43: Rethinking Education with Alpha Co Founder MacKenzie Price

Many parents feel it: that the current education system doesn’t fully reflect how kids actually learn. We’re craving something more aligned, more human, and more empowering, a model where children feel engaged, capable, and genuinely excited to learn because the experience itself is meaningful. I love my girls’ school and feel privileged to have been able to choose it. But I also feel there’s often a disconnect between what any current school teaches and what kids actually need to thrive in real life: confidence, communication, social skills, executive functioning, curiosity, and a true love of learning. That curiosity is what led me to learn more about Alpha School. This week I am joined by its co-founder, MacKenzie Price, who started Alpha after watching her own daughters lose their love of learning early in elementary school, and decided to create a school that brought it back. Alpha uses Time-Back Learning, an approach where AI customizes academics to each child’s level. Core academics are completed in about two hours a day, which opens up the rest of the school day to what children truly need - time to explore interests, build real-world skills, collaborate, create, and grow at their own pace. In this episode, MacKenzie and I talk about why the legacy model is failing so many kids, what truly prepares children for life, how personalized pathways can unlock potential we’ve never tapped into, and what school could look like when we design it around how children actually learn. This conversation is not about choosing a school, it’s about reimagining an entire system. It’s about believing that kids deserve environments where they grow, stretch, collaborate, problem-solve, and discover their own agency. If you’ve ever felt like something about school just isn’t working… this episode will feel really exciting and will give a glimpse into what education could really become. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices