    
> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete website index at: https://alpha.school/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Page

- **Name**: Your Kid’s Social Life Matters More than Academics
- **URL**: https://alpha.school/blog/your-kids-social-life-matters-more-than-academics/
- **Description**: And traditional schools are failing in both areas.

**Your kid’s social circle will shape their future more than academics ever will.**

As parents, most of us know this intuitively. I meet countless families who are frustrated with their child’s school — outdated instruction, one-size-fits-all academics, daily disengagement — but they still won’t leave because of their kid’s social circle.

*“I don’t want to disrupt their social life,”* they tell me. *“I don’t want to separate them from their friends.”*

This gut instinct is spot-on and backed by decades of research (more on that in a moment), but I have some not-so-great news:

**Traditional school isn’t just failing your kid academically.**

**It’s failing them socially, too***.*

We become like the people we spend time with (this isn’t a hot take)
--------------------------------------------------------------------

There’s a well-researched idea that *we become like the people we surround ourselves with*.

Psychologists call it **[social contagion](https://arxiv.org/pdf/1109.5235v1)**: emotions, behaviors, and norms spread through social groups the same way viruses do. Shake a hand, slap a shoulder, build a community, and watch how your values infect the next person. And the next. And the next. Ambition and laziness are equally contagious. They just have wildly different side effects.

Sociologists call it **[social identity theory](https://www.britannica.com/topic/social-identity-theory?utm_source=chatgpt.com)**: we shape our sense of self around the groups we belong to. *“People like me do things like this.”* Teenagers especially look to their friends to figure out who they are.

Anthropologists call it **[cultural learning](https://oecs.mit.edu/pub/71jcl5ki/release/1)**: humans learn what matters most through imitation: copying what’s rewarded, avoiding what’s punished.

And then there’s the popular phrase most of us have heard, often attributed to [Jim Rohn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Rohn):

***“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”***

All that to say, the research is robust.

Who your child spends their time with (8 hours a day, 12 years in a row) shapes how they think, what they value, and who they believe they’re allowed to become. School isn’t just where kids learn math and reading, but where they learn what’s normal, what’s cool, what’s embarrassing, and what’s worth caring about.

**Who your child spends their days with will shape who they become.**

The (well-intentioned) mistake parents make
-------------------------------------------

With socialization front of mind, naturally, many parents arrive at the same conclusion:

*I’m going to give my child as much socialization as possible.*

They choose big schools, busy campuses, endless clubs, sports, and activities. More kids must mean more opportunity…right?

But that’s not necessarily true. More peers doesn’t automatically mean better peers. And being surrounded by people all day doesn’t guarantee meaningful connection.

**Socialization is about quality, not quantity.**

This is where traditional schools break down.

The dark underbelly of traditional school socialization
-------------------------------------------------------

In theory, school should be the place where effort and intelligence are celebrated. Where being a “try-hard” is cool. But sadly, that’s not reality.

I can’t tell you how many students come to Alpha from other schools saying the same things:

> *I was called a “try-hard” because I wanted to start a business.* 
> *No one around me cared about the things I care about.*
> 
> I had a lot of friends… but it was hard to be myself. I had to focus on fitting in.
> 
> *“Cool kids” aren’t supposed to get good grades.*

Care too much about a project and you’re a “try-hard.” Get excited about learning and you’re “nerdy.” Talk about starting a business and people laugh in your face, literally.

Socialization in traditional schools is a beast. Kids are tossed in the deep end with no preparation and from there, it’s *sink or swim*. No life jacket. Good luck figuring out your place in the pecking order.

Naturally, kids adapt. They do what they need to survive.

Once they learn that *effortlessness* is valued more than *excellence,* their own priorities change. They mute their enthusiasm, pretend not to care, and downplay their ambitions to fit in with the masses.

And **this right here is what I call** **the dark underbelly of traditional school socialization.**

You’ve seen it in famous films like *Mean Girls* and *The Breakfast Club*: cafeteria cliques, status games, and a collective attempt to appear “effortless.” Ambitions and dreams aside, the goal is to fit in with the status quo.

Maybe you’re reading this and alarm bells are going off. Because many of us feel the same way, even as adults. Lots of acquaintances. Plenty of “friends.” But very few relationships built on depth, trust, and shared purpose.

Why would we expect our kids to be immune?

