Ezra Klein

Like, one thing that I recognize as somebody who studies bureaucracies is that if you just think of U.S. public education, to say nothing of also private education, to say nothing of global education, it's educating a lot of kids. And its ability to tune itself to every kid is going to be pretty modest.

Like, one thing that I recognize as somebody who studies bureaucracies is that if you just think of U.S. public education, to say nothing of also private education, to say nothing of global education, it's educating a lot of kids. And its ability to tune itself to every kid is going to be pretty modest.

And what kids need is different, but somehow you have to be orienting towards something that works for most of them, even if you're not sure how to make it work for all of them. I'm curious how you think about that.

And what kids need is different, but somehow you have to be orienting towards something that works for most of them, even if you're not sure how to make it work for all of them. I'm curious how you think about that.

Give me one of those examples. One of those examples of a schooling system able to educate in a personalized way at scale that seems to you to be replicable?

Give me one of those examples. One of those examples of a schooling system able to educate in a personalized way at scale that seems to you to be replicable?

I want to zoom in on something in that story, which is that when the student you brought up found the thing that lit her up, she was then able to do better in all the other classes that maybe didn't. This was a little bit of my own experience of life. For me, it was political blogging, of all things, which I found as a freshman in college. And once I activated it,

I want to zoom in on something in that story, which is that when the student you brought up found the thing that lit her up, she was then able to do better in all the other classes that maybe didn't. This was a little bit of my own experience of life. For me, it was political blogging, of all things, which I found as a freshman in college. And once I activated it,

Then I became much better at doing things that I didn't want to do or didn't exactly see the point of in even unrelated fields.

Then I became much better at doing things that I didn't want to do or didn't exactly see the point of in even unrelated fields.

I think what would have been the conventional line on me from the adults who knew me was, smart kid can't get it together.

I think what would have been the conventional line on me from the adults who knew me was, smart kid can't get it together.

Just can't seem to get the homework in. Right. Can't seem to do things he's not that interested in doing. And can't even seem to do the things he is interested in doing in a way that fits what we want from him. I read every book in English class. And I enjoyed doing the essays. Yeah. And I'm a good writer. I think I'm willing to say that at this point in my life.

Just can't seem to get the homework in. Right. Can't seem to do things he's not that interested in doing. And can't even seem to do the things he is interested in doing in a way that fits what we want from him. I read every book in English class. And I enjoyed doing the essays. Yeah. And I'm a good writer. I think I'm willing to say that at this point in my life.

And I still did badly on the essays because it wasn't what they wanted for me in some way or another. Right. And over time, I just don't have that. I mean, that was the broad experience of my life that I couldn't fit what I did to what the world wanted for me. And now I'm just much better at doing that in ways that are not related to my course of interest.

And I still did badly on the essays because it wasn't what they wanted for me in some way or another. Right. And over time, I just don't have that. I mean, that was the broad experience of my life that I couldn't fit what I did to what the world wanted for me. And now I'm just much better at doing that in ways that are not related to my course of interest.

I'm not trying to over extrapolate my experience. It's actually important to me not to over extrapolate my experience. But something I've seen you talk about is this quality of when students find the teacher, find the subject, find the approach that activates them.

I'm not trying to over extrapolate my experience. It's actually important to me not to over extrapolate my experience. But something I've seen you talk about is this quality of when students find the teacher, find the subject, find the approach that activates them.

that all of a sudden the things that are not that activating to them become easier, that there is a sort of lock and a key dynamic to learning.

that all of a sudden the things that are not that activating to them become easier, that there is a sort of lock and a key dynamic to learning.