AI Schools Are Here: How kids learn 2h/day and become top 1% nationally | MacKenzie Price
Video Overview & Insights
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What should kids learn today that schools aren't teaching?
MacKenzie Price built Alpha — an AI-first school where kids do academics in just 2 hours a day, score top 1% nationally across every grade, and there's not a single teacher
delivering content. In this episode, she breaks down the model expanding across the country, what happens when you replace teachers with AI tutors, and why she predicts most parents will be losing jobs to AI in the next 6 months.
An insane podcast! Thanks for it. It gave me a lot of food for thought.❤
MacKenzie is co-founder of @thealphaschool and the 2 Hour Learning system — and one of the few educators saying out loud what most schools are still avoiding.
*Timestamps:*
Interesting interview and school concept! Wish when we grew up there was at least a bit of flexibility with subjects both at school and in the university. It was such a rigid system :(. I grew up in Russia as well and studied the late 1980 - early 90s at school. Creative exercises, emotional, psychological support and collaborative spirit was almost non-existent. All you’d get is shameful reminders that you could much better. There some good teachers but the overload of material (especially for ADHD kids) was enormous. Many kids would have myopia and scoliosis.
Hope though with more high-end options (which have the right to exist), and parents with tiny income, kids would not feel devoid of opportunities.
00:00 Intro
01:00 What's wrong with the traditional education system — Soviet, China, and what AI can't replace
60.000 dollars for this school???
02:40 Why we need to reform education for our kids
04:42 The AI-powered school: no teachers, 2 hours a day, top 1% nationally
AI can replace the social and developmental parts of a normal classroom experience
06:08 How AI helps kids go from 25th to 90th percentile
06:38 Top 1% in every grade, every subject
: The school has faced scrutiny regarding the quality and accuracy of its AI-generated lesson plans and strict digital monitoring of students, sparking intense debate among educators
08:00 AI tutor instead of teachers
08:58 The one focus that helps Alpha students outperform
We got our youngest into Alpha Palo Alto starting next year
10:50 (Sponsor) HeyGen — how I scale my Lingua Marina channel
12:28 Who Alpha hires instead of teachers — coaches, athletes, business pros
Great talk on real education. In Pakistan we dont have such options available but I love the ideas you discussed for develiping kids as effective citizens.
Regsrds
13:57 What if a kid can't understand the material from AI?
17:30 The Alpha student who turned her TikTok scrolling into a successful business — and what if adults DO know better?
Most inner city kids would be better off with AI vs the worthless teachers they get . Working for over paid pensions that don’t care for the kids at all.
22:00 How her project could land her in Nature — the world's top scientific journal
23:40 The 6-year-old who made $1,600 selling cookies
Very good approach. I learned in Russian school and finished University with diploma of Honors (mechanical engineering). The education was a torture. I had to learn many things I did not like word-to-word. I hope McKenzie's system will help to change education of the future.
25:50 Consumers vs. creators: raising builders
30:17 Is screen time actually harming our kids' cognitive development?
Keep ai out of schools
34:14 What Alpha kids learn besides academics — cursive, sewing, biking, swimming
36:20 2x learning in 2 hours: how it actually works
Zone of proximal development has to do with support. May be she was referring Flow theory
38:28 How much Alpha School costs per year
39:17 Can you replicate Alpha at home for free?
literally fallen in love with this podcast !
41:54 The programs: Math Academy, Claude, and AI for parents
43:15 Why ChatGPT is banned at Alpha School
Love this…
44:15 What to watch with your kids — what good content looks like
45:25 Will universities matter in 5-10 years?
Like the social setting of school but having a supervisor or even like an etiquette guide or advisors because we learn about socializing so much in school in ways computers cant teach us.
47:20 What happens when Alpha students go back to a traditional system
49:00 A self-imposed Alpha school for adults
Like a learning doula
I like it
50:40 The professions AI is rewriting first
53:00 How we'll need to pick a profession in the future
This was a fascinating conversation. The Alpha model raises important questions about whether traditional time-based schooling is still fit for purpose, especially if AI tutors can help students work at the right level, fill knowledge gaps, and move towards mastery more efficiently. I also like that the model is not simply “kids on screens”; it includes guides, motivation coaching, reading support, life-skills projects, and entrepreneurship. At the same time, claims like “top 1% nationally” and “twice as much in two hours” are very strong and need independent verification, transparent comparison groups, wellbeing data, and evidence that the model works beyond families who can access a high-cost private-school environment. AI clearly has huge potential for personalised practice and feedback, but I would be cautious about framing traditional teachers mainly as content deliverers. Skilled teachers do far more: they diagnose misconceptions, manage cognitive load, build trust, support language development, and make complex human judgements. Alpha seems like an important experiment worth studying seriously, but not uncritically.
53:42 What if your kid graduates and can't get a job?
55:30 The one action every parent should take this week
Better! Cheaper! Human teachers are not as patient and most times not as resourceful as AI.