The problem is low expectations, not cruelty
--------------------------------------------

I don’t believe kids at traditional schools are inherently mean or bad. I think they are simply misled, responding rationally to the incentives around them.

(Remember: kids don’t just observe social norms, they *internalize* them.)

When the social reward goes to looking cool, unbothered, and effortless, kids learn to suppress any semblance of effort, both in themselves and in others. They too have been taught, at one time or another, that “they’re just a kid.” Their ideas have been snuffed, their dreams made small. It’s not the environment we want for our kids, but it’s often the one they inherit by default.

But what if you could choose your kid’s social environment?

What if school taught your kid healthy socialization?

And what if “trying hard” was cool?

Alpha School: Where “try-hards” are the cool kids
-------------------------------------------------

We spend a lot of time at [Alpha](https://alpha.school/the-program/#lifeskills) teaching kids socialization techniques. In fact, much of middle school is spent preparing kids and building skills for high school. (Because we all know about high school social dynamics.)

We help kids learn how to be *interesting* and how to be *interested* in other people. How to ask questions, not just talk about themselves. How to read body language. How to connect with someone. How to engage in compelling conversation. These are things that, I assure you, kids are not learning in traditional schools.

It’s funny — parents are often skeptical about Alpha because of the size of the school.

*“It’s just not big enough yet.”*

They want the roaring Friday night football games, the grade levels of 200+ kids. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If that’s what matters to you, go for it.

**But there is something to be said for** ***choosing*** **your kid’s peers**. For joining a school when it’s the smallest it will ever be so you have a say in the families you grow with.

When I first started Alpha, that’s exactly what I did. I handpicked the families I wanted to come to the school. We grew together. Now, Alpha is spreading across the nation, and you have the unique opportunity to choose your kid’s social circle, if that’s something that’s important to you.

Environment is destiny, especially during adolescence. And while we can’t control everything, we *can* choose the ecosystems our kids grow up in. I personally would rather do that by design, not accident.

**At Alpha, the entire social environment is by design.**

It’s a bustling culture of, yes, *kids who try hard*. From day one, kids walk into an environment where curiosity is normal, ambition is celebrated, and effort is expected. They’re surrounded by peers who are building things, asking big questions, and taking themselves seriously.

Here, starting a business isn’t weird. Caring deeply about a project isn’t cringe. Getting excited about learning doesn’t lower your social standing. Alpha kids don’t make fun of each other’s ambition. They respect it. In fact, they *expect* it.

How cool is that?

Obviously, Alpha isn’t perfect. No school is. But the culture here truly is different.

Alpha’s classrooms are a thoughtfully designed culture where your kid’s peers make them braver, not smaller. Where they’re pushed forward, not pulled back. Where being a “try-hard” isn’t something to apologize for, but something to be proud of.

When no one is fighting to look “effortless,” there’s no need to tear others down. No one at Alpha will laugh at your kid for having big dreams. Instead, they’ll say, *“Cool. How can we make it happen?”*

**Because everyone at Alpha — students, guides, staff — truly believes that kids are limitless**.

I don’t know about you, but *that’s* the social environment I want to give my kids.

## Structured data

### Organization

- **Alpha School (https://alpha.school/)**
  - **SameAs**: https://www.facebook.com/AlphaSchoolAustin, https://www.youtube.com/@thealphaschool, https://www.instagram.com/alphaschool_2hrlearning, https://x.com/AlphaSchoolATX, https://www.linkedin.com/company/alphaschools/
  - **School locations**:
    - [Texas > Austin](https://alpha.school/austin/)
    - [Texas > Brownsville](https://alpha.school/brownsville/)
    - [Texas > Dallas > Plano](https://alpha.school/plano/)
    - [Texas > Fort Worth](https://alpha.school/fort-worth/)
    - [Arizona > Scottsdale](https://alpha.school/scottsdale/)
    - [California > San Francisco](https://alpha.school/san-francisco/)
    - [California > Santa Barbara](https://alpha.school/santa-barbara/)
    - [California > Orange County](https://alpha.school/orange-county/)
    - [Florida > Miami](https://alpha.school/miami/)
    - [Florida > Palm Beach](https://alpha.school/palm-beach/)
    - [New York > New York City](https://alpha.school/new-york-city/)
    - [Virginia > DC > Chantilly](https://alpha.school/chantilly/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > California > East Bay](https://alpha.school/east-bay/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > California > Palo Alto](https://alpha.school/palo-alto/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > California > Santa Monica](https://alpha.school/santa-monica/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > Georgia > Atlanta](https://alpha.school/atlanta/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > Illinois > Chicago](https://alpha.school/chicago/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > North Carolina > Charlotte](https://alpha.school/charlotte/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > North Carolina > Raleigh](https://alpha.school/raleigh/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > Puerto Rico > Dorado](https://alpha.school/dorado/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > Texas > Houston > The Woodlands](https://alpha.school/the-woodlands/)
    - [Opening Fall 2026 > Texas > Southlake](https://alpha.school/southlake/)

