How to Accelerate Learning & Improve Education | Joe Liemandt

**Joe Liemandt** (0:00)
We don't do the basics. We need to nail the basics, just like in sports. My famous example I always use is, if you lose the ball 20% of the time going down the court, the coach is not saying, let's work on the dunks and the alley-oops or even the layoffs. They're like ball handling. We're going to get ball handling. 20% isn't acceptable, 15% isn't acceptable. You can't be 85, 80% accurate. In America, we're like, you're getting a B, man, move on. We're moving on to dunks.
You just finished 4th grade at 80%.
Let's get you into that 5th grade stuff. And the answer is no, no, because then all those problems compound.

**Andrew Huberman** (0:38)
Welcome to the Huberman Lab Podcast, where we discuss science and science-based tools for everyday life.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a Professor of Neurobiology and Ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. My guest today is Joe Liemandt, the Principal of Alpha School, which is a novel approach to education that strives to ensure that every child reaches the frontier of their knowledge and skill potential. Kids in Alpha School spend just two hours a day, two hours a day, learning what they need to in order to ensure no gaps in their cognitive knowledge. Then they spend the rest of their day learning to and actually starting their own businesses, learning financial skills as well as communication and interpersonal skills.
The goal of Alpha School is to tailor learning to the unique needs of the child. But unlike so many other non-traditional forms of learning in schools, they don't let the child pick what is easiest for them, nor force all kids to learn at the same rate across all subjects. So it's a truly unique approach. The data on Alpha School kids are astounding.
K-12 students from Alpha School test in the top 1% of students in the US, and their average SAT scores graduating from high school is a nearly perfect 1530 In addition, while still in school, many of the Alpha students start their own businesses that are highly successful, meaning they generate hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars. During today's conversation, you're not just going to hear about how Alpha students do all this incredible stuff. It's really about how the ways in which they learn will allow you, adult or young, to learn better, and why filling in gaps in our basic knowledge that we all have at every age is both possible and can be done quickly with the correct lesson plans and understanding of neuroplasticity, the brain's ability to rewire itself. So some of today's discussion focuses on that as well. You'll also learn that, no, Alpha School is not just for wealthy kids. They are changing education for students of all backgrounds and income levels. And Joe Liemandt and his colleagues are striving to teach educators the real data on how kids and adults learn best in ways that serve the student both in and after they leave school. I have to say as a university professor who lives in the land of education, our conversation today completely changed how I think about learning in and out of the classroom. And it also provides tools that I now use to learn more effectively. And I'm confident that it will do the same for you. Before we begin, I'd like to emphasize that this podcast is separate from my teaching and research roles at Stanford. It is, however, part of my desire and effort to bring zero cost to consumer information about science and science related tools to the general public. In keeping with that theme, today's episode does include sponsors. And now for my discussion with Joe Liemandt. Joe Liemandt, welcome.

**Joe Liemandt** (3:18)
Thank you very much. Great to be here.

**Andrew Huberman** (3:20)
Tell us about learning and education a hundred years ago, because that sounds like a long time ago, but it wasn't that long ago. And then we'll use that as a contrast point to where you're trying to take learning and education and schooling for young people now.

**Joe Liemandt** (3:35)
So a hundred years ago, we were trying to say, how are we going to educate everybody? Universal access to education 200 years ago was not a thing. Every person on the planet did not have access to education.
A hundred plus years ago, people said, let's start educating everybody. We're talking K-12. So they started the industrialized model, started over in Prussia, right? And then it was imported. And it was very controversial, actually. If you look back of, you have a rural society and you're saying, get off the farms and get into schools. And the best way to educate people back then was, let's put them in a room, let's teach them how to read and write, let's have a teacher in front of the classroom.