{"id":8775,"date":"2019-02-14T22:35:30","date_gmt":"2019-02-14T22:35:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/blog\/stossel-a-better-school\/"},"modified":"2019-02-14T22:35:30","modified_gmt":"2019-02-14T22:35:30","slug":"stossel-a-better-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/tech\/stossel-a-better-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Stossel: A Better School"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"270\" src=\"\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/mdL8VCcN0IE\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Kids do real work at a new kind of school.<\/p>\n<p>&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<br \/>\nSubscribe to our YouTube channel: http:\/\/youtube.com\/reasontv<br \/>\nLike us on Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Reason.Magazine<br \/>\nFollow us on Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/reason<br \/>\nSubscribe to our podcast at iTunes: https:\/\/goo.gl\/az3a7a<\/p>\n<p>Reason is the planet&#8217;s leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won&#8217;t get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.<br \/>\n&#8212;&#8212;&#8212;<\/p>\n<p>3 million kids (mostly boys) are given medication that&#8217;s supposed to make them sit still and focus.<\/p>\n<p>But what if schools, not kids, are the problem?<\/p>\n<p>One former public school student, Cade Summers, tells John Stossel that he hated the effect of the drugs&#8211;that it was like he had been &#8220;lobotomized.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Cade&#8217;s parents took him off the &#8220;attention deficit&#8221; drugs and sent him to other schools. But Cade hated them all. &#8220;I would come home and I would sometimes just cry,&#8221; Cade tells Stossel.<\/p>\n<p>Then he heard of a new type of school in Austin, Texas. It promised to let kids discuss ideas, and to do real-world work.<\/p>\n<p>But the school, the Academy of Thought and Industry, is a private school that charges tuition.<\/p>\n<p>So Cade started getting up at 3 a.m. to work in a coffee shop to help pay the tuition.<\/p>\n<p>What kind of school could possibly be worth that to a kid?<\/p>\n<p>The school&#8217;s founder, Michael Strong, says kids learn best when they are given actual responsibility, real life work. &#8220;Teens need responsibility&#8230;Ben Franklin, Andrew Carnegie, Thomas Edison, started their careers at the age of 12 or 13,&#8221; he points out.<\/p>\n<p>Nowadays people consider that abusive child labor, Stossel notes.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I worked as a teen,&#8221; Strong replies. &#8220;I loved it. Teens very often want to work.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Strong&#8217;s schools do many things differently. Students get Fridays off to work on their own projects. School starts at 10 a.m. There are no lectures&#8211;instead students read, and then discuss what they read.<\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s different from schools Strong once attended&#8211;and hated.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;School is 13 years of how to be passive, how to be dependent,&#8221; Strong tells Stossel.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;School is about aim, aim, aim, aim, aim, and never get stuff done. So I want students who just go out there and get stuff done, fail, get up, try again. That&#8217;s how we become creators, entrepreneurs&#8230;We want them to do what they love now.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>For Cade, that meant doing a marketing internship Fridays, where he did actual work.<\/p>\n<p>When he completed Strong&#8217;s school, he got a job right away&#8211;at a tech startup that normally requires a college degree.<\/p>\n<p>Another Academy graduate runs a successful metal music festival called &#8220;Austin Terror Fest.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>All kids at Strong&#8217;s schools work on some kind of project.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m currently working on making a web-based chat application,&#8221; one boy told us. &#8220;I wanna be a programmer. I love programming&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>A girl at the school works at a paintball range on weekends. &#8220;If they love paintball, then they should do a business in that,&#8221; says Strong.<\/p>\n<p>Most of his students also end up going to college. Strong points out, &#8220;We&#8217;ve had students admitted to top liberal arts colleges. Bard, Bennington &#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Of course they do well,&#8221; Stossel interrupts. &#8220;You&#8217;re charging fat tuition. Only rich kids can afford to go there and they&#8217;re going to do well.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The kind of kids that we get come from all walks of life,&#8221; Strong responds. &#8220;We had a student from New Jersey&#8230;he was incapable of functioning in the highly structured public school systems&#8230;in the public schools needed a full time aide&#8230;He was costing the state an enormous amount of money. He came to our school&#8230;He did not need an aide.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Coming here is just healing. It&#8217;s incredible,&#8221; that student, Josh, told us.<\/p>\n<p>Strong hopes his schools will be a model for other schools that let kids learn through real world work.<\/p>\n<p>That approach works so much better for some kid that they willingly wake up at 3 a.m. to go to work to help pay tuition.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It was me choosing my life,&#8221; Cade says.