### FAQs

- **What is Alpha School?**: Alpha School is a private K-12 school that uses an AI-powered platform to teach all academic subjects in a hyper-efficient two-hour block, allowing students to learn up to 10 times faster than in traditional schools. The rest of the day is spent on project-based "life skills."
- **Why hasn't the education model changed in 200 years?**: The current model of a teacher in front of a class of 20-30 students was created for the industrial age as a way to deliver mass education. While learning science has known for 40 years that this is one of the worst ways to teach, there hasn't been a technology that could deliver individualized, mastery-based instruction at scale until the recent advent of Generative AI.
- **What does "mastery-based learning" actually mean at Alpha?**: It means a student must prove they understand a concept with over 90% accuracy before the system allows them to move on. In traditional schools, a student can pass with 70%, meaning they miss 30% of the material. Alpha's approach is like sports: you master the fundamentals (like dribbling) before you practice advanced plays (the alley-oop). This prevents the knowledge gaps that cause students to struggle later on.
- **Can this system help students who are already far behind?**: Yes. Because the learning rate is so fast, students can catch up quickly. An entire grade level of material in one subject only takes 20 to 30 hours to master on the platform. A student who is two years behind is only about 40-60 hours of work away from being at grade level, a gap that can be closed in a matter of months.
- **What do kids do for the rest of the day after the two hours of academics?**: They participate in hands-on, collaborative workshops designed to teach life skills. Examples include fifth graders running a profitable Airbnb, launching a food truck, second graders training for and running a 5K, and high schoolers producing a Broadway-style musical.
- **How do you scale the "life skills" portion of the day? Isn't that hard to standardize?**: For K-8 students, Alpha has developed a structured curriculum of workshops and projects that can be rolled out systematically across campuses. For high schoolers, the model shifts to a "super passion project" where students have four years to work on a major, self-directed goal with mentorship, forcing them to become self-driven learners who can source their own resources.
- **What is the role of teachers? Are they replaced by AI?**: Adults are critical, but their role changes completely. They are called "Guides" and do zero academic teaching. Their entire job is to motivate, mentor, build relationships, and facilitate the afternoon life skill workshops.
- **How much are "Guides" paid compared to traditional teachers?**: The minimum pay for a Guide at Alpha is $100,000, which is roughly double the average teacher pay in the Austin market. This allows the school to attract top talent from both inside and outside the traditional education field.
- **What are the biggest challenges or skeptical arguments against this model?**: The primary challenge is proving it can work at scale outside of a well-funded private school with a select student body. Another issue is that parents have very different ideas about the purpose of education; some prioritize academics, while others value social aspects or other skills, making a "one-size-fits-all" solution difficult. The technology itself also needs refinement to eliminate AI errors or "hallucinations."
- **My child will be on a screen for two hours straight. Is that healthy?**: Alpha views this as "very good screen time." Unlike passive consumption, your child is actively engaged in a learning dialogue with the AI tutor. The system is designed for focus, using 25-minute "Pomodoro" sessions for each subject. The goal is maximum efficiency to free up the rest of the day for screen-free, collaborative activities.
- **How do you prevent my child from just using the AI to cheat?**: This is a key design feature. The "Time Back" platform is not a chatbot like ChatGPT, which is often used for cheating. The AI's purpose is to generate personalized lessons and questions and then provide targeted feedback. It acts as a tutor and a coach, not an answer machine. Functions that would enable cheating are not activated.
- **How do I know this is actually working? Do you use standardized tests?**: Yes. Alpha uses third-party standardized tests, like the MAPS test, to measure progress. Parents receive a mid-year update showing their child's growth. The results consistently show that in two hours a day, students learn twice as much as their peers who spend six hours a day in a traditional classroom.
- **What happens if my child gets stuck on a problem? Is there a human to help?**: Absolutely. While the AI is the primary academic instructor, the "Guides" (teachers) constantly monitor student progress. During the two-hour academic block, Guides will frequently pull students aside for one-on-one check-ins to offer encouragement, discuss challenges, and ensure they feel supported.
