Garrett Smiley is the Co-Founder of Sora Schools, an education startup based in Atlanta. Sora is a virtual, project-based high school where students explore their interests, learn however is best for them, and gain exposure to future careers and fields of work Prior to Sora, Garrett co-founded a charity which built wells in developing nations called Drops of Love. Garret also directed a university startup incubator called Core Founders at Georgia Tech, and started an education non-profit that worked with foster children to develop financial literacy called Flip. Garrett studied Computer Science at Georgia Tech. Garrett also worked as a Venture Partner at Contrary Capital where he scouted, invested in, and mentored startups in the Atlanta area Key Takeaways: 00:21 What’s your Elevator Pitch? 00:58 What’s your Origin Story? 07:54 All About Sora Schools 14:15 What are your typical students there? 15:42 What’s the application and first day like in Sora? 19:32 Requirements in order to graduate from Sora 22:00 Roles of the Adults in Sora 25:34 Getting into College 27:01 Is Internship part of your high school experience? 32:49 Metaphor comparing Sora School and Conventional Education Quotes: "How do you solve a system issue, you create another system, right?" "We take a really different approach to education, but we don't instead make people sit and, you know, control their seat time, if you will." "They should have in-person interaction, but why are we shipping kids off at school just that they can receive a human YouTube video lecture?" "We're hoping to create a lot more paths out of high school. So families have more options." "Before COVID happened, we were having to do meet ups. So we're hosting meetups every once in a while they are going to museums together, and this is something we want to continue to do." "It's so funny. People don't realize, like this is a fairly recent invention, like in the grand scheme of things of what we consider schooling is still novel and, and it worked. But unfortunately, the whole world has changed." Social Links: LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwsmiley/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/gw_smiles Sora Schools - https://www.linkedin.com/company/soraschools/ Website - https://soraschools.com/

Charles Wheelan is the Founder and Co-Chair of Unite America. He is a senior lecturer and policy fellow at the Rockefeller Center at Dartmouth College, a former correspondent for The Economist. He has been selected as one of Dartmouth’s ten best professors by three different graduating classes. He teaches courses on education policy, health care, tax policy, income inequality, and related topics. Wheelan teaches the Practicum in Global Policy Leadership in which he travels with students to examine an international policy topic. In years past, the class has visited India, Israel, Jordan, Liberia, Turkey, Rwanda, Madagascar, Northern Ireland, Brazil, Liberia, and Colombia. From 2004 to 2012, Wheelan was a senior lecturer in public policy at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago. Unite America is a political organization dedicated to bridging the growing partisan divide and fostering a more representative and functional government. From debt ceiling standoffs to single-digit Congress approval ratings, America’s political system has never been more polarized—or paralyzed—than it is today. Unite America grew out of Wheelan’s 2013 book The Centrist Manifesto In 2013, Wheelan published Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data (W.W. Norton). Shortly after publication, the book reached the New York Times bestseller list for hardcover nonfiction. The New York Times called the book “sparkling and intensely readable.” The same year, he published The Centrist Manifesto, which calls for a new political party “of the middle. Key Takeaways: 01:23 Nine Months. Six Continents. Three Teenagers. 07:00 How was the planning of your trip? 14:17  What were your biggest challenges on the road? 20:54 What does this do for your family? 24:08 Taking economics students traveling and learn by experience 27:13 Advice to families who want to try the same learning journey 33:30 Alternative schooling and college 38:58 Learning is all about the journey Quotes: “Find your comfort zone to bite off as much as you think you can chew.” “Plan far in advance and don't let the planning overwhelm you. Just take one challenge at a time.” “You have to be completely mobile while carrying all of your stuff.” “I think people can choose their own path, but I would urge as many people as possible to take a gap year. Just just one form of being unconventional because too many of the students I see are burned out or they just feel like they've been running on this education treadmill for too long.” “I'm a big believer in the journey, not the destination.” Social Links: LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/charles-wheelan-a6220911/ Website https://charleswheelan.com/ Twitter https://twitter.com/charleswheelan Amazon The New York Times: Meet a Family Who Spent 9 Months Traveling the Globe, Pre-Plague

