Have you heard of Alpha School?
Alpha School is a private school that began in Brownsville, Texas, and has opened campuses in Austin and Miami. Its tagline is “AI Powered Private School,” and it emphasizes three things: love school, learn 2x in 2 hours, and learn life skills. “A school where kids crush academics in 2 hours, build life skills through workshops, and thrive beyond the classroom.”
What parent wouldn’t want those things for his or her child?
“Education is ripe for transformation,” said Alpha School cofounder Mackenzie Price, “and the beauty of what has happened in the last few years with artificial intelligence coming on is that now we can really make sure that children are learning efficiently and effectively. And they are getting that one-to-one, mastery-based experience.” (as reported by Newsweek in May)
Staff members at Alpha School are called “guides,” acting more as facilitators than traditional teachers. Guides “primarily provide motivational and emotional support rather than creating lesson plans, delivering lectures or grading assignments.”
The students spend a total of 2 hours each morning on computers, using the school’s AI-powered learning platform in core academic subjects like math, English, and social studies. “Our AI tutor gives students 1:1 personalized education.” Then in the afternoon students work on “non-academic critical life skills like public speaking, financial literacy or even how to ride a bike.”
So, love school, learn quickly, and learn life skills? It’s hard to imagine a parent who wouldn’t want those things.
However, it’s worth it to take a look beneath the surface and challenge a few assumptions.
First, is efficiency a suitable measure of a child’s education? The modern world would have us think so, and our experience of drive through windows, online banking, and life hacks reinforces this value daily. But education is inherently an inefficient process because it involves young human beings, with all their foibles, weaknesses, limitations, and immaturities, not to mention those of their teachers. Doing more in less time is an admirable goal for cleaning the bathroom, but as a goal for education it falls short – far short. Education, truly understood, takes time, diligent repetition, and careful application of effort, aided by sound methods that fit a child’s frame. 16,000 hours may seem like a long time, but really it isn’t.
Next, should our goal be for our children to measure up to national test scores? One might be led to think that the end-all of education is scoring well on nationally normed standardized tests. However, test scores cannot account for formation, which is the highest goal of a true education. Formation of virtue, nurturing of character, and growth in Christlikeness cannot be measured by a test.
Also, can an AI tutor replace a wise and loving human teacher, traditionally understood? We’ve been led to believe that AI can solve the world’s problems. But hard experience is showing that AI is creating as many problems as it solves. An AI tutor can promise students 1:1 personalized education. ChatGPT can serve as a proxy of sorts for a writing teacher. And search engines can find instant, albeit shallow, results. But AI, ChatGPT, and Google can never form intellectual virtues like curiosity, attentiveness, courage, humility, independence, and tenacity. Through the Great Tradition, the wise and the good still speak, and wise and capable teachers who love the truth serve as time-tested and true guides for students who are being educated in the soul- and mind-freeing liberal arts. Computers simply can’t compare to the proven power of a traditional classroom with human teachers, books, and spoken words.
Finally, is a young child competent to choose what to study in order to thrive outside of school? John Dewey thought so, and his disastrous experiment in democratic, child-centered education has brought chaos to the American educational system in the last century. Classical Christian education is built on the premise that children should humbly receive (not invent for themselves!) what is true and good and beautiful, and this reception is a transformative gift that enables a child to take his or her place as a mature citizen with well-ordered loves.
The most crucial assumption that Providence is built on and that seems to be missing at the Alpha School is that the Triune God alone is Creator of all things and Lord of truth, and that His Son Jesus Christ is Savior and King of all. This truth changes everything.
AI can do many amazing things, but it will never share this conviction.
