finding career zen
Stories and interviews highlighting the unique challenges, failures, and successes encountered on the path to achieving career zen.
finding career zen
Redefining Education: A Glimpse into the Future with Alpha School
Imagine a school where classrooms are extinct, and artificial intelligence is your teacher. Join us as we take a closer look at Alpha School in Texas with our guest, Kate Lieimandt, aka Austin Scholar, a high school senior who is shaking up the very foundation of education. This episode showcases a world where two hours of academics a day is the norm and mastery-based learning reigns supreme. Kate, a perfect SAT scorer and future Stanford freshman, shares her personal narrative of academic achievement and the critical role of mastering fundamental knowledge.
Additionally, we'll explore the historical foundation of our educational system and ponder its relevance in today's society, contrasted with the pioneering approach of Alpha School. This institution marries personalized learning with practical skills, such as eSports and athletic programs, offering a tailored blueprint for nurturing students' diverse potential.
To wrap up, we offer words of wisdom for parents and students navigating the intricate education system. We discuss the transformative power of projects that fuse passion with practicality and the significance of aligning students' interests with realistic career paths. Kate leaves us with her insights on transitioning from a self-directed high school experience to the structured environment of an elite university and the anticipation of the substantial contributions she is poised to make in her field.
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You're listening to the Finding Career Zen Podcast. I'm Pete, and my guest today is Austin Scholar, who I connected with on Twitter a few months ago. How are you today?
Austin Scholar:I'm doing amazing. Thank you so much for having me.
Pete Newsome:So that is not your real name, of course, but that is the name you go by on Twitter. You are a high school senior, if it's appropriate to call you that. And well, I'll explain why. In a minute, you're going to Stanford. In the fall, you have 27,000 followers on Twitter. It's such a pleasure to speak with you today, so let's just start at the beginning. You go to a high school without teachers, so is it even appropriate to say you're a high school senior? So is it even appropriate to say you're a high school senior?
Austin Scholar:We call ourselves a high school. You know we learn similar content. We're, you know, have a similar, we're all similar ages and you know we just have a little bit of a different way of going about education than everyone else.
Pete Newsome:And so how long have you been going to? You go to the Alpha School in Texas. How long have you been a student there?
Austin Scholar:I have been a student at Alpha since I was in fourth grade, so it's been eight years of this alternative education journey and it's you know it's been a blast and what so?
Pete Newsome:what makes Alpha School unique? I didn't know until I did some research, when when I found your account on on Twitter initially, so give us an overview of the school.
Austin Scholar:Yeah, so at Alpha, students basically learn without teachers. We use online adaptive AI powered apps to learn our academics in just two hours a day. Apps basically personalize content to each student, and so they're able to learn only learn what you know they really need to focus on, and so they're able to spend less and less time in you know on academics, and so that's why they're able to get it all done in two hours every single day, and so because we then do academics in two hours a day, we're able to spend the rest of the day, the afternoon time, learning life skills, and I think really that's the beauty of Alpha is the time that the apps that we use free up to learn things like leadership, teamwork, giving and receiving feedback, public speaking and so on.
Pete Newsome:Now you also, I know, scored a 1600 on the SAT. Yes. So a lot of people, I'm sure, who hear that you're only having formal education for two hours a day or are learning, you know, could be skeptical of that. Of course, I think the results speak for themselves. Now, you're certainly an exceptional learner to be able to score a good, perfect score on the SAT. How much of that do you attribute to just who you are and you're? You're clearly motivated versus the way you've learned.
Austin Scholar:So I believe, and I think a lot of the data at alpha, it's all proven that anyone can master everything up through eighth grade, can completely master all of the content through eighth grade. There's nothing stopping them. And you know, as you get through high school there are some courses that are not just not going to click with everyone, but everyone can master K through eight content, no problem. No problem at all. And you know, of course the SAT does go into some high school stuff, but all of it is based on the fundamentals in K through eight. And so, um, you know, and even through, like algebra and geometry, it's all fundamentals that any kid is able to learn.
Austin Scholar:And so, um, of course, I am a motivated student, so, um, I'm very self-motivated, so I don't need as much external motivation that Alpha provides. However, if a kid isn't motivated to learn, then you just need to put in motivational systems in place so that they are motivated to learn and then can get these good scores. There is nothing stopping every single kid from, you know, getting these good scores if they really just put in the time. The actual content should not be a problem. It's just the way that they're being taught the content and, you know, making sure that they have mastered the basics. You know, when I was studying for the SAT, I didn't really spend that much time actually going forward and making sure that I knew the advanced concepts. It was all re-drilling and making sure that I completely mastered all of the eighth grade content.