Matt Barnes is the  Co-Founder and Parent Coach at The Education Game. Over 25 years, he has led hospital departments, distributed $500m in philanthropy, run an education reform nonprofit, served on nine educational boards from university to pre-K, and now coaches parents on navigating the education system. His aim is to help every parent grow kids who are curious, competent, life-long learners. Matt did quit his job to become a stay-at-home father. After three years as a full-time-dad, he had a new appreciation of the traditional role of mothers and also understood the pressures behind the women’s liberation movement -- as he often wanted to burn his “manzier.” It was in 2014, when Matt launched The Educational Makeover, a learning lab that studied parent decision-making, mindsets, and capacities. Then he launched “The Education Game” in 2020,  a speaking, coaching, blogging, and podcast platform that inspires parents to embrace a 21st-century learning model that shamelessly deemphasizes grades and academic compliance while radically emphasizing learning, problem solving, and student-engagement He served as Houston’s representative on a national research initiative exploring the challenges facing Boys and Young Men of Color which later became President Obama’s “My Brother’s Keeper” initiative. Key Takeaways: 00:30 What is Education Game? 02:26 Actionable Advice to a Frustrated Parent 16:21 What’s your Origin Story? 23:20 What about College? 47:34 Baby Steps to Starting in Alternative School 58:55 Screen Time during COVID 01:07:13 Metaphor Comparing Conventional School to Alternative Quotes: “Learning happens all the time. You can't stop your child from learning.” “Standardization doesn't fly in the 21st century.” “Starting a business teaches you so much.” “The people that were hardest to manage were the people who were just average.” “Once your child actually starts to adopt a mindset that they are learners, there's far less work to do.” Social Links: Website - www.theEducationGame.com   ; http://www.barnesstrategies.com LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewcbarnes/

Travis Adams is the Chief Executive Officer of MyFirstSale and lives in Tyler, Texas. Travis has a passion for igniting the creativity and uniqueness inside of kids. He owns a summer camp called Camp Huawni and has started and grown multiple companies, including Apex Fun Run (with Scott Donell), Affair Recovery, and Grow My Camp. Travis and his best bud, Scott Donnell, met at the Acton School of Business where they discovered their shared passion of inspiring kids. Travis is most passionate about his wife Mandi and their three sons. He also loves to surf. Key Takeaways: 00:10 Favorite Thing Working with Young Learners 00:09 Why did you and your wife decide on Acton for your kids? 00:23 Why do you see ADHD as a positive thing? 00:31:54 Metaphor for Acton versus Conventional School Quotes: “Every kid is unique. Each kid is literally one of a kind throughout history. And as you get to be around them, you get to see that come out.” “Loving to learn because if they love to learn, we know, and there's plenty of scientific evidence behind this that they'll take off.” “Our kind of big goal is we want to launch a million kid businesses. And we also, what we do is we empower kids to take on the real world, because we all know that not every kid is going to be an entrepreneur, but every kid can learn to be entrepreneurial. “ “My hope is there'll be way more confidence about their (children’s) trajectory based on their journey and way more plugged into their own wiring that they're going to make every step count.” Social Links: Travis Adams LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/travis-adams-56b02615/ Website- myfirstsale.com/events YouTube - MyFirstSale Virtual Business Fair

