Greetings Eddies!

Anyone else still shaking off the holiday rust? The first full week back can feel like restarting a car that's been sitting in the cold.

The good news is Ed has kept the content machine warm while we were away.

This week we're asking whether AI can finally crack the tutoring problem that's stumped educators for 40 years.

We're also looking at research on one surprisingly simple difference between good math teachers and great ones. (Spoiler: it's not experience or credentials.)

And we've got a framework from a Stanford researcher that might change how you approach your teenager's sense of purpose.

PLUS: the New York Times published letters to the editor in response to their recent homeschooling hitpiece - "The Home-Schooled Kids Are Not All Right" - (including one by a 16-year-old filmmaker who was homeschooled and appears to have turned out alright).

Let's ease into it.

In 1984, Benjamin Bloom documented something educators have been chasing ever since: students with one-on-one tutoring outperformed 98% of their classroom peers. He called it the "2 Sigma Problem." The problem wasn't whether tutoring worked (it did). The problem was economics.

Forty years later, if you believe the hype, AI promises to crack it.

Homeschool parents have always had the advantage here—working one-on-one with your own kids is the original tutoring model. What's new is that AI can now handle more of the repetitive drill, freeing you for the parts that matter most.

Platforms like Math Academy report compressing 180 classroom hours into 20-40 hours of focused practice. Alpha School students complete academics in two hours daily and test in the 99th percentile. 

But there's a catch. Not all AI tutoring is created equal.

Dr. Claire Honeycutt, a neuroscientist who writes about homeschooling and the science of learning, puts it plainly: "From the outside, AI looks like it's thinking—but it's not."

AI tutors excel at personalized pacing and endless patience. But can they teach your child when multiplication is the right tool for a problem they've never seen?

Justin Skycak, who leads curriculum at Math Academy, has a theory about why so much edtech disappoints: "If you want to build a serious educational product, you can't be afraid to charge money for it." Free platforms optimize for engagement. Effective learning often requires the opposite.

The full guide breaks down what works, what doesn't, and how to build your own stack without paying a fortune.

Read the full guide

You ask about their future. They shut down. You ask what they care about. They shrug.

According to Heather Malin, former director of research at Stanford's Center on Adolescence, this is normal—and pushing harder makes it worse. "I couldn't say the word 'purpose' around my teenager," Malin admits. "She got so tired of hearing it."

The fix isn't a better question. It's lowering the stakes entirely.

We had some technical difficulties with the recording for this one, but distilled the essence from the transcript:

Stop asking "What is your purpose?" It feels heavy and performative. Try "What matters to you right now?" or "Who do you admire?" Purpose isn't a lightning bolt—it's a habit of noticing what you care about.

Dig for the "why" (even when it's shallow). When your kid says "I want to be rich," don't roll your eyes. Ask why. "Underneath that desire to be wealthy is often a way they want to connect with the world," Malin explains. That hidden motivation is the seed of purpose.

Let them be bored. "Purpose can be boring," Malin says. "You have to get through the parts that support whatever it is you want to do." If we constantly entertain our kids, we rob them of the chance to develop this resilience.

Read the full conversation

A Penn Foster survey found that while 84% of parents once assumed their kid would go to college, more than a third have reconsidered thanks to AI. Meanwhile, 41% now prefer apprenticeships or immediate workforce entry over traditional degrees, and 55% feel anxious about whether their child is prepared for an AI-driven job market. The diploma credential is no longer the automatic answer. (USA Today)

Matt Bateman, a philosophy PhD who helped found Guidepost Montessori, argues we've normalized dysfunction so completely that healthy teenagers look "gifted." His framework: the stereotypical teen—sleeps until noon, glued to phone, hates school, rebels against everything—isn't "just how teenagers are." It's a symptom. A developmentally healthy teen wakes up with things she wants to accomplish, asks uncomfortable questions, and by 15 has a real job with real stakes. "What we call 'teenage rebellion' is often just the healthy desire to do real things crashing into systems that only offer fake things." (Austin Scholar)