Pete Newsome:Interesting. I've never heard it explained that way. Do you think that's a prevalent thought? I mean, is that something you've discovered through your time at Alpha? Do you think most high schools talk to students about that? If they do, I'm unaware of it.
Austin Scholar:Definitely not. Alpha has a huge focus on mastery-based learning and it's essentially that every single student has to completely master the grade level that they're on before they can move on to the next one. And so, basically, the kids have to get a 90% on a state test, on the Texas Star test, until before they're able to move on to the next grade level. And for the high school students that are coming in, they have. We I'll put myself in there we had a lot of holes from our previous academic careers and so all of the students had to go through whole filling, which definitely doesn't seem fun. You know, like you're going into algebra two but then you have to go all the way back and start doing sixth grade math. But my, my favorite story about it is um, my best friend, um, she got, uh, she had seventies on all of her. Um, you know, she had 70s on all of her.
Austin Scholar:You know they're basically Texas star tests all the way up through algebra two and a few years, and then last year she was trying to get her grades up in those in those areas, and so what she did is she went all the way back to sixth grade math content and started filling in the holes and getting the basics done so that she can get the higher scores. And then she scored like 96, 98% on the rest of the tests. Yeah, so it's not the more complex topics that so many people are stressed about that really impact your grade. It's having a complete, full understanding of the basics and the initial content. And you know, once students are able to do that, then they can, they're able to move through the more advanced concepts so much faster, and you don't, they don't have to spend time relearning those hard concepts. You know, when they are trying to solve problems that you know involve multi-steps and stuff.
Pete Newsome:It makes complete sense when you explain it that way. Right, see, it sounds so logical. We're going to talk a little bit about why that logic hasn't been applied, but before we get to that, you started in fourth grade and you've stayed all the way through. What's been the biggest difference? And I'm sure you have friends outside of you know that go to different schools public schools, private schools. They're more traditional in nature. What has been the biggest difference in your evolution when you look at, compare yourself to them?
Austin Scholar:Yeah, so one big thing that Alpha encourages is being a completely self-driven learner and just being able to learn on your own, and that is something that I and every other alpha student has become really, really excellent at. We don't rely on teachers to teach us things. We know how to find the resources online, how to use AI, how to even ask our peers before we go to a teacher, and I think that is just because of how you know the alpha system is set up. We're given apps to learn. We are not sat in the classroom and lectured to. It is completely you know. We're on our own in that sense, and so I have been able to. You know, if you give me any topic, I'm able to and other alpha students were able to completely you know, know how to learn and master that topic on our own because of the skills and abilities and practice we've had throughout our alpha journeys, and that is something that is so incredibly valuable and I'm very grateful that you know that has been a part of my educational journey.
Pete Newsome:You've learned how to learn. Yeah, which, really. If you think about life skills, what could be more important than that from a survival and how to succeed standpoint? I think it's fascinating. You mentioned something a few minutes ago that really hits home for me.
Pete Newsome:I'm the father of four. I mentioned to you right before we started recording. My youngest is 16, my oldest is 24. And they're all very different, right. How they learn, their aptitude is different, what they respond to varies greatly, and they're in great schools. Don't get me wrong by two. They're still in high school, but they're still in a classroom with 20 to 30 other kids. One size fits 20 to 30, right, which is really not. It's not logical when you look at that and I have thought that many times over the years that the system is inherently flawed because of that, because we really just have to shoot in the middle, so the kids at the youngest end of the specter or the lower end of the learning curve will miss out and the ones on the higher end will be held back. You've latched onto that somewhere along the way. When did that kick in? Because your Twitter account is filled with data about the flaws in the education system and how kids are struggling around the country. When did that get on your radar screen?
Austin Scholar:Yeah, so I think my family's always been really interested in the education space. I had been doing online apps since I was in first or second grade, even when I was at a traditional school. And you know, even then I was able to move through the content, you know, at my own pace. And when I was in the traditional classrooms, you know through, like when I was in third grade, I had already gone through an app and was already on sixth, seventh, eighth grade math content and you know, when I was sitting in class I already knew all of the stuff that you know the teacher was teaching and there was nothing I could do about it.
