

you've built. And we find young people want to step into that role. And we just need to help make that possible. And as

a result, we see >> purpose first. Yeah.

>> Yeah. we see and and when you have that sense of purpose and that culture and students who are uplifting each other um we we really have found that that that's

been a a pretty good cocktail for uh you know healthy healthy lives.

>> Well, one of the things we see a lot is when you try anything disruptive in a legacy environment, the immune system attacks you. So are you getting attacked

attacks you. So are you getting attacked by the legacy system?

Well, you know, this is one of we I I've been trying to figure out, can you convert an existing school or do you have to be a new school like Alpha? And

the answer is, you know, I I've talked to, you know, the heads of some of the, you know, top 10 private schools in the country. And I'm like, here's the

country. And I'm like, here's the difference. If you hear this pitch and

difference. If you hear this pitch and you like it, you come to the Alpha Info session, which is why there's a thousand people at New York's Alpha Info session, cuz you know, people want this new thing. all the people who don't like

thing. all the people who don't like this message stay at your school.

>> And so, you know, there is for sure um a set of people who are like, I don't want that. And it's it's twofold of what it

that. And it's it's twofold of what it is. There's a set of people who are

is. There's a set of people who are like, I want it, but somebody else has to be first.

>> You know, that everybody wants to come to an alpha. And as we open up all these new cities, right, one of the things you realize is once alpha has a hundred people, right? that everybody wants to

people, right? that everybody wants to come.

>> Let's talk.

>> Nobody wants to be the first 20.

>> Let's talk about that.

>> That's the key.

>> Let's talk about how you get your schools open. So, you're opening one in

schools open. So, you're opening one in Santa Monica. I've just opened one in

Santa Monica. I've just opened one in Santa Barbara. Um so, your typical uh

Santa Barbara. Um so, your typical uh you go out and you find a real estate location. You you're finding some place

location. You you're finding some place that has enough interest that you've assessed. So, you have a density. And

assessed. So, you have a density. And

then uh McKenzie, you're looking at an opening class of what 25 to 40 typically.

>> Yeah. In general, um we're calling these kind of micro schools with about 25 students is is the start.

>> And and then one of one of the things I you mentioned to me is one of the advantages if you're like a founding uh family is and I I I love this idea is

that you can actually help create the opening class, right? You can get your kids best friends in there and you can select I mean I think half of education

is who you go who you go through the educational process with, right? Are

they people holding you up or pulling you down? And and I think this this is a

you down? And and I think this this is a good one and I'll tell the Mackenzie this is the Mackenzie story which is you know when she was co-founding Alpha she woke up and said I want to go find the

20 people who are going to be surround my kids right and I was actually unfortunately I I was a lagard it took McKenzie two years to convince me to

come to Alpha >> because I was like all the other parents is my kids I went to Catholic school didn't really like it you know almost expelled cuz I skipped school all the time, you know, dropped out of college,

but my kids are going to school.

>> You've done pretty You've done pretty well Joe.

>> Sure. Sure. But, you know, but my kids were going to Catholic school and she's and I I was like, "This is such a weird school." Like, so weird, right? And uh

school." Like, so weird, right? And uh

but she woke up and is what we would now call a founding family, right? She

founded Alpha. We in every city you need the same thing because just because Austin's going well doesn't mean Santa Monica or Santa Barbara or San Francisco or New York. They want to be like this

one is it. And so the core of growth is going to a city and finding those first set of families who are like yes I'm in

and and I'm actually going to go recruit the other families because it is a right it is one where parents want to see okay

it's working for your kid okay I trust it right that we if I I always say the two things parents need to to move a kid from their school is they need a

reference from an adult they trust, a parent they trust in their city.

>> Y >> and they need to see a kid at the school do something their kid can't do. Whether

it's love of school or academics or life, whatever they care about, they have to see those two things. And when

they have the two things, then they'll move.

>> Do you use a franchise model or do you own all your own schools?

>> So to we for Alpha, it's 100% us. We run

it. There's no franchise. This is we're 100% in charge of the quality control, you know, but but the second part of it is alpha is the high-end private school.