Jesse McCarthy, founder of MontessoriEducation.com and host of The Montessori Education Podcast, has worked with thousands of children, parents, and teachers over the past 15+ years — as a principal for infants to 8th graders, an executive with a nationwide group of private schools, an elementary & junior-high teacher, and a parent-and-teacher mentor. Jesse received his B.A. in psychology from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and his Montessori teacher's diploma for 3- to 6-year-olds from Association Montessori Internationale (AMI), the organization founded by Dr. Maria Montessori. Key Takeaways: 00:01:38 What is the Montessori Discipline course? 00:08:33 Effectivity of Self-directed Education and of Montessori. 00:17:51 Most Important Innovation in Montessori 00:22:58 Do you think it is true that Montessori gives you an advantage in terms of success, innovation, confidence, creativity? 00:30:34 What does it mean to help parents achieve inevitable success? 00:35:06 Different Certifying Approaches 00:48:00  How did you decide to become a Montessorian? 00:52:39 For the Kids, after a year of not being in their Montessori environment, what do you predict is going to happen to them? Quotes: “Montessori is very structured in the sense that, there are choices you can have. And within those choices, you're free. But outside of that, there's a real wall and you cannot go pass that and it might sound kind of dictatorial, but that wall gets bigger and bigger as the children grow up and get more freedom.” “Improvement means that something wasn't going that well before we needed to change it.” “Most of us had crappy education. So with Montessori, the idea is to spend a lot more time on the foundational elements.” “When I fail, it's awesome because I know I'm going to learn something.” Social Links: Jesse McCarthy LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessemccarthy/ Website- https://www.montessorieducation.com/ How Do I Become A Montessori Teacher? Podcast

Clark Aldrich has been called a 'guru' by Fortune Magazine and a 'maverick' by CNN.  He and his work in educational media have been featured in hundreds of sources, including CBS, ABC, The New York Times, USA Today, ESPN, AP, Wall Street Journal, NPR, CNET, Business 2.0, BusinessWeek, and U.S. News and World Report. He has been quoted by President Obama and invited to speak at the Koch brothers' annual education summit. Aldrich is the creator of Short Sims, a revolutionary pedagogy that combines the best practices of gamification, microlearning, and traditional conanchtent.  Aldrich develops custom Short Sims through, including for Visa, Department of State, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Center for Army Leadership. He has degree from Brown University is in cognitive science. Hetrains designers based on his newest book, Short Sims: A Game Changer (April 2020). Clark Aldrich Designs is a boutique education company, founded by Clark Aldrich, which works with corporate, military, and academic clients He published research, beginning in 1999, outlined the failure of formal education approaches to teach leadership, innovation, and other strategic skills, and then advocated interactive experiences borrowing techniques from current computer games as media to fill these gaps. Key Takeaways: 02:19 Clark and how he got connected with the Sandefers and Acton. 06:08 Do schools Overcontrol Learners instead of Allowing and Trusting them to go with things? 18:19 What is Short Sims? 40:29 Why should you look for alternative schools? 50:44 Metaphor on Conventional School versus Short SIM Quotes: "You want to trust kids as long as possible to pick them up on their own. But at some point do need to guide them towards it." "I hope we get to a point where you can take college classes more easily virtually and be on the same fund and only the ones that you want and not the ones that you don't want and put together your degree." "The other thing to recognize increasingly is that entrepreneurship is the new college degree." "And it turns out all these important skills that we're talking about, like leadership, stewardship, relationship, management, innovation, creativity, security- all these are not linear at all." "The goal of education is to find out what you're really good at, find out what you care a lot about, and then figure out how to connect the two." "One great way for anyone over 12 or 13 years old, to figure out where their passion is of whom are they envious. It's one of the great drivers." "Everyone needs to stand on the shoulders of giants that came before us. Learn from each other and then just start. It's an incredibly interesting way of changing ourselves and also changing the world." Social Links: Clark Aldrich Website - https://www.shortsims.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/clarkaldrich Twitter - https://twitter.com/clarkaldrich