- **My child is already gifted and ahead of their grade. Will they be bored?**: No, this model is ideal for gifted students. Because learning isn't tied to a grade level, a student at the 99th percentile isn't capped. The system will continue to feed them advanced material at their own pace, allowing them to get years ahead of their peers.
- **With only two hours of academics, does this mean no homework?**: That's the goal. The system is designed to be so efficient that the traditional model of a six-hour school day plus homework becomes completely unnecessary. The only exception is for students who are significantly behind when they start and choose to do extra work to catch up faster.
- **How do you motivate my child to do the work? What if they don't want to?**: Motivation is 90% of the solution at Alpha. While the main motivator is earning back four hours of their day for fun projects, the school uses many other tools tailored to the child. This can range from earning stickers or a class petting zoo for younger kids, to friendly competition on leaderboards, to earning "Alpha Bucks" to fund their passion projects or learn financial literacy.
- **If kids are on computers, how do they develop social skills?**: Socialization is a primary focus of the other four hours of the day. The afternoon life-skill workshops are team-based, collaborative, and project-driven. This is where students learn teamwork, leadership, and relationship-building by working together on real-world challenges, like running a business.
- **You set very high standards, like running a 5K. What if my child fails or isn't athletic?**: The philosophy is "high standards, high support." The goal isn't just the achievement itself, but teaching the process of reaching a difficult goal. In the 5K example, students are taught "atomic habits" and start by simply walking the track. They build up incrementally with constant encouragement from their Guide. The program teaches them how to do hard things, building resilience and a growth mindset.
- **This sounds very different and risky. How can I be sure it's the right choice for my child?**: The founder acknowledges that it can seem "weird" at first because it's so different from our own experience. However, the model is based on 40 years of proven learning science. The school's commitments are clear: your child will love school, they will learn twice as fast, and they will learn critical life skills. The school uses hard data from standardized tests to prove the academic results, and the high engagement in the afternoon workshops speaks for itself.
- **This is a high-end private school. Is this model just for rich kids?**: The physical Alpha School campuses are expensive, but the long-term vision is the opposite. The goal is to perfect the "Time Back" software platform and make it accessible and affordable for everyone. The vision is a future where any child on the planet can get a world-class education for two hours a day on a sub-$1000 tablet.
- **Why is American K-12 education doing so poorly despite massive spending?**: The system is built on a flawed, time-based model. We advance students every year based on age, not on whether they've mastered the material. This creates compounding knowledge gaps, leading to a steady decline in performance as students are promoted with a weak foundation.
- **What is the single biggest unlock to fix education?**: Switching from a time-based system to a mastery-based system where students must demonstrate proficiency before moving on. This ensures every child has a solid foundation. When powered by AI tutors, this approach is highly efficient and scalable.
- **How can kids really learn 10 times faster?**: Traditional classrooms are incredibly inefficient, with retention from lectures as low as 5%.4 An AI tutor provides a personalized, one-on-one lesson plan for each student, keeping them in the optimal learning zone (the "zone of proximal development").5 It ensures they master basics before advancing, eliminating time wasted on remediation and allowing them to cover material much more quickly. An entire year's math curriculum can be mastered in just 20-30 hours.
- **Isn't paying kids to get good grades a bad idea?**: It can be a powerful "unlock." For a student who believes they "can't" succeed, an extrinsic motivator like a $1,000 reward can provide the initial push needed to do the work. Once they achieve a high standard they thought was impossible, their entire self-perception changes, creating a powerful intrinsic motivation that lasts long after the reward is gone. It's the kindling that starts the fire.
- **What is the role of human teachers if AI is doing the teaching?**: Their role becomes more important, not less. Freed from grading tests and delivering repetitive lectures, they become guides and mentors. They focus on connecting with students one-on-one, providing motivational and emotional support, setting high standards, and teaching the life skills—leadership, teamwork, public speaking—that AI can't.
- **What is a mastery-based system?**: It's an educational approach where students progress based on their mastery of a concept, not on a fixed schedule. If you don't understand fractions, you don't move on to algebra. This prevents the knowledge gaps that plague the traditional system.
