How Does Alpha School Make Kids Love School?

Joe Liemandt says Alpha School redesigns the school day so kids love school more than vacation, and the key to a child's happiness is high standards. Kids want to do hard things with their friends. Playing video games all day is something they can already do at home.

Every third grader is mic'd up and thrown into an escape room. AI analyzes the transcript. Less than 20% of the language is uplifting. The rest is fighting, pushing, and my idea. An eight-week workshop keeps sending them back until 85% of their language is team behavior, which they need to pass the class. They also finish the escape room three times faster in a team environment.

In fourth and fifth grade, students must pass the Wharton MBA challenge, a simulation of going up Mount Everest. 50% of MBAs fail the teamwork because they never were taught teamwork through school. The life skills curriculum is as rigorous as a physics test or a math test, and a core pass is passing the escape room test. Traditional schools do not teach teamwork. Most group projects are terrible: one person does the work and everybody else sits around, so students learn the opposite of teamwork. After-school sports in America teach teamwork and leadership. Kids love the escape room, and parents want that life skill.