Jessica Lahey is a teacher, writer, and mom. Over twenty years, she’s  taught every grade from sixth to twelfth in both public and private  schools. She writes about education, parenting, and child welfare for The Atlantic, Vermont Public Radio, The Washington Post and the New York Times and is the author of the New York Times bestselling book, The Gift of Failure: How the Best Parents Learn to Let Go So Their Children Can Succeed. She is a member of the Amazon Studios Thought Leader Board and wrote the educational curriculum for Amazon Kids’ The Stinky and Dirty Show. Jessica  earned a B.A. in Comparative Literature from the University of  Massachusetts and a J.D. with a concentration in juvenile and education  law from the University of North Carolina School of Law. She lives in  Vermont with her husband and two sons. Her second book, The Addiction Inoculation: Raising Healthy Kids in a Culture of Dependence, will be released in April 2021. Key Takeaways: 00:25 Her favorite age group of learners to teach and why 07:24 How learning opportunities get lost when parents rescue their children 00:09 The effect of helicopter parenting on motivation and learning 11:01 The red flags about our parenting and teaching that we might need to take a look at 12:50 The difference between directive and autonomy-supportive teaching 17:52 Getting support in non-directive and free-range parenting styles 31:35 What parents should look for in a school 36:00 Her take on self-directed education 42:12 Screentimes and how students are learning differently during COVID 53:26 Building intrinsic motivation Quotes: “Kids who have had what's called autonomy-supportive parenting, teaching, coaching tend to have a little more comfort with frustration, tend to be the kind of kids who can take a breath, figure it out and push through without having to sort of go to someone else for the answer.” “What is great for learning is frequent formative assessments. It helps the kid exercise a little bit of metacognition, because they're on a constant basis having to reevaluate what they thought they knew and what they didn't know.” “The reason that so many colleges and universities are switching, moving away from lecture-based teaching and towards small group teaching is that we know it works better.” “There's all sorts of emotional engagement that has to happen. It's not just about interpersonal relationships, but engagement and relevance and all that stuff. That's where the secret sauce of teaching is.” “Being more controlling of kids has the opposite effect. It undermines their motivation to want to do the things that we're trying to get them to do. Giving control to kids will help them feel less out of control.” Social Links: Download Jessica’s Bibliography: Click Here Jessica Lahey Website - https://www.jessicalahey.com/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-lahey-b815a366/ Twitter - https://twitter.com/jesslahey Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/teacherlahey

Amir Nathoo is the CEO and Co-founder at Outschool. Outschool is a marketplace for live online classes for K-12 learners. He led the development of Square Payroll and also served as CEO and co-founder of Trigger.io. He holds an MEng in Electrical and Information Sciences from The University of Cambridge and he has a young son. Key Takeaways: 00:17 Amir’s Elevator Pitch and Motivations Behind Founding Outschool 03:05 Impactful Learning Outside Regular School 05:28 Handling Screentime and Technology 14:44 If you could re-engineer school for the 21st century, what would that look like? 17:59 The Dramatic Impact of the Pandemic on Outschool 32:35 Tips for Parents in Choosing Online Classes 37:59 Amir's Education and Transportation System Analogy Quotes: "I have a strong belief that we can design our interactions with our kids and our family's lives to handle any challenges." "I recognize it's challenging and all kids are different. So I think we should resist the idea of overgeneralization that we can just come up with a recipe and that this is gonna work for all kids." "There's this word hybrid. And I would say it again and again. Hybrid- combine different modes of learning in order to achieve good balance." "The reality is what's a great class for one kid is not necessarily the best class for another kid. And so the most important thing is to find the perfect class for your kid and find the right group." Social Links: Amir Nathoo LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amirnathoo/ Outschool Website - www.outschool.com Instagram -  https://www.instagram.com/outschool/