We designed this when we said what are we doing? It's price is no object,

we doing? It's price is no object, right? It's expensive. It's the high-end

right? It's expensive. It's the high-end private school. How would you rebuild

private school. How would you rebuild education now with this timeback platform that we're building? We're

building a whole set of other schools based on it which will be different model. So we've launched Texas Sports

model. So we've launched Texas Sports Academy, right, which is the afternoon is all sports. We've launched gifted talented school which is for the kids who love academics. When you say what would make you love more school they're

like more academics. And so you know those kids are learning like 5x learning like they're you know they'll be 1500 by you know 8th grade. Um and so you have different ones. We have a wilderness

different ones. We have a wilderness school right? So you can we have a

school right? So you can we have a monastery school. So you can imagine all

monastery school. So you can imagine all these different models that as soon as you have this magic of two-hour learning you can start to say what should we do in the afternoon? And so next year in

2026, you're going to see all these other models beyond just alpha that roll out based on this time back software.

>> The reaction of the authorities and uh government departments of education and that that whole legacy side.

>> Yeah. Your your um public school I'm going to be doing this for 20 years. Mackenzie's in for 20 years. The public school side I think is

years. The public school side I think is going to be like the second decade, not the first decade, which is we're doing a lot. It's all private, right?

It's with v, you know, there's a whole set of schools. The Texas Sports Academy is a is using the Texas vouchers, the billion dollars they just allocated

where it's $300 a month parent. So, you

know, bringing the price way down from from an alpha. Um, and so right now, you know, this is a a private model and

we've tried on the public side. McKenzie

applied for 10 charters in 10 states for inerson charters.

>> Zero rejected 10 times.

>> One one we got >> one virtual, but you got an Arizona. You

got a virtual, not a physical, which is physical school. You know, the school

physical school. You know, the school boards literally say things like, "I was put on this earth to stop people like you." you know, and so

you." you know, and so >> that's what I that's what I talk about when I say the immune system.

Yeah, >> for sure. And so I, you know, for us it's, you know, the back to the thing, the private school market's a $50 billion market, >> right? And so it's a big market and for

>> right? And so it's a big market and for those parents who want to opt in, you know, it is radical, you know, so they they can um we'd love to move into public as soon as they want to invite us, but you know, on charters, we just

said we we know we're not wanted here, so whenever you want us, come call us.

But otherwise we're done applying for you know charters.

>> And I think sem we what we see is we've got a lot of interest from the public education sector. You know the secretary

education sector. You know the secretary of education came and spent the day at Alpha in Texas in September. We we get people who kind of are inspired but it's really the idea of can you really change

the whole model of the day right? If if

academics only takes two hours what do you do with the rest of the school day and are you willing to change that role of teachers and all that. So I think right now part of the reason we get a lot of attention, we are probably the

most talked about school, you know, in the world is because um we are sort of serving as inspirational ideas for what's possible. And I actually love

what's possible. And I actually love that part of it. I'm getting I'm getting parents who reach out to me who have implemented a lot of what we do in their homeschool environments, you know, or

taking pieces of that. Um and I think you know eventually it'll get there but right now you know our plan is to to build the private distribution model at varying levels and price points. Um you

know still delivering the academic uh excellence through the timeback platform and the life skills development and that just can be done in different ways. You

know at alpha our students will learn adaptability and teamwork uh by doing a sailing workshop where uh they eventually sail from Florida to the Bahamas you know over five days. But you

know what? You know what else you can do? You can get incredible life skills

do? You can get incredible life skills development by letting kids get out on the sports field, you know, starting at noon instead of at four o'clock and giving them time back. So there's lot

>> is everything perfect? What do you guys worry about? What keeps you up at night?

worry about? What keeps you up at night?

What are the problems that are having?

>> I mean, you know, I don't want to be an I I listen, I love what you're doing. I

just understand what's the flip side of the equation here. Here's here well flip side is your average parent when hearing this think this is totally wacky and

must not be true. So you know educating parents that this is actually this new model is not fake and false and a hoax

and all of that you know is a huge lift right educ our marketing department is you know our schools educate kids we have to go educate parents because every parent literally thinks the opposite

that's one the part I as principal what is how do I scale with keeping quality right so every time we open a new location every time we open a new have a

new died. How are we making sure that

new died. How are we making sure that you're getting that same level of love of school, right? Academic performance,

the life skills. You know, we spend a lot of time like when you talk about life skills, we teach grit. What does

that mean?

