Michael Strong
@flowidealism
Founder @Socraticexp, the only K-12 high-touch virtual school for launching entrepreneurial, creative, +intellectual students into lifelong happiness + success.
Most parents still believe that private education, along with its private-school price tag, means sending their child to a traditional private school. But what if price wasn't the barrier? What if you could offer your child the same depth, rigor, and outcomes...for 1% of the…
All plausible, if not likely.
90% of academic papers I read are now AI-assisted. Most researchers are in complete denial. I'm a professor who's been brutally using AI for 18 months. Here's what I learned that could save your career:
Novel-writing in school: Solitary work without assistance. Novel-writing in life: editors, beta readers, writing groups, AI tools....
Thanks, @oznova_ , for your thoughtful questions which inspired this as well as for the remarkable intellectuality you’ve developed in your daughter.
This article by the peerless @flowidealism is likely to be very helpful for anybody thinking about their kids' humanities education michaelstrong.substack.com/p/the-value-of…
It becomes more mind boggling every year.
We spend $19,999 per child per year in public schools. Imagine if that money went directly to families. A teacher could set up a microschool with just 12 students and pull in $239,988 in revenue each year.
School presents daily exercises in dis-association. It forces unwelcome associations on most of its prisoners. It sets petty, meaningless competitions in motion on a daily basis, pitting potential associates against one another in contests for praise & other worthless prizes.
Not at all surprising, sadly.
This actually happened. In college I published some short stories and poetry. It made a little bit of money to pay for textbooks and whatnot. When I took my Deaf Ed certification test, I was breezing through when I came across a poem. The question was about the author's…
If 20th-century growth trends continue, the average income is projected to reach $ 300,000 by 2100. But do you think having 10,000 sq ft homes and robot servants will make us happier? Will they make our children happier? We're already historically wealthy. What are we really…
Observe any six‑year‑old carefully: • Building forts • Starting projects • Eyes full of wonder Observe that same child at thirteen: • Exhausted after school • Hours of homework • Scrolling social media to decompress The difference does not lie within the child. It…
In classrooms, students hear: "Don't cheat, don't talk, don't share answers." In the workforce, they're asked, "Why didn't you seek help, collaborate, or share your ideas." Most schools in the United States fail young people by punishing skills that the world rewards.
whoever is curious about 1517, their community is probably the most wholesome / high-agency / friendly and mutually supportive I've been in since I moved to the Bay, ...if not in general. apply, apply, apply, AND SHARE. (please)
🥰🥰🥰 "I thought the Thiel Foundation was more of a predatory club, but your feed and 1517 page are making me pause. I went to [an alternative school] and remember very vividly how much it meant to me, a fatherless hyperactive kid spending my whole life in the…
Your kids are a gift to you. The way you raise them ends up being, in part, a gift from you to the world. If you outsource much of that for the sake of an easier adulthood, you miss the opportunity to fully receive & give those gifts. Not a trade off I’m willing to make.
Exactly. It's not just "being a teenager". School is a prison system and it drains the joy out of learning.
Observe any six‑year‑old carefully: • Building forts • Starting projects • Eyes full of wonder Observe that same child at thirteen: • Exhausted after school • Hours of homework • Scrolling social media to decompress The difference does not lie within the child. It…
True. And heartbreaking.
Observe any six‑year‑old carefully: • Building forts • Starting projects • Eyes full of wonder Observe that same child at thirteen: • Exhausted after school • Hours of homework • Scrolling social media to decompress The difference does not lie within the child. It…
If something is relevant, students become motivated. If they are motivated, they engage. That simple cycle transforms education.
School is not designed with your children in mind, and especially not your boys. It’s designed for the convenience of its administrators. For whom the natural proclivities of boys are particularly inconvenient. Your son’s energy is not the problem, the school is.
NOVICE➡️ Reading your kids books INTERMEDIATE➡️ Reading Classics ADVANCED➡️Socratic Discussions PRO➡️Your kid recognizing misused Shakespeare quotes, plot holes, & historically inaccurate slang Reading is just the beginning to a life well lived♥️
One way to think about niche offerings for microschools is that your most likely customers will be parents who are dissatisfied with existing public school offerings. Most parents will want their children to be able to transfer back to a conventional public, charter, or private…
I spoke with a German family last year who were furtively homeschooling. They wanted to take a few classes with @socraticexp but wanted to make sure we’d keep everything discreet so they wouldn’t be caught. It was a black market transaction using cryptocurrency.
Homeschooling is illegal in Germany and it’s the last law still on the books that came from Hitler.