This seems like a collective action problem. With the vast majority of adolescents in high school, you look like a weirdo if you opt-out, and the ecosystem of alternatives & opportunities doesn't exist. I'm convinced of the wisdom in this post, but I'm not clear on what the path is to get to a world where at least some communities can really experience such a thing.
Seems like the smallest incremental thing is normalize hiring high school age kids who want to opt out of high school.
Austin is farthest along in this process. At least among the entrepreneurial elite, almost everyone knows someone whose child attends an alternative school of some kind. There is also a large, diverse homeschooling population, with both Christian and hippy variants well represented. The boundary between homeschooling and unschooling is gradually disappearing as more a la carte learning options spring up. Billionaire Joe Liemandt runs Alpha School, an alternative school where students spend most of the day doing projects based in downtown Austin with windows so that people walking by can see teens working on their projects. Jeff Sandefer, founded Acton Academies in Austin, where teens focus on entrepreneurial projects to a substantial extent. There are now hundreds of them around the world, with several in Austin. There are also many much older alternative schools in Austin, many rooted in Austin counterculture (e.g. more hippy). AltEd Austin is a consulting service to help parents navigate alternative education because there are so many here. And there is actually a trend here among the tech elite to create alternative microschools in their homes. I know of two other billionaires doing this. There are rumors that Elon may also create another alterantive school. So once it becomes prestigious and normalized, things will shift quickly, especially after ESAs are passed. Not in Boston and NY, but certainly there is a vibrant movement here in Austin.
Rob, I think what you said about seeming like a weirdo is a product of an older generation. I didn't know anyone who was homeschooled growing up, and even the exceptional cases I knew (one model, another actor) all still attended public high school. But I now know hundreds of parents who are opting for different opportunities.
As Michael mentions, there are opportunities in micro-schools. I'm creating my own education for my own children, which I'm going to be documenting on my new Substack starting next week. With a little motivation, we can create incredible opportunities for children and (I believe) bring much of the lost wisdom back into the next generation. In five years, I think many people will be asking Michael why this wasn't the norm 30 years ago.
"I’ve never wasted so much time nor learned as ineffectively as when I have been in school."
I have long realized that I remember almost nothing from my government schooling; Indians who ate acorns had to soak them and pound them and something something something. I suspect basic arithmetic and reading and printing (which were when I was too young to remember now) were 90% of what I gained from school. 9% was reading practice from those god-awful textbooks. 1% was that people can eat acorns, but the exact method was not taught. A -10% was probably English literature teachers insistent on analyzing poetry and books their way, and were contemptuous of me just liking some authors more than others without analyzing the life out of them; I want to enjoy Robert Frost's Fork In the Road (or whatever it is called), but memories of that jackass sneering teacher come flooding back. I have read far more and learned far more history on my own than from all my history teachers.
I spent most of my one college year using the computer facilities to teach myself all sorts of fun programming tricks, and that is how I got my first job. The university kicked me out for not going to any classes in subjects I have never used since. I kept using their computers on my own.
I came to the conclusion ages ago that in a free schooling market, without any government control or funding, children would focus on basic readin' writin' and 'rithmetic, and the rest of their education would be whatever interested them from talking and socializing with older kids, relatives, neighbors, and family friends. Get exposed to all the real world jobs out there; bring your kids to work not just one day a year, and not just your kids, but neighbor kids, cousins and other relatives, to follow you around and learn how adults work, not the skills themselves. Let them figure out what skills they have that match what work looks interesting. And leave history and literature and all those other topics for adulthood. The only use of history and most subjects was the reading practice, not the content itself.
The worst thing to do to kids is stick them in schools all day with only their peers and a few adults who they see day after day. It isolates them from the big wide world of adults working together, of adult problem solving. Then keep pushing more and more college, impress them with how stupid and ignorant they are, how they cannot do anything by themselves until they have been in school for 16 years. A friend and co-worker was pissed as hell at finding a bachelor's in biology qualified him for nothing related to biology.
Of COURSE they end up not knowing why they are dissatisfied or who they are angry with! I cannot think of a better way of raising snowflakes who think cosplay in a 2 ton SUV with armed police is just a harmless little game.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's words from his poem "Ulysses" comes to mind:
***
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
***
In many human endeavors, top-down solutions fail where a bottom-up approach could have worked. In ancient India, before the British colonialists imposed the top-down Prussian system of schooling, there was a simple, distributed system of teaching and learning that was stable, efficient and effective. It was called "the gurukul" method.