>> Right? It's you can't just read a book, Y'Angela's book, and be like, "Oh, my kid has grit." Right? We have to be able to say, "Our third graders in Santa Monica and Austin and New York have

grit. What does that mean? What's the

grit. What does that mean? What's the

test to pass?" Right? what is our you know alphaert right that we have and so we spend a lot of time making sure that we're building this for scale

right and making sure that you know every third grader can do a Rubik's cube so we're like ah that's a good you know proxy for grit um and so the the the

scaling part is you know critical is our cost right I'm spending I'm burning 10 grand on the AI I got to drive that down so tomorrow if somebody flipped a switch and said, "Okay, everybody, finally,

every parent wants it tomorrow." You

know, we couldn't fulfill it. You know,

we we we got to drive the that curve down uh to make that work. Um and then the biggest one that I think to hit scale, building schools and rebuilding

from scratch is, you know, I got 20 years, so we're going to build 10,000 schools, you know, and that's going to be great and I love it. Um but how do I get to a billion kids, right? How do we

drive this out to a billion kids? And if

motivation is your number one issue, right? This engine part's easy in the

right? This engine part's easy in the scheme of things. How do you motivate kids when you don't own the school day?

Right? The biggest motivator of a kid is give them their time back. So, if I have six and I give you four hours back, I have the most important motivation. But

for the billion kids where I don't control their school day, right? And

they're not going to give it back to me.

they're not going to restructure their school. I we still have to get to those

school. I we still have to get to those kids and we have to motivate them to do it. And so you're going to see where

it. And so you're going to see where we've actually we're partnering with some of the best motivators in the world to figure out how do we package up both a motivational component with the

learning component. So we have some of

learning component. So we have some of the world's best video game designers that that's going to be released in 2026. We work with some of these biggest

2026. We work with some of these biggest influencers, right? and packaging all this up where

right? and packaging all this up where it's a bundle >> motivation plus the learning and that >> is hard. There's a big lift there, right? So,

right? So, >> have you talked to have you talked to other governments because there's certainly countries around the world that are much more open to the future of education in a modern way than than we

are say here.

>> Yes. Um we do we get we have demand everywhere. um uh and you know on

everywhere. um uh and you know on governments what we find is it's the same thing almost everywhere which is if

if countries have a private model you absolutely can get take rate on the private side. The issue is ministers of

private side. The issue is ministers of education or secretaries or departments

of education are pretty much globally very much going to wait and see until there's dramatically more proof which I

I I'm not against. I was, you know, Peter Aia was a, you know, his his daughter went to the school and we were I was comparing, you know, medical grade testing, you know, versus education.

And, you know, there aren't, you know, in education, we roll stuff out to 55 million kids and there's no randomized control trial, right? There's no million million user like, does this really

work? And I would love, you know, one of

work? And I would love, you know, one of the things that we'd love to do is be able to, you know, as we get all this data out there in this, you know, time back at scale is do a million student

randomized control trial so that every pharmaceutical grade trial so everybody can be like, "This isn't a hoax, right?

This this actually works. Oh my gosh."

Right? We need some of that proof because a lot of things in education are, >> you know, there's a lot of bad learning science in education that we need to undo. And I believe proof and and and

undo. And I believe proof and and and pharmaceutical grade trials might be the way around that.

>> Incredible. Um yeah, as we close on this episode, uh I have one final question, but Dave and See, I wanted to give you a chance to to ask.

I would love to know how you deal with the rate of change of technology and what your process is because if you think about you know if you start with a batch of say you know six seven eight year olds and you're planning that to

end as 18 year olds but in the intervening 12 years you know half the kids will have neural links and the other half won't you know and they'll be they'll be doing something in the back of their mind you can't even see like

how are you going to deal with this constant rate of change during that timeline.

>> Yeah. So that um I we're we're humble enough to know we don't have all the answers. You know, we talked to

answers. You know, we talked to Mackenzie and I talked to thousands of kindergarten parents, right? And the p kindergarten parents are the ones who are who want the biggest change because

they are looking out at 12 years from now and they basic all know this current school system is not going to work, right? We need something different,

right? We need something different, right? they're they're motivated to

right? they're they're motivated to change versus if you have a a senior in high school, you're like, "Let me just get him to college or get him out here, right?" But if you have to look forward

right?" But if you have to look forward and project 12 years, you're going to want something new. And all we say at Alpha is we wake up every day and we feel we're the leading school that is

saying, "How do we adapt to what the technology changes?" So if you actually

technology changes?" So if you actually look at our high school kids, we have a concept called a brain lift, which is the data structure for human knowledge, right? And it literally divides this is

right? And it literally divides this is the stuff LLMs are going to be good at or are good at and will be and this is the part that humans are good at. And

we're teaching them as of today and with you know what we can project in the future, this is as good as we can get kids and this is how we're preparing you for that world. and you know and maybe

