Justin Shell

Homeschooling Dadx4. Building something new.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

One of my core beliefs:

All kids are homeschooled.

Some just do it full time.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@mpershan It’s one of those things that’s incredibly powerful, but execution will determine if it is really good and powerful or incredibly damaging and powerful.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@__drewface Oh I missed this. Yes. Too much. I like knowing I’m speaking with an AI model.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

I was wondering when the point would come where AI voice was too real.

Apparently it was back there… when this happened.

[jack @jack]

We believe voice is the most natural way to interact with intelligence, so we created Dessa, the most authentic full-duplex speech model ever built. Talking with it feels like talking with a person…full of emotion, nuance, pauses, and a natural cadence.

https://t.co/r0qFLdvd6c

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

I lived in Europe for about a year and a half, and I loved it. I’d love to go back and visit often, but I don’t think I’d move back.

I like the ambition and optimism of the average American, and I love that I feel like I can make an impact here in ways I couldn’t there.

[WIRED @WIRED]

The internet told them Europe was a social paradise. Turns out the trains are awful, the health care isn’t free, and people can be really mean. https://t.co/Hs4uzWMxxO

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

If any educators want to give feedback, it'd be much appreciated!

https://t.co/te2I8x4lwG

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

I've changed how I teach history this year. Inspiration on the new method from Herman Ebbinghaus, @DTWillingham, and general cogsci readings.

I call the new method "Catalytic Stories"... admittedly an average name.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@mpershan @NielsHoven It’s the rare case that we aren’t talking about tradeoffs though. Whether it’s time, or money, or employee satisfaction, or a million other things, rarely will you find a free lunch.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@NielsHoven @mpershan I think that’s probably true for most. I’d say a better reading program that helped more kids read better would be an “optimization” that would find little pushback, but I also imagine it wouldn’t be most families priority.

[Zelda @zeldapoem]

I'm hiring for someone's dream role @theacademysf: student recruitment.

Here's what the person I'm looking for will do and looks like:

This person will oversee our student recruitment funnels. You'll travel the world to give talks in schools and meet applicants, spend your days on the phone building trust with families, and work with our industry partners to reach their communities.

Here's the archetype I see for this person: junior, extraordinarily talented, high energy, golden retriever vibes. Embodies the ethos of the school. Tech savvy enough to keep up with the extremely technical projects our applicants work on.

Young people need to like you, and you need to genuinely like them. Take them seriously, treat them like peers, and be curious about what they're building. You should get excited talking to these people, not because you're trying to recruit them, but because you find them fascinating.

You need to LOVE talking to people, that's 90% of the job. You also need to be comfortable traveling a lot.

This is a role for a junior person (open to mid-level or senior if you're willing to be in the trenches with us!) who is extremely ambitious and capable of owning an extraordinary amount of responsibility. You'll be one of the main intermediaries between the world and our school, and for many people, their first impression of The Academy.

I'm actively interviewing candidates for this. If you're interested, apply through our career page and ping me once you've submitted. If someone I know can vouch for you, you'll get on my radar even faster.

If you know anyone who fits the bill, I would be extremely thankful to hear from you as well!

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@mpershan I bet @NielsHoven has been on the receiving end of “developmentally inappropriate” arguments more than maybe anyone since Engelmann.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

I agree. And SAS hints at that with reference to the amount of pushback Engelmann got at teaching very young kids too much/too fast.

I’d summarize most of that as the concern that it’s “unnatural.” For many, unnatural = bad.

To dress it up it’s often referred to as “developmentally inappropriate”, except that’s typically based upon nothing but age, which is as best correlational, and at worst completely baseless.

What other reasons do you see?

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

Not sure how I didn’t add entertainment to the first category.

Also, perhaps a big problem with politics is that it should be in the second category, but unfortunately it’s difficult to blame a single individual for errors and therefore we don’t get the accountability we need.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

This mimics a useful framework that I apply increasingly often comparing a person’s CONFIDENCE vs COMPETENCE.

In some places like sports, business and politics, it seems to be beneficial for confidence to significantly exceed competence (often significantly).

However in other places like medicine or engineering (when risk is real and significant) it behooves you to have competence align with or slightly exceed confidence.

[David Bessis @davidbessis]

My math level and confidence level from 7 yo to 35 yo, according to Opus 5.5

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@mpershan @LamsonNguyen15 @michaelbhorn I wouldn’t say Alpha is trying to “keep everything else” though. They offer many things, and their campuses have different areas of focus for families with different priorities (sports, academics, balanced approaches, entrepreneurship, etc).

This seems directionally correct.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@mpershan @LamsonNguyen15 @michaelbhorn I agree schools do much more than knowledge/skills, though for many that’s the primary concern.

I disagree though that they couldn’t be much more efficient given a very different structure, better means of assessment and advancement, and much more.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@mpershan @LamsonNguyen15 @michaelbhorn Definitely underestimate the entrenchment of the system as it’s set up in the US. I think you’re right about MOOCs, and they could still play a small part, but I think they are more symbolic of new ways of learning outside a building than the actual, expected solution.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

@mpershan @LamsonNguyen15 @michaelbhorn Essentially the argument is that, as with other disruptive technologies, education is soon to see the rise of simpler, lower-cost educational alternatives. Microschools seem to fit that expected trend and they certainly are growing in number.

[Justin Shell @JShell085]

I’d say that GM is interesting to know about, but impactful only if it’s habitual and eventually becomes part of someone’s identity. That takes much longer to develop and the structure of schools would need to change to truly support it, because some typical practices undermine it.

For example, if a student gets 60% on a test, that feedback says, “you don’t know this well.” A GM would say, “you have the ability to do better. Try again, learn it, and you can improve.” But schools typically operate on a fixed timeline, which doesn’t allow for re-learning and retaking the test.

On the other hand, a mastery based system would implicitly support a GM, as it requires you to act on that feedback, and keep trying until you succeed before allowing you to progress.

Can conventional schools change to support this? If they truly value GM, I’d argue they need to.