A guru (Sanskrit for "honored teacher") would teach a bunch of children under a tree or inside a small room in his modest home. The student had to approach the guru and entreat him, "Guru, I am eager to learn. Please teach me." The student had to demonstrate his eagerness to learn repeating that request sincerely thrice. No compulsion was involved. The guru would then take the time to size up the student and then proceed to teach the appropriate lessons. Based on how well the teaching-learning went, the student was expected to give the guru a "dakshina" -- a material payment that reflects the gratitude, respect and devotion for the teachings. On top of that, there is "daan" -- a duty of selfless service. In all, the system was entirely voluntary, as in a free market for people who wanted to teach and for those who wanted to learn.
I think we are moving toward a similar system since I can choose which guru to go to (virtually these days) depending on what subject I want to learn. Thousands of teachers put out what they have to offer and tens of thousands of students choose whom to learn from what they want to learn.
Things are looking up.
Thank you, Mr Strong, for your important essay. My deep respect to you.
(I take this opportunity to bow deep in reverence to my gurus Peter Berck and Irma Adelman who guided me in my economics doctoral thesis at UC Berkely decades ago.)
Public school is costing all of humanity substantial blood and treasure. High frequency and high visibility student successes may be the only way to convince society (students and parents) to question their complacent insistence on status quo. Maybe a meta study of the % accepted or graduating from Ivy League schools from non-trad-ed backgrounds? Suicide or mental health rates for non-trad vs trad ed students? There is certainly data somewhere that would make the case to quantify the superior outcomes.
Brilliant. 50 years ago, I was the kid that didn’t see university taking me anywhere i wanted to go, dropped out, learned a trade that became a profitable small construction consulting business. Now retired, i lament not having alternatives available.
"What is in short supply are the subcultures of inspiring, motivated human beings. In voluntary communities, one typically finds peers and mentors. In coercive environments in which one has little agency and one’s attention is controlled in ways that are not desirable, we have designed institutions that are exceptionally effective at killing inspiration and motivation."
As I mentioned when we spoke, I took years to break free of those stifling microcultures of mediocrity. But every day I'm inspired to know that its possible to avoid that for my kids.
This seems like a collective action problem. With the vast majority of adolescents in high school, you look like a weirdo if you opt-out, and the ecosystem of alternatives & opportunities doesn't exist. I'm convinced of the wisdom in this post, but I'm not clear on what the path is to get to a world where at least some communities can really experience such a thing.
Seems like the smallest incremental thing is normalize hiring high school age kids who want to opt out of high school.
Austin is farthest along in this process. At least among the entrepreneurial elite, almost everyone knows someone whose child attends an alternative school of some kind. There is also a large, diverse homeschooling population, with both Christian and hippy variants well represented. The boundary between homeschooling and unschooling is gradually disappearing as more a la carte learning options spring up. Billionaire Joe Liemandt runs Alpha School, an alternative school where students spend most of the day doing projects based in downtown Austin with windows so that people walking by can see teens working on their projects. Jeff Sandefer, founded Acton Academies in Austin, where teens focus on entrepreneurial projects to a substantial extent. There are now hundreds of them around the world, with several in Austin. There are also many much older alternative schools in Austin, many rooted in Austin counterculture (e.g. more hippy). AltEd Austin is a consulting service to help parents navigate alternative education because there are so many here. And there is actually a trend here among the tech elite to create alternative microschools in their homes. I know of two other billionaires doing this. There are rumors that Elon may also create another alterantive school. So once it becomes prestigious and normalized, things will shift quickly, especially after ESAs are passed. Not in Boston and NY, but certainly there is a vibrant movement here in Austin.
...nor Chicago, where the seeds of societal failure are fully rooted.
Rob, I think what you said about seeming like a weirdo is a product of an older generation. I didn't know anyone who was homeschooled growing up, and even the exceptional cases I knew (one model, another actor) all still attended public high school. But I now know hundreds of parents who are opting for different opportunities.
As Michael mentions, there are opportunities in micro-schools. I'm creating my own education for my own children, which I'm going to be documenting on my new Substack starting next week. With a little motivation, we can create incredible opportunities for children and (I believe) bring much of the lost wisdom back into the next generation. In five years, I think many people will be asking Michael why this wasn't the norm 30 years ago.
Love to hear it. Will be looking out for your Substack. Thanks
This line really struck a nerve:
"I’ve never wasted so much time nor learned as ineffectively as when I have been in school."