- **How does the "2-hour learning" block work?**: Students spend a focused, two-hour block on core academics using AI-powered apps. Once they complete their daily lessons to a mastery standard, their "school work" is done. The rest of the day is freed up for workshops, sports, and projects focused on life skills.
- **What are the key principles of learning science you use?**: The model incorporates well-established concepts like Bloom's 2 Sigma (the effectiveness of tutoring), the zone of proximal development (keeping content not too hard, not too easy), cognitive load theory (not overloading working memory), and active learning (testing over passive listening).
- **How is AI the "light microscope" for education?**: For decades, learning science has described a better way to teach, but it was impossible to implement at scale in a traditional classroom. AI is the instrument that finally allows us to measure what a student knows with precision and deliver a perfectly tailored, one-on-one lesson, making the theories of learning science a practical reality for every child.
- **How will Generative AI create better lessons?**: Generative AI can create dynamic, endlessly engaging content tailored to each child's interests.6 If a student loves baseball, their math problems will be about batting averages. If they love the musical Hamilton, their history lessons will be presented as song lyrics. This makes learning compelling and relevant, not a chore.
- **Is there still a technology risk in this model?**: While the technology will continue to improve, the core principles can be implemented today. Even with current "static" AI-curated content, students can learn 3-5 times faster. The primary risk is not technological but sociological: getting society to adopt a fundamentally new model for schooling.
- **Why hasn't this been done before if the ideas are 40 years old?**: Because there was no scalable, cost-effective technology to deliver personalized, mastery-based tutoring. You couldn't give every child a dedicated human tutor. AI is the first tool that can provide that one-on-one relationship to millions of students simultaneously.
- **What's the biggest obstacle to adoption?**: Inertia and mindset. The "teacher in front of a classroom" model is all anyone knows. The biggest challenge is convincing parents, educators, and policymakers to embrace a complete rebuild of the school day, even if it's proven to be vastly superior.
- **How do you plan to make this model affordable and accessible to everyone?**: The cost is primarily in the AI compute, which is currently expensive. However, with the rapid development of on-device AI chips, the expectation is that within 3-5 years, a sub-$1000 tablet will have all the local processing power needed to run these AI tutors. The goal is to make this accessible to a billion kids, including through public and charter schools.
- **What is Alpha School's core philosophy?**: It's built on three commitments to parents: 1) Your child will love school more than vacation. 2) Your child will master academics and score in the top 1% nationally, but in only two hours per day. 3) The key to your child's happiness and success is being held to high standards in a highly supportive environment.
- **What kind of person is a "Guide" at Alpha School?**: Guides are responsible for motivational and emotional support, not academic instruction. Alpha hires two main groups: the world's best traditional teachers who are thrilled to stop lecturing and grading quizzes, and high-achieving individuals like ex-coaches, athletes, and Olympians who serve as impressive role models and can motivate kids to achieve greatness.
- **How does Alpha deal with students who are behind academically?**: The AI platform first assesses them to find their true knowledge level, ignoring their age or previous grades. Because a full grade level of material only takes about 20 hours to master, a student who is three years behind can catch up in just 60 hours. Liemandt says, "We can catch them up in no time."
- **Why doesn't Alpha use chatbots if it's an AI-powered school?**: Liemandt states that chatbots are terrible for learning because 90% of kids use them to cheat, turning them into "cheatbots." Instead of chat, Alpha's AI uses a vision model that watches the student's screen and coaches them on their learning process, with a "waste meter" that shows them how much time they are wasting.
- **What exactly is happening in the “two‑hour academic day”?**: Students work one‑on‑one with an AI tutor (no teacher lecturing) and, according to Liemandt, learn over twice as much as peers in six hours plus homework; he claims Alpha’s classes are top‑1%, and catch‑up from bottom to top quartile can happen in ~two years.
- **What are the concrete student‑motivation tools?**: The product is called Time Back (finish earlier to do projects you love). Other tools include screen‑time trades (e.g., 1 hour tutor → 1 hour games) with parental buy‑in, and financial incentives where appropriate.