Vijay is currently the  co-founder, director, and a Socratic Guide at The Humanist Academy.  Has  two Master's degrees, one in from The University of Chicago (Divinity  School), and another in School Leadership and Administration from  National Louis University. His professional experience includes teaching high  school history and math teacher in inner-city Chicago, he's also been  an assistant principal, principal, an adjunct professor (at Loyola  University), and he worked briefly with National Geographic  leading  student expedition trips across the world. One of his most formative experiences was when he spent two years in India studying philosophy and literature at an  alternative residential institution near Mumbai. Most importantly  though, he's the loving father of 3 adorable kids, all 5 and under, has a  wonderful wife, amazing parents, and a very close knit extended family  that have been his backbone and support throughout his life. Key Takeaways: 00:22 What’s your favorite thing about working with Young Learners? 07:02 Vijay’s origin story on how he decided to do something different. 17:14 Advice to Frustrated and Afraid Parents 23:51 All About the Humanist Academy 27:00 How do you deal with religion? 31:15 How do you train guides? 35:02 How has your school been affected by COVID? 43:25 The Business Fair 44:58 Metaphor that describes conventional schooling versus what you do. Quotes: “Let's take out two things. Industrialized education and behaviorism. This idea that children need adults to jam information into their incompetent, incapable  empty vessels. They are full of wisdom, knowledge, and genius, and we need to allow them to, to thrive.” "Every human being, I believe, is in this world to find their place and to learn about the world and themselves and make an impact - have some meaningful contribution." "We're all human beings. We're here for a higher purpose. There's a spiritual element to who we are as beings. And I think that brings out, personally, that's the greatest part of what we are." "Children are far more capable than we can ever imagine." "What's beautiful about the Acton model is that we don't have teachers  that give answers. We have guides who ask questions and nurture  curiosity. Social Links: Vijay Shah LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/vijay-shah-a156ba27/ Humanist Academy Website - https://www.thehumanistacademy.org Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/thehumanistacademy/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/thehumanistacademy/

Aaron Eden’s mission is to re-humanize how we work, learn, live, and lead. Aaron is Executive Director at the Institute for Applied Tinkering, the parent organization of Brightworks which is consistently listed as one of the most innovative schools in the world. He is also a founding partner at Eliad Group, a transformation design firm, where he works with schools and businesses around the world to shift from command-and-control to co-creation as the basis for purposeful, innovative endeavor. He helps start new schools that are trying to re-humanize education, and help existing ones transform to new paradigms of learning. He also coaches parents and learning facilitators that are working to support Self-Directed Education in non-formal learning environments. Key Takeaways: 1:30 Parents - Reconnect with your Why 10:00 Aaron talks about Adult Power 28:00 Advice to Frustrated Parents 32:40 Two Things to Look for in a School 41:30 Entrepreneurial Enterprise Program 45:05 How do you help students without forcing yourself to be in the process? 52:00 Screen Time, COVID and meeting Learners’ Social Needs Health 1:05:02 How do you see College for your kids? Quotes: "I believe every human being should be allowed to do whatever it is they're choosing to do as long as it's not hurting somebody else or them in the very short term." "The most important thing is that we are consistent in our relating with our kids." "I would say the underlying philosophy of all of the work that I do, whether it's in corporate spaces and like high-performance teams and all of that, or kindergarten or graduate school, it's all the same, which is that when we shift from a language of blame and judgment to a language of need and appreciation, we all get more of what we want." "What I think is the beauty of all of this is that the recipe is the same for every challenge, which is to be honest about why we care." "Every kid, every human can choose, how they want to do things and enrich their life." Social Links: Aaron Eden LinkedIn- https://www.linkedin.com/in/aaronmeden/ Twitter- https://twitter.com/edunautics Blog- https://edunautics.com/ Talks Education Reimagined - Accelerating Innovation: Education Disrupted, Education Reimagined online conference, WISE and Salzburg Global Seminar Re-Humanizing Education: Keynote, Inspiration Fest, Goa, 2018 HOMEBOUND PARENTING - Tools for Thriving (Video Playlist) RE-THINKING ADULTING / Self-Directed Education Short Topics (Video Playlist) Interviews Re-Humanizing Education - Off Trail Learning podcast with Blake Boles [audio] Educators Who Inspire Spotlight Series [video]