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🐴 Twain was right: Don't let schooling interfere with your education
🐴 Twain was right: Don't let schooling interfere with your education
🐴 Twain was right: Don't let schooling interfere with your education
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IN THIS EDITION
🍎 The difference between schooling and education
🍎 Why we can't even predict 2 years into the future anymore
🍎 3 physics lab resources for home-based learners
💡 1 THOUGHT
"I never let my schooling interfere with my education."
– Mark Twain
Matt Bowman would agree. In his recent conversation with Deb Fillman on The Reason We Learn podcast, the OpenEd founder puts it this way:
"Schooling is something that is done to you. Education is something that you pursue for a lifetime."
Schooling happens in segments. It's imposed from the outside. But learning?
"Learning happens inside learners, not inside buildings."
Full interview: Is This the End of Factory Education? on YouTube | Substack version
📊 2 TRENDS
1. WHAT IF AI CHANGES EVERYTHING IN 3 YEARS?
Matt Bowman told Deb Fillman: "We don't even know what AI will look like two years from now. People aren't even predicting out because it's impossible."
Now along comes AI 2027 — a thought experiment from the AI Futures Project. They ARE attempting to predict it, and while obviously fraught with potential for error, their scenario should make every parent pause:
- 2025: AI agents can code and browse the web, but they're buggy and expensive
- 2026: Junior programmers lose their jobs while AI managers thrive
- 2027: AI becomes better than humans at AI research itself
The speed is breathtaking: by the end, what takes humans a year of research happens in a week.
Even if the details are wrong, the direction seems clear: massive change that makes memorizing state capitals and solving quadratic equations seem almost quaint.
What does education look like when your fifth grader's "future career" might not exist by middle school? When the skills you're drilling today are automated tomorrow?
The only answer: Help kids become learners, not schoolers. Teach adaptability over memorization. Focus on judgment, creativity, and ethics — the uniquely human skills that matter when machines can do everything else.
2. GEN Z ISN'T DRINKING
Annual alcohol spending by generation:
The generation facing an uncertain future is choosing sobriety. We could speculate, but we’d like to hear your thoughts – reply to this email!
🔨 3 TOOLS (PHYSICS LAB EDITION)
From the Reddit homeschool community, here are the top physics lab resources that parents recommend:
1. Openstax High School Physics Lab Manual - Free PDF with labs using mostly household materials. Skip the specialized equipment labs.
2. Take-Home Physics: 65 High-Impact, Low-Cost Labs - $19.95 paperback by Michael Horton with experiments using easy-to-find materials. No burning lettuce leaves with inadequate matches.
3. PhET Interactive Simulations - Free virtual physics labs from the University of Colorado Boulder. Perfect when you need to demonstrate concepts without setting up equipment. (Though as one physics undergrad in the thread noted: "Personally I would rather get beat with a hammer than do a 'virtual lab.'" 😂)
Read the full Reddit thread to see the full list.
📊 Quick poll: How did today’s issue land for you?
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That’s all for today!
– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)
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