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In Episode 3 of The Learning Curve, JR and ARIA explore one of the most under-reported stories in education: how homeschool families are becoming America’s most agile AI adopters—and what the rest of us should be watching.
With no approval cycles and no policy gatekeepers, these families move fast. But it’s not a simple success story. Deep philosophical divides run through the homeschool world — and some of the sharpest AI critiques come from families who chose homeschooling to escape screen-mediated learning.
JR and ARIA dig into the structural advantages, the demographics, the tools, the philosophy, and — in ‘What ARIA Doesn’t Know’ — the most important gap in the whole conversation: almost no longitudinal research exists on whether any of this works long-term.
AI bookend host Nex opens with a stat about bureaucracy and closes with what she calls a pun arc. JR does not enjoy it.
APA CITATIONS
All research and data referenced in the episode transcript.
Karpicke, J. D., & Roediger, H. L. (2008). The critical importance of retrieval for learning. Science, 319(5865), 966–968. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1152408
Mason, C. (1925). An essay towards a philosophy of education. L. N. Fowler & Co.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (2023). Artificial intelligence in education: Promises and implications for teaching and learning. The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/26852
Ray, B. D. (2024). Research facts on homeschooling. National Home Education Research Institute. https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/
Reich, J. (2020). Failure to disrupt: Why technology alone can’t transform education. Harvard University Press.
Roediger, H. L., & Butler, A. C. (2011). The critical role of retrieval practice in long-term retention. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 15(1), 20–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2010.09.003
Sweller, J., Ayres, P., & Kalyuga, S. (2011). Cognitive load theory. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-8126-4
VanLehn, K. (2011). The relative effectiveness of human tutoring, intelligent tutoring systems, and other tutoring systems. Educational Psychologist, 46(4), 197–221. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2011.611369
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