- **Do incentives like paying students actually work?**: Liemandt cites Roland Fryer’s work (e.g., Houston) and says paying kids—structured to build daily habits—was most effective among teacher/parent/student options.
- **What has Alpha tried in public schools?**: In MTSS level‑3 pilots (bottom ~10%), Alpha tied gift‑card unlocks to finishing lessons; teachers and parents reported the approach transformed students’ lives.
- **What about low‑income or refugee learners?**: Alpha’s learn‑and‑earn program for Ukrainian refugees used $2.50/day incentives (doubling with streaks), with 1,000+ children participating.
- **Isn’t AI in school just a cheating machine?**: Liemandt warns that open chatbots become “cheatbots” (he says 90% of students will cheat if given them). Alpha’s design avoids that paradigm and uses AI to tutor/coach rather than provide answers.
- **What’s the north‑star vision and funding plan?**: Liemandt says he has committed $1B to a full‑stack reinvention and aims for on‑device AI on sub‑$1,000 tablets to reach a billion learners over the next 20 years.
- **Any stated political/policy views tied to this?**: Lonsdale asserts New York State currently bans AI in schools and frames a national debate about whether AI will be allowed to help kids; both discuss school choice as a path for innovation. (This is reported as their on‑air statements.)
- **How does Alpha treat debate/civics?**: Students are taught to steelman both sides of debates; Liemandt recounts formative experiences arguing positions he disagreed with to build understanding.
- **What is Alpha’s “2‑hour learning” model?**: A student spends ~two hours with an AI tutor on personalized, mastery‑based academics; when complete, the interface “goes green,” and students transition to life‑skills workshops for the rest of the day.
- **What do kids do after academics?**: Workshops in leadership, teamwork, grit, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, storytelling/public speaking, and relationship-building/socialization.
- **How does Alpha handle students who are behind?**: Alpha starts with diagnostic testing (knowledge grade), then assigns targeted lessons. A full grade level is usually 20–30 hours of mastery work; three years behind ≈ ~60 hours of focused study (e.g., a third hour per day).
- **Are transcript grades reliable indicators of mastery?**: Not necessarily. Incoming “A” students often range +1 to –3 grades; “B” students –3 to –7 grades behind on Alpha’s standardized diagnostics.
- **How good can outcomes get in two hours?**: Liemandt states the engine supports top‑1% performance on standardized tests with the 2‑hour model.
- **What motivates students to do the hard work?**: The highest‑impact lever is “Time Back” (finishing academics to earn compelling afternoons). Alpha also uses lightweight incentives like “100 for 100” to catalyze mastery and change self‑perception.
- **What evidence suggests the traditional model underperforms?**: Liemandt cites data that the median U.S. high‑schooler gains about 1 point (of 300) across four years—a symptom of time‑based progression and prerequisite gaps.
- **Is Alpha only for wealthy families?**: Alpha is the high‑end model, but the team is building lower‑cost formats (e.g., sports academies, higher guide‑to‑student ratios) while preserving the academic engine.
- **What about SAT/AP‑level outcomes?**: The model aims to deliver 2–3 hours/day academics and strong results (e.g., 1550+ SAT, AP 5s) while freeing afternoons for multi‑year projects.
- **What is Timeback?**: A platform packaging the learning engine so builders can open schools or apps on top of it (Alpha afternoons are programmable). A AAA video game built on the engine is intended to be free‑to‑learn and massively scalable.
- **What exactly does “two hours” mean?**: Liemandt says students spend about two hours with an AI tutor designed on learning‑science principles; he claims they learn more than 2× as much as a traditional six‑hour school day with homework.
- **How fast is “10× faster,” and what’s different from a chatbot?**: He describes a learning‑science‑based engine that “teaches ~10× faster,” emphasizing it is “not like ChatGPT”.
- **What life skills do students actually practice?**: Liemandt lists leadership, teamwork, entrepreneurship, financial literacy, socialization/relationship‑building, storytelling/public speaking, grit; examples include post‑game press conferences and a 5th‑grade food truck for gross‑margin math.
- **How much does Alpha cost now, and what’s the plan to reduce cost?**: He states Alpha tuition is $40k–$75k; micro‑schools at ~$15k are launching, with ~$12k vouchers bringing family pay to ~$300–$400/month.
- **What’s the long‑term scale vision?**: Liemandt says the target is a sub‑$1,000 tablet that “teaches everything in two hours” for a billion kids; he says he has invested $1B to start.
- **MBA or build?**: Asked whether people should do MBAs, Liemandt answers “No,” arguing two years building is far more valuable.
- **How does Alpha teach kids about money?**: He describes financial literacy from kindergarten through high school; investing simulations and borrowing with interest to demonstrate 25% APR.

Generated timestamp: 2026-03-06 13:31:51 UTC

