Steve Levitt

He called me five minutes later and said, hey, I am starting an online school.

Do you want to help me out with it?

And that was the Khan World School.

And I had to say on the podcast two more times to talk about that.

And then it just felt like if you can have a big impact in an online school.

well, just imagine what you might be able to do in person.

And even then I was excited about it, but it wasn't until I actually was on the ground at the school in Arizona that it fully hit me how powerful it is to see young people engaged.

Actually, the way I pitch it is,

was deeply affected by another one of the guests that we had on the show, David Yeager, who's a psychologist at University of Texas at Austin.

It's interesting, when you can get a set of parents and kids into the room who are potentially interested in going to your school, I talk only to the students.

Everyone else in the room talks only to the adults, but I just turn to the kids and I say, hey, I'm really embarrassed to have to say this, but my generation, me, your parents,

We all have been telling you a complete set of lies.

We've been telling you that if you work hard and you get good grades and you do a little bit of volunteering, then you'll get into a great college and you'll go to college.

And after you graduate, you'll have a great career.

And it's all a set of lies.

Because it is.

What we're teaching kids doesn't make sense.

By the time they get to high school, nobody's engaged.

And the saddest part for me is watching some of my students at the University of Chicago.

These are the students who've won the high school lottery, right?