I have long realized that I remember almost nothing from my government schooling; Indians who ate acorns had to soak them and pound them and something something something. I suspect basic arithmetic and reading and printing (which were when I was too young to remember now) were 90% of what I gained from school. 9% was reading practice from those god-awful textbooks. 1% was that people can eat acorns, but the exact method was not taught. A -10% was probably English literature teachers insistent on analyzing poetry and books their way, and were contemptuous of me just liking some authors more than others without analyzing the life out of them; I want to enjoy Robert Frost's Fork In the Road (or whatever it is called), but memories of that jackass sneering teacher come flooding back. I have read far more and learned far more history on my own than from all my history teachers.
I spent most of my one college year using the computer facilities to teach myself all sorts of fun programming tricks, and that is how I got my first job. The university kicked me out for not going to any classes in subjects I have never used since. I kept using their computers on my own.
I came to the conclusion ages ago that in a free schooling market, without any government control or funding, children would focus on basic readin' writin' and 'rithmetic, and the rest of their education would be whatever interested them from talking and socializing with older kids, relatives, neighbors, and family friends. Get exposed to all the real world jobs out there; bring your kids to work not just one day a year, and not just your kids, but neighbor kids, cousins and other relatives, to follow you around and learn how adults work, not the skills themselves. Let them figure out what skills they have that match what work looks interesting. And leave history and literature and all those other topics for adulthood. The only use of history and most subjects was the reading practice, not the content itself.
The worst thing to do to kids is stick them in schools all day with only their peers and a few adults who they see day after day. It isolates them from the big wide world of adults working together, of adult problem solving. Then keep pushing more and more college, impress them with how stupid and ignorant they are, how they cannot do anything by themselves until they have been in school for 16 years. A friend and co-worker was pissed as hell at finding a bachelor's in biology qualified him for nothing related to biology.
Of COURSE they end up not knowing why they are dissatisfied or who they are angry with! I cannot think of a better way of raising snowflakes who think cosplay in a 2 ton SUV with armed police is just a harmless little game.
Michael, wow! Just wow! Thank you.
This resonated with me. I am a strong proponent of unschooling.
Delighted that it was effective. I think once one sees how much has been taken away from us through compulsory mass schooling, it is hard to unsee.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson's words from his poem "Ulysses" comes to mind:
***
Tho' much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
***
In many human endeavors, top-down solutions fail where a bottom-up approach could have worked. In ancient India, before the British colonialists imposed the top-down Prussian system of schooling, there was a simple, distributed system of teaching and learning that was stable, efficient and effective. It was called "the gurukul" method.
A guru (Sanskrit for "honored teacher") would teach a bunch of children under a tree or inside a small room in his modest home. The student had to approach the guru and entreat him, "Guru, I am eager to learn. Please teach me." The student had to demonstrate his eagerness to learn repeating that request sincerely thrice. No compulsion was involved. The guru would then take the time to size up the student and then proceed to teach the appropriate lessons. Based on how well the teaching-learning went, the student was expected to give the guru a "dakshina" -- a material payment that reflects the gratitude, respect and devotion for the teachings. On top of that, there is "daan" -- a duty of selfless service. In all, the system was entirely voluntary, as in a free market for people who wanted to teach and for those who wanted to learn.
I think we are moving toward a similar system since I can choose which guru to go to (virtually these days) depending on what subject I want to learn. Thousands of teachers put out what they have to offer and tens of thousands of students choose whom to learn from what they want to learn.
Things are looking up.
Thank you, Mr Strong, for your important essay. My deep respect to you.
(I take this opportunity to bow deep in reverence to my gurus Peter Berck and Irma Adelman who guided me in my economics doctoral thesis at UC Berkely decades ago.)
Public school is costing all of humanity substantial blood and treasure. High frequency and high visibility student successes may be the only way to convince society (students and parents) to question their complacent insistence on status quo. Maybe a meta study of the % accepted or graduating from Ivy League schools from non-trad-ed backgrounds? Suicide or mental health rates for non-trad vs trad ed students? There is certainly data somewhere that would make the case to quantify the superior outcomes.
Unshackled, imagine the possibilities!
Brilliant. 50 years ago, I was the kid that didn’t see university taking me anywhere i wanted to go, dropped out, learned a trade that became a profitable small construction consulting business. Now retired, i lament not having alternatives available.
Great post Michael. I especially resonated with:
"What is in short supply are the subcultures of inspiring, motivated human beings. In voluntary communities, one typically finds peers and mentors. In coercive environments in which one has little agency and one’s attention is controlled in ways that are not desirable, we have designed institutions that are exceptionally effective at killing inspiration and motivation."
As I mentioned when we spoke, I took years to break free of those stifling microcultures of mediocrity. But every day I'm inspired to know that its possible to avoid that for my kids.