Gro 7 is like okay well it does everything the brain lift thought is you know and we got to move on but we believe there's a you know our our view very much and I think this is an

important point about our culture you know McKenzie's best line is this is the best time in history to be a 5-year-old

right AI is going to impact adults very differently we're in Austin Ubers Whimos robo taxis right Not a good time to be an Uber driver, right? But AI is going

to gives kids superpowers, >> right? It's going to transform their

>> right? It's going to transform their childhood. It's going to let them do

childhood. It's going to let them do things that our generation never even dreamed of.

>> And so putting them putting your kid in that kind of environment, right, is going to be awesome for them. And you

know, if you talk to I have a I have I have a dozen uh high school kids who are in my guide group um Sparta group. Shout

out. Um anyway, they uh you know, they wake up every day and when you talk to them, they're like, "Yeah, you adults, man, it's wraps for you guys. We are

going to AI's going to like give us superpowers. We're going to take over

superpowers. We're going to take over the world."

the world." >> Well, infinite longevity, too. Yeah.

>> Exactly. And so, I mean, they can't be more optimistic about the future. And I

think that's the kind of thing, >> by the way, moving before us adults screwed up completely. Let me let me hit on that.

>> Don't worry, they are. Don't worry, they are. One of the reasons we uh moved

are. One of the reasons we uh moved schools for one our kids at one point was you have to assess the level of optimism of the teachers teaching your

kids.

>> If your teachers are pessimistic about this about the future um what do you expect your kids to be?

>> I couldn't agree Matt Ridley right all our kids read rational optimist right they have to read they have to read abund they have to read abundance as well. Okay.

well. Okay.

>> Yeah. And and they, you know, he came to the school and he actually was sort of an AI doomer when it came to education.

And I couldn't have been more proud as our students sat there and used his arguments from his books and examples from what their day is like on why he needs to see the world differently that this is going to be awesome,

>> right? And uh and so I think that's an

>> right? And uh and so I think that's an important part of when you talk about culture that we need for our kids. And

you know, Peter, we had a we had a big foundation, a a very large education philanthropy foundation came and visited our schools. And at the end of the time,

our schools. And at the end of the time, uh the head of the foundation said to my guides and me, they said, "You guys are so happy." And I was kind of like,

so happy." And I was kind of like, "What?" You know, and they said, "We go

"What?" You know, and they said, "We go and we visit schools and we talk to educators and they're all just so they're encumbered and they're they're depressed and they're like, "It's so hard." And you know, our I was so I was

hard." And you know, our I was so I was so happy to see my guide said, "What do you mean? This is the greatest time in

you mean? This is the greatest time in the world to be an educator because we finally are unleashed to do what we got into this world to do, which is positively impact kids." And and you can

do those things. And the other thing I I love and appreciate and I think, you know, Joe is obviously a really great partner to have in this education endeavor. Um, but one of the things I

endeavor. Um, but one of the things I say is if you come to one of our schools at the beginning of the school year, we're not going to just dust off the same old presentation that says, "Hey, here's what the school year looks like.

This is the date of field day. This is

the day for back to school night, whatever." We're more like the Apple

whatever." We're more like the Apple iPhone. We update every six weeks. We're

iPhone. We update every six weeks. We're

constantly iterating and we're constantly growing and learning and we're seeing what what works and what doesn't. And I will say families in our

doesn't. And I will say families in our model, they have to flex their adaptability muscle as well because we're always having kids do cool things and adjusting things as they work. And I

think that's why we're able to see such rapid uh innovation. Um but as part of that, we are on the forefront of it. So

it's kind of a fun and wild ride, which hopefully Peter, you guys will get to be a part of, you know, in Santa Monica is seeing what that's like.

>> Amazing. Hopefully your AI works.

Hopefully your AI works better than the Apple iPhone AI.

>> Salem, why don't you wrap us up here, buddy?

>> Yeah, I think that's what's great is it's such a clear watershed between everything you're doing in a growth mindset and everything old and a fixed mindset. And I think you're probably

mindset. And I think you're probably pushing people over that line wonderfully. If you you you launched, I

wonderfully. If you you you launched, I think 2016, if I remember right. Right.