Austin Scholar:I had to just basically sit and listen to lectures on things that I already knew and so my really, really my young brain, I guess, didn't really understand what was going on. I was just bored the whole time. But you know, as I got, as I got older and got into high school, you know I was able to really reflect on my personal education journey and start to see the disparity, and you know how lucky I was that I had this unique journey, whereas you know, some of my friends that still went to that traditional school, they just didn't have that journey, and so it was really just. I was always kind of aware of it, but in high school, when I started writing, that was really when it clicked for me like how sad it is that so many kids are completely. They waste their entire day in a classroom.
Pete Newsome:It's extremely unfortunate. I think it's prevalent around the country. From what I've been exposed to, you've been paying attention to this for quite a while now. Any thoughts on how we got here? I mean, was it just a system that needed to be put in place in a way of really just taking care of the masses, so to speak, or do you have any thoughts on how we ended up here today? And then we'll talk a little bit about what we could, you think we could potentially do to fix it?
Austin Scholar:Yeah, so I think how we ended up here is just that a system was put in place over a hundred years ago and it has not changed since then.
Austin Scholar:I think the biggest problem is the stagnancy and the, you know, sticking to the status quo, and that is really the biggest problem you know, because the entire role of schools has changed since, or what people want out of schools has changed since the system was put in place. Before it was just they wanted workers and they wanted people to work in factories, but now that's not what we need for our education system, but it just hasn't caught up with the future. It hasn't caught up to where we are now, and I just think that's definitely how we've gotten to a space where there's so many opportunities, so many cool ways for kids to learn that just aren't implemented in schools, because at this point it's really hard to mess with a system that's so old and, you know, has been ingrained in society by so much.
Pete Newsome:So there's some unique schools out there. You're fortunate enough to be in one, but I don't know how practical it is for that to scale, and so we're in this situation. I don't know the number of students today, but it's in the tens of millions, right? Maybe even close to 100 million students in the US alone. You're in charge. You wake up tomorrow. You're in charge. You're the education czar, right? You're in charge of the Department of Education. Where do you begin? How do you begin fixing this way to start?
Austin Scholar:is to build new schools and build schools that are able to support a new way of learning and support every type of learner, and I think that's, you know, that's something that the Alpha School System is trying to do. In the next year they're starting a school in Miami for middle school students. They're starting eSports Academy, and so this is for kids who love gaming and they are able to spend their morning doing their academics and then they're able to spend the afternoon learning life skills related through gaming and, you know, practicing with the like best game. I'm I'm not a gamer, so my terminology is a little flawed, but you know the best gamers and they're able to, like, play together, learn teamwork, leadership, and so there's that school. And then there's also the sports academy, which is going to be in Texas, and it's for high schoolers who are want to, you know, become the best in their sports. So they spend their two hours in the morning doing their academics and then they spend their afternoons playing their sport, and so it's a super versatile system, with the two-hour learning in the morning and then you have the afternoons completely open to do anything from liberal arts and to theater and writing and gaming and sports and anything that any skill that either you know the student wants to learn or the parent wants the student to learn, and they have all the time freed up to to work on that.
Austin Scholar:And so rather than trying to, you know, go from the ground up, I would, I would just start adding creating new schools that are able to foster that environment from the beginning, and you know, of course, this can't happen overnight. But yeah, there are the two hour learning program. It has lots of available resources for parents who, just who aren't able to change schools but they want their kid to be able to, you know, do the two hour learning program. And so if you just go to the two-hour learning website, then there's a whole list of programs that parents can do for their kids and use the software, and so it really is supposed to fit for any kid in any scenario that you know needs to happen.
Pete Newsome:We'll link that in the show notes two-hour learning website. The next question I was going to ask, and you already led into it, was what advice you would have for parents who have to be frustrated with the school system. I speak with lots of parents and there aren't a lot of great options that are in most areas. What advice do you have for them that are in most areas? What advice do you have for them?
Austin Scholar:So definitely check out the two-hour learning programs because they can definitely help your kids start to engage in this system and, if they're older, do the whole filling and mastery and if they're younger, just get them started on a really exciting journey. But also something that I believe all parents should really be helping their kids with is to help them foster a love of learning. You know schools totally kill that in every kid, and so they see books, reading, writing, they see math, they science, history, everything that truly, when you look at it, is super magical and exciting and incredible. They just see it as drudgery and boring and just a task that they have to complete, and so I've written quite a few newsletters on how to help your kid love learning again. But I think that is definitely something that's super important and it will also help them become excited about doing the two-hour learning stuff and, you know, helping them want to, you know, make the most out of their you know, even their time in school.