A Harvard/Stanford study found that teachers who used more mathematical vocabulary—words like "factors," "denominators," and "multiples"—had students who scored significantly higher on math tests. The boost amounted to about half the benefit of having a highly effective teacher. The top quarter of teachers used at least 28 more math terms per lesson than the bottom quarter. Over a school year, that's 4,480 additional math words. Some teachers worry formal language will confuse students, but students ultimately need to understand how "put together" corresponds to addition. (Hechinger Report)

New EdChoice polling found overwhelming support for teaching civil debate—using evidence, taking turns, arguing both sides—in middle and high school. About half feel strongly about it. Parents are even more on board: nearly 90% want it, with two-thirds saying it's very or extremely important. The most popular approach? Integrating debate into existing required classes like reading or social studies. Democrats and Republicans support it equally—one of the few things they agree on. 

Two-Week Learning Sprints — From the Open Education book bonus material: Create a Discovery Zone (wall, poster board, back of a door). Post five questions about interests and strengths. Give everyone colored sticky notes. Over one week, add thoughts whenever inspiration strikes. Then pick one interest per person for a two-week "learning sprint." The hard part isn't the system—it's trusting your kid's curiosity over a pacing guide written for 30 strangers.

Braided Learning: AI as Teaching Assistant — Sarah teaches AP Environmental Science. Her students recorded 28 video reflections after a field study. In previous years, she'd watch all 28 in one exhausting evening. This year, she used AI transcription to identify themes in minutes. The AI didn't replace her judgment—it gave her clarity about what students were actually thinking, in time to do something about it. (Getting Smart)

Ignoring My Kids Is My Love Language — Shared by Lenore Skenazy: "With the best intentions, we often inundate our kids with commentary, limiting their sense of curiosity." Sometimes the best thing you can do is step back. (Today's Parent)

AI Tutoring Tools Worth Trying — From this week's Deep Dive: Khan Academy (free) is a solid starting point for most families. Add Khanmigo ($4/month) for conversational AI tutoring. Math Academy ($49/month) is our top pick for serious acceleration—users report compressing multiple grade levels. Synthesis ($35/year via OpenEd) focuses on collaborative problem-solving. For languages, Duolingo is the obvious free option; Studycat ($8/month) works well for ages 3-8.

Mason Ember is 16 years old. He's spent the last year filming a feature-length documentary called Against the Grade about homeschooled teenagers in the New York City area.

His letter to the New York Times was one of several responses to the viral "Home-Schooled Kids Are Not All Right" essay—the December piece that called for mandatory registration and check-ins for all homeschoolers. To their credit, the Times published the counter-arguments, and they were better than anything we could have written.

Mason's take: "In education we should be pro-child, not always pro-home-schooling, but certainly against 'one size fits all' institutionalism."

Hicham Oumlil, a Brooklyn father, didn't want to homeschool. He pulled his 12-year-old because the schools "seemed to punish difference rather than cultivate potential." His son was reading above grade level in kindergarten but was forced to read at grade level anyway. He learned best through play—building systems, studying transit and aviation—but none of it counted as learning.

Elissa Kellner pushed back on the assumption that standardized testing is the solution: "Many of us choose to home-school directly in response to the rise in standardized testing. Much of public education now revolves around honing test-taking skills at the expense of actual learning."

We applaud the Times for featuring the counter-argument. And we're looking forward to seeing Mason's documentary when it comes out later this year.

Sound familiar? Were you pushed into homeschooling by a system that couldn't meet your kid where they were? Reply to this email—we'd love to hear your story.

Pick a Curriculum and Stick With It (r/homeschool) — A Reddit mom of five (two now in college with 4.0 GPAs) shares her hard-won advice:

"Bouncing around and changing every year opens you to gaps."

Her other wisdom: If you must go to a homeschool expo, only go to one—and only when you're already established as a homeschooler.

In short: Don't try to do it all. 

That's all for this week!

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

P.S. If you missed this week's dailies: Monday's deep dive on testing and retention, Tuesday's Mars Approach for planning your year, and Thursday's response to the NYT letters.