We started the very first school in 2014 when uh my kids were in third and first grade and uh Joe's daughters who are the same age as my girls came in a couple years later and we now have sophomores

in college and then seniors in high school. So this is Joe's in my last year

school. So this is Joe's in my last year as alpha parents and then uh he'll be pure principal and guide leader >> and uh and I'll do whatever I do. If you

go back to your founding, um, what would you have done differently that would, uh, have accelerated or changed things, what have you learned now that you wish you knew then?

>> Oh, boy.

>> To partner with Joe at the very beginning, I guess, right?

Well, I part of it's not like, you know, part of this and back to the story three years ago why I got involved was, you know, for I put my kids in 10 years ago, but I was like, McKenzie, just like all

education, this isn't scalable. This is

great for Austin. It's great for our families. It wasn't until Gen AI came

families. It wasn't until Gen AI came out when I said this is the technology that can let us scale to a billion kids.

So, it really was that moment that said, "Okay, now I should get involved because we can get it out to everybody and I what I bring to the party." And so, you know, that that would been it. And if

you just rolled me back three years, you know, what would I um uh what would I have done differently? the

understanding, the educating parents.

You know, I I wake up every day and if you said if I could wave a magic wand to fix education, it's actually not the students. The

students are awesome, >> right? The issue is

>> right? The issue is >> I need the because parents are the blocker.

>> The blocker to education reform is what's in parents heads. Mhm.

>> And so that whole concept of, you know, for 3 years I didn't do a podcast, right? And I did, you know, and now I

right? And I did, you know, and now I realize educating parents, you know, Mckenzie's been out there. We have to get out there because the single biggest

impediment to making education great for our kids is what our parents believe.

>> Amen. McKenzie, where can we point people to learn more about Alpha School?

Where do they go to? Well, we've got alpha schools that are launching uh coast to coast. Uh we had 13 new schools this year and we'll be continuing to announce. So you can go to alpha.school

announce. So you can go to alpha.school

and learn more about our model. And then

future of education on social media on Instagram. I've got a podcast called

Instagram. I've got a podcast called Future of Education and uh we spend a lot of time uh on those channels just giving parents a little bit of a taste of what uh what's possible in school

when you free kids time up to go do awesome things and develop. So, future

of education and alpha.school.

>> And Joe, any particular targets you want to point folks at?

>> Oh, he's becoming an X star.

>> Good. Good.

>> J, you can get Jay Lemont is where I post and you'll see sort of life as a principal. Um, you know, and uh what all

principal. Um, you know, and uh what all the education and the business. You'll

see some stuff about the business of education as well as what alpha kids are doing and our and our view around this >> and can if family wants to go and visit an alpha school to see if it's right for

them. Is that a possibility?

them. Is that a possibility?

>> It absolutely is. In fact, that's uh kind of the key is um is uh students will come and do a shadow day to see if if the school is a fit. And the one thing we warn parents is don't send your

kid to a shadow day unless you are convinced that you want to move or your kids will rebel. They'll be like, I'm not going back to my old school. I want

to go to this new school. Um, and so that's one of the things we say. Yeah,

we're hosting >> we're hosting info sessions at all of these schools and uh and getting kids in to kind of experience this and and again that that whole idea of love of school,

it is so magical because when kids love school, it allows us to help them unlock their potential and do big things.

>> Uh amazing.

>> Well, I got to say I came into this podcast saying, "Well, I always learn something, but you know, how big a deal can it be?" And I'm coming out of it saying, "This is so inevitable and so huge. This has been great."

huge. This has been great."

>> Yeah. critical for America, critical for the world. I mean, the speed of change

the world. I mean, the speed of change is so extraordinarily fast um that if we are still using the old methodologies, um we're hitting brick walls. We we need

we need the we need some not just alpha school hopefully many different mechanisms that are going to enable us to have our our our kids our college kids and even you know we didn't talk

about it but res-killing using this technology to reskill our employees is going to be fundamentally critical.

>> Yeah.

>> Well thank you Joe.

>> Thank you guys we really appreciate it.

>> A pleasure >> See a pleasure as always. I want to attend the school.

>> Absolutely.

>> Yeah. Reskill yourself.

>> All right, guys. Have a beautiful day.

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