Pete Newsome:I spend a lot of my time with ZenGig. It's a career advice site aimed at students and young professionals, and we think a lot about how to help people find the right career path. Sometimes that should include college, sometimes not, but what I see a big where I see a big void is with schools spending time on aptitude and interest. Is that something that you're exposed to in your educational journey now?
Austin Scholar:Yes, absolutely so.
Austin Scholar:When you get, when alpha students get to high school, we, instead of just doing you know life skills workshops and learning miscellaneous life skills, we kind of take all of that and bring it together in our masterpiece program.
Austin Scholar:So a masterpiece is an Olympic level project, and that basically means you know something super hard that seems impossible where you have to be the best in your area, and so it's this huge, incredible project that you're going to spend the next four years of afternoons on.
Austin Scholar:And basically, you know, the first year, all of the students do exploration, and so they do hackathons and rabbit hole-a-thons so they learn how to build and become experts in things, and they try as many topics as they need to before they can decide on something that they want to really focus on for their masterpiece.
Austin Scholar:And so then, once they have their topic and they have their idea, that's what they spend their afternoons doing, and so I spend my afternoon writing my newsletter, working on Twitter, reaching out to people, having calls, going on podcasts, basically just doing anything any research related to education or writing about it, talking about it as as much as I can, and so that's how I spend my afternoons, and even if later on. I want to do something that's not exactly what I'm doing right now. I know that I have the skills and the ability to go out and figure out what I do want to do and become successful from that, and so that is something that I think is really really incredible about the Alpha program that I'm a part of is the ability to do a masterpiece in the afternoon.
Pete Newsome:It is incredible, but it just makes so much sense when you describe it. And if you were building a structure and a plan on how learning should happen, how you should set young people up for success? You just described it because it just does make so much sense. One question that came to mind as you were talking you have a passion for writing, you have an aptitude for it. What if the passion was there but the aptitude wasn't? Have you seen any examples of that? Or is there a way, uh, any method, any potential, rather, where someone really wants to do something, but at some point there has to be a pragmatism, has to set in right, where you say listen, this just isn't your thing, right, is there? Does that come up at all?
Austin Scholar:yeah, so that's part of the exploration process for the alpha kids. I, I'm sure we use the Ikigai method, and so you know what you love, what you're good at, what the world needs, and you know what you can get paid for.
Austin Scholar:And so all of the kids have to make sure that their masterpiece fits in that, and so you know I if they want to start working on something, but you know they realize that they're just not really good at one part of it. There are a couple of paths that the kids can take. Either they can try and find something different to do that you know they are good at, or they just change the form of their masterpiece because, you know, we believe at Alpha that anyone can become an expert in any topic, but it's the. So that's never going to be the actual problem, it's just the implementation that some kids might struggle on or struggle with.
Austin Scholar:And so if they want their masterpiece to be something about teaching a hundred thousand kids about chess through talk videos and a live workshop, or I'm literally making something up, but they found out that they, you know, just don't have an aptitude for making TikTok videos that are good, or, you know, they realized that maybe I would rather. I would rather do something other than you know post TikTok videos. Then they might just change the format from video to writing and they would try out writing a little bit, and so instead of completely changing, you know, the topic, they can just change how they're implementing their masterpiece and that type of form, and you know that usually ends up solving that problem. But you know, those are kind of the two paths that a kid can take.
Pete Newsome:What I think is so wonderful about everything you're describing is you're going through a set of experiences that very few people your age get to do, as you well know, and most have the opportunity to do that when they're in their 20s, when they're on the other side of college, and they don't feel that's the right time right.
Pete Newsome:They feel pressure to to you know, start their career, to get into their profession, to earn and and and start to acquire material things. Right. I mean, we know that to be true, but I encourage young people and that's still very young to me in the in terms of people, and that's still very young to me in terms of a professional life don't rush, spend that time exploring. And so it is a very similar thought process, but without the benefit of doing it while you still live at home, doing it while you're a teenager, which I just think is so amazing, and I didn't know much about the Alpha School prior to our conversation today, and I'm just so fascinated by everything you're saying because it's one that I'm certainly going to spend more time thinking about and shifting my perspective down to younger people on this and encouraging that at a younger age and with parents. Now you are going into college a traditional setting. Have you thought about that and how that's going to be a big change for you?
