memneon 💙

we are so cooked 😭

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I spent 30 years in academia. Here are my observations about my students. Toward the end, I was teaching “Gen Z." These students combined ignorance with strident moral certainty. They seemed to have had no general education at all, and lacked the most basic knowledge of history, even recent history. They were immature and emotionally fragile. Many could not handle criticism, no matter how sugar coated. It took very little to reduce them to tears – or to send them into a fit of narcissistic rage. They were shockingly bereft of intellectual curiosity, and many gave the impression of having no internal life at all. I'll share more observations later.

I taught high school for five years and middle school for another five before joining Alpha School. The Alpha High School bootcamp seems to have piqued a lot of interest, so, as a former high school teacher, I’d like to share my perspective. Disclaimer: I work for Alpha, but I am not involved with the high school. This is not an official statement from Alpha, just my personal view. As a high school teacher, I had students who struggled to follow simple directions. Many needed instructions repeated four or five times before they could begin a task. I had students who had been passed from grade to grade without mastering the content. When they received a failing grade, they knew the drill: make test corrections to earn a passing grade, or better yet, wait until report card time and watch the grade magically curve to a 70. Everyone gets a trophy (a diploma). There was little accountability, and certainly few life skills were being learned. I also tutored many high school private school students who lacked life skills such as receiving feedback, goal setting, and independence. Alpha is very different from traditional schools. Students are held accountable. They are asked to do hard things. They learn how to iterate, accept feedback, and try again after failing. They learn life skills that will matter in an ever changing world. It is intentionally different from traditional education. Alpha begins the year with a “boot camp” which consists of minimal life skills that are expected of students. Throughout the year, the school builds on those foundational skills. The bootcamp is necessary because many new students arrive from traditional schools that have not required them to practice things like public speaking, goal setting, financial literacy, and receiving feedback. For many new students, they are not used to failing or receiving feedback. So Alpha uses the first eight weeks to bring students up to speed. Alpha measures life skills, and there is an assessment for each one. Not everyone passes the first time. But unlike in many traditional school settings, failure at Alpha does not mean, “Oh well, you’re just bad at public speaking.” It means: “What do we need to adjust so you can get there?” Students don’t get to skip the life skill and write it off as a deficit the way they would just move onto the next unit of math. Students work with their guide, make adjustments, and keep going until they demonstrate the skill. I have a hard time believing people are directing so much energy toward attacking these 18 life skills when recent PISA results show such concerning declines in student performance. For reference, here are the 18 life skills: Independence: I can manage a long project with competing demands and deliver on deadline, even when the timeline gets tight. Build an Audience: I can earn people's attention by consistently creating valuable content. Teamwork: I can be trusted to hold a role on a team without letting others down. Giving Feedback: I can deliver feedback that is clear, concise, and valuable. Goal-Setting: I can define and set a genuinely ambitious goal. Uphold Community Standards: I can follow the rules the community sets. Receive Feedback: I can take critical feedback without falling apart. Learning to Learn: I can combine outside resources to master a skill that was totally unfamiliar to me. Build with AI: I can prompt the right AI tools to get a real result, using AI as a tool rather than a replacement for thinking. Critical Thinking: I can recognize common thinking errors and explain how they drive decisions. Uplift Others: I can carry a community-service project from start to finish, doing the actual work and not just the planning. Financial Literacy: I can set financial goals and explain the steps to reach them. Leadership: I can help build a culture where it's cool to work hard. Be an Expert: I can become the person in the room who knows a topic best. Grit & Hard Work: I can do hard things without complaining or feeling like a victim. Creativity: I can study great examples and remix them into my own idea. Storytelling & Public Speaking: I can deliver a presentation using strong public-speaking mechanics. Socialization: I can confidently reach out to experts for guidance.

Teachers are ‘desperate’ for clearer guidance on how AI should be used in schools, MPs told – with experts also warning against relying on AI tutors to support pupils who are struggling academically tes.com/magazine/news/genera…

In 2012 PISA (First under Gibb), England had a score of only 495 in Maths. In 2025, England hit the dizzying heights of 492 in Maths. In 2012 PISA, England had a score of only 500 in Reading. In 2025, England hit the dizzying heights of 497 in Reading.

Harvard has been following the same group of men since 1938. Eighty-plus years of data on who thrives at 80. The number one predictor was not IQ, income, or fame. 🧵