56:45 Why we can't rely on the old system anymore
*Links*:
Great content to listen to
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This is like a Montessori new age ❤
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2 hours at school and at least 2 at home
More User Perspectives
One of the biggest questions on my mind right now is whether my 6 year olds will go to university and how much academics really matter in this new AI world?! My eldest is 11 in a highly academic school and for her I still see a plausible path to university (that's justified). But for my younger children - would university education matter at all 10 years from now? Or is Alpha school or similar off shoots the way forward
@ellyangelova_inspireNot allowing kids to be bored is weird to hear from the educator. “Keep them engage” doesn’t work for 40 kids in the class when there is only one teacher.
@karina_biagurovaOne-sided information is always one-sided. Much like her own daughter that sold cookies, my daughter created two businesses when she needed money (that Mommy & Daddy wouldn't just give up). When she got enough money to get the phone she wanted and then fixed it, she shut down the business. Fast forward, in college, I remind her of that little girl that has the grit & perseverance to get what she wants. That's the lesson. Enough is enough, NOT everything is a consumer good and NOT everyone needs to "sell" things to their fellow humans.
@dawncarney-massey2890I love this school system. That’s what the kids need right now . Traditional schools are dead
@livingabroad33I wish all government schools around the world would teach AI to students because paying tuition fees for private schools that teach AI will be more expensive.
@suleimanmamman7689Excellent! She’s so вдохновляющая женщина! И обаятельная. Спасибо Марина за еще одно обалденное интервью. Хотелось бы в конце саммари или одну мысль 🤠
@fw8288Маринааааааа! Как классно что ты сделала такое интервью! ❤Боже неужели это уже начали практиковать!!❤ я была тем ребенком который не успевает по программе, и учителя только затюкивали. И это так сильно повлияло на меня в негативном смысле! И сейчас я вижу нечто похожее происходит с моими детьми, только у них есть я для поддержки) но какая классная школа😍
@valentinaevseeva5376Sorry, but you dont create an LLM out of half a day of research. I loved this podcast but thats completely unrealistic.
@vgrunbergYou must give children a foundation. Therefore, you could say you could create a basic education, the minimum education children need to learn. This could include reading, writing, basic mathematics, a basic understanding of society, but it should also include, and will include, psychology, so that children learn to work on their psychology.Because there will come a realization that the primary function of the education system is not to fill a child's mind with knowledge, but to help the child resolve their psychology and set them on a constructive path for the rest of their lives.
@NikitaFadeev894It sounds like the education system I've been dreaming about since I was a child. I pray this becomes the future for our children.
@AIGeoOneWell, THANKS at first!
This guest is so into the education !
And the interview made me think 💭 curious things...
It's a pleasure to spend my time watching it!
Thanks❤
Schools should give teachers AI agents to do all the Science of Learning paperwork and data documentation. Let teachers do the Art of Learning.
@RachelleDawn-dt4xvThis interview is concerning.
The TikTok-scrolling teen becomes an audience and an AI product. The lemonade stand kid becomes a revenue exercise. The video game kid becomes someone building a business. Students are pitching to VCs.
So when Price talks about kids becoming “creators,” I don’t think she really means creators in the broad human sense. She seems to mean potential entrepreneurs. Builders of products. People who can monetize an interest. And apparently that starts at six.
The Barbie story is what really got me.
This six-year-old makes $1,600 selling paleo cookies and coconut water. She buys the Barbie she wanted. And then she’s basically like: I’m good. What else would I do with the money?
That's a good response.
But the adults don’t seem to see it that way. They see a missed opportunity. She could keep going. She could do this every weekend. She could scale.
No. She got her Barbie. She’s good.
That looks like a kid understanding enough because a 6 year old shouldn't be known to be ambitious.
And maybe that’s what makes the story so uncomfortable. The child actually has the saner relationship to money here. The adults are the ones trapped in this world where everything has to become a business, every interest has to become productive, and every little success has to be turned into more.
That’s not how kids should have to think.
Sometimes a kid sells cookies, buys the Barbie, and then goes back to being a kid. That should be allowed to be enough.
Alphaschool cherry picks students so that only the best students get in. And it cost an insane amount of money, so parents must be filthy rich.
No data supports that this is a good way of doing school - it just shows that the truly gifted will learn disregarding.
1:48 Hey Silicon Valley girl, set the audio on your videos in the settings to Spanish. Remember, there are over 500 million Spanish speakers here.
@difusiondigital3181What's the point of educating kids without having any jobs in the future . It's such a MORONIC approach😂
@darthrevan5826I would love to roll this to germany
@dabrax4394Can u make a video on EDUCATION SYSTEM, college degrees in todays world. Is it even important to go to college?
@AzoraFuturechipsetI love this, Same idea am working on for Africa
@Westlinetechlabsfirst one
@mikedevops5334