Austin Scholar:Absolutely so. The main reason that I would like to go to college is that I really want to meet some other incredible people. So Alpha is such a small school because of how new it is, and so I am just so excited for the chance to meet people you know that have also done incredible things. To go to Stanford, you have to do something awesome, and so it's. I'm just so excited to be able to meet, you know, people who have both a similar view on life as I do and a different one. You know people who have both a similar view on life as I do and a different one, and I am. That's really the main thing that I would like to do, and I would also really like to just spend time experimenting and trying new things in a, in a space that you know was still safe. You know it's.
Austin Scholar:It's not, you know, going to be as protected as being in high school and living at home is, but I'm still not fully out in the world on my own yet, and so those are the reasons that I want to go to college, but I also completely recognize that I am going into a space that I am not going to be fully comfortable in because I haven't had a teacher since I was in fourth grade. Haven't had a teacher since I was in fourth grade, and so you know, really what I'm doing is I'm going to, you know, prepare myself for that, but also know that if a lecture doesn't work out well for me, I know how to learn it on my own and I know how to spend that time figuring out the concepts, figuring out what I missed. And so you know, I'm not all that worried about actually struggling in the classes, because I know how to solve the problems that I will have on my own.
Pete Newsome:It'll be interesting, I would think the ability to thrive and do well, I don't think is a question. I think you'll be okay, but how much you'll like it will be an interesting thing to realize, because you know the flaws already and I don't know that they're entirely dissimilar. Clearly, stanford is an excellent institution, that goes without saying, but you still have structure. That is going to be a big change for you.
Austin Scholar:It is, and I think it'll help me. Whenever I'm writing you know, writing my tweets or I'm writing a newsletter, I'll have real firsthand experience on what the what the problems are in the education system. My anecdotes about being in school are all from fourth grade, so I'll probably have more credibility by writing about I am in a class right now, a class right now. So I think you know I will be able to look on the bright side of you. Know, even if I am not particularly enjoying the classes that I'm taking, I will definitely still find value in going through the experience as a whole.
Pete Newsome:Now I know more about the state education university system in Florida than I do. Stanford operates, but I suspect there's still some generic classes that have to be taken that don't apply to your degree. I've always scratched my head about that, especially in you know. It doesn't make sense to me in high school, certainly doesn't make sense to me in college. Some of the classes I had to take, some of the classes my kids taken, just to check a box and it seems antiquated, to say the least. It seems unnecessary at times. So I think you'll that'll be a great learning experience for you, like you said, to experience something firsthand that you haven't had to do since you've been become enlightened.
Austin Scholar:Yeah, no, I'm. I'm just really looking forward to doing something very new and being able to really compare my experiences in high school and college and see what I'm able to learn and accomplish from that.
Pete Newsome:Are you? Have you chosen your degree? Are you sticking with writing and pursuing? Yeah?
Austin Scholar:so definitely still to be determined, but definitely something with writing, their creative writing minor. The creative writing minor at Stanford, is the biggest minor and it is. It seems so incredible. And then I also really enjoy math. Math and writing are my two favorites subjects, and so I will probably do something there as well.
Pete Newsome:Wonderful. Well, I won't keep you all afternoon but before I let you go, any advice you'd like to share to kids your age who don't have the kind of support and resources that you have around you? I know there's a lot of kids that are motivated to figure things out on their own. What advice do you have for young people?
Austin Scholar:Well you know I could say a million different things, but the most important thing that I think any kid can learn is that they are capable of so much more than what they're told that they are, and I think it's easy to fall into expectations or subscribe to standards and conform, but kids are just capable of doing so much, and you know, I think that's just so clear.
Austin Scholar:I've just had such a clear experience of that and you know, all of my fellow seniors at Alpha have just done incredible things throughout their journey and I I just really, really would would hope for every other high school or every other kid who wants to do something cool, that, first, that they know that they can and, second, that they find something that they really really love to do and they really really enjoy and that they're willing to spend the time to. You know, become an expert, to be uncomfortable, to post online, grow an audience, build a product, do all of the things that most people will tell you that you can't do to. You know, just try it out and try doing it, because you know you'll definitely get something incredible from it. Stated.
Pete Newsome:Awesome scholar. Thank you so much. You're an inspiration. I look forward to watching your progress and seeing what happens at Stanford and beyond. You're going to do great things. Thank you so much for your time today.
Austin Scholar:Thank you so much. This was so great.
Pete Newsome:Awesome. All right, everyone. Thanks for listening. We'll put all your social media contact in the show notes so everyone can follow you on Twitter and subscribe to your newsletter. So, austin Scholar, thanks again.