<\/p>\n<p>The views expressed in this video are solely those of John Stossel; his independent production company, Stossel Productions; and the people he interviews. The claims and opinions set forth in the video and accompanying text are not necessarily those of Reason.<\/p>\n<h3>More info on Stossel: A Better School<\/h3>\n<div class=\"ss-local-rss\"><div class=\"rss_header\"><h2><a href=\"https:\/\/cn.bing.com\/news\/search\/?q=Stossel%3A+A+Better+School&amp;qft=sortbydate%3D%221%22&amp;format=rss\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\"rss_title\">Stossel: A Better School - BingNews<\/a><br \/><span class=\"rss_description\"> Search results<\/span><\/h2><\/div><ul>\n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Ftulsaworld.com%2Farticle_2f43e264-7d00-5a26-8b7a-467d63f664a4.html&amp;c=5497843383256695284&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tAlabama lawmakers vote to create new high school focused on healthcare, science\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) \u2014 Alabama lawmakers on Thursday gave final approval to legislation creating a new high school focused on preparing students for careers in healthcare, science and technology. The ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.realclearscience.com%2Farticles%2F2024%2F04%2F26%2Frestorative_reproductive_medicine_is_a_better_way_to_tackle_infertility_1027608.html%23!&amp;c=12034408832589089464&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tIn Vitro Fertilization Has Problems. Restorative Reproductive Medicine Is a Better Way to Tackle Infertility\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Here is a thought experiment for \u201cNational Infertility Awareness Week\u201d: imagine in vitro fertilization (IVF) did not exist, and the only solution for couples facing infertility was to opti ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.yahoo.com%2Fnews%2Flook-back-hope-empowered-teachers-101517154.html&amp;c=1001718377445797060&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tLook back at Hope: Empowered teachers, teams change schools | Opinion\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Lots of people have opinions on how schools can work better. Most recently, in their commentary, Sen. Jessica de la Cruz and Cesar Grajales (\u201cRI students should attend the school that meets ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Ftownhall.com%2Fcolumnists%2Fmichaelbarone%2F2024%2F04%2F19%2Fmaybe-larger-families-will-produce-better-leaders-as-in-the-early-us-n2637991&amp;c=15643295583214944223&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tMaybe Larger Families Will Produce Better Leaders, as in the Early US\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Calhoun, whose grandmother in upcountry South Carolina was killed in a Cherokee raid and who was sent to Yale College and, subsequently, law school in Connecticut. Similarly, James A. Garfield ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsmv.com%2F2024%2F04%2F18%2Fnashville-teacher-threatens-shoot-up-preschool-police-say%2F&amp;c=17585942163042814026&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNashville teacher threatens to \u2018shoot up\u2019 preschool, police say\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>At about 11 a.m., Metro officers on MNPD\u2019s Rapid School Safety Team were dispatched ... \u201cwhen I start shooting, you better run,\u201d police said. Cowart initially denied this claim, police ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.star-telegram.com%2Fnews%2Flocal%2Feducation%2Farticle287764840.html&amp;c=10112266890996734840&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tFort Worth parents allege toddler son neglected at school, call for better child care\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Jordan and Josiah Lyle removed their almost-3-year-old son, Beckham, from the Montessori School on Camp Bowie almost two weeks ago after they said they no longer felt that he was in a safe ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fabc11.com%2Fdurham-association-of-educators-teacher-advocacy-group-union-dae%2F14689951%2F&amp;c=8015216496720854602&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tDurham educators' advocacy group pushes for better pay as Durham Public Schools proposes next budget\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) -- Durham interim superintendent Catty Moore laid out the plans for the next school year in a proposed budget that asks for $26 million from Durham County Commissioners.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fsports.yahoo.com%2Fcould-washington-high-school-sports-162909721.html&amp;c=2485711470609810993&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tCould Washington high school sports see a transfer portal?\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>However, it's a trend that Washington athletics officials are wary of extending to the high school level. The WIAA emphasizes the importance of prioritizing academics and expresses concerns that ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.nysun.com%2Farticle%2Fnew-york-taxpayers-are-getting-cheated-by-albany-democrats-as-empire-states-economic-prospects-plunge&amp;c=14022288358465789621&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tNew York Taxpayers Are Getting Cheated by Albany Democrats, as Empire State\u2019s Economic Prospects Plunge\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Check out union work rules, for starters. More money also doesn\u2019t buy better schools. New Yorkers spend the most per pupil \u2014 a whopping $26,571, compared with a national average of $14,347. Ms. Hochul ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cityam.com%2Fteenagers-are-learning-about-sex-from-pornography-schools-must-do-better%2F&amp;c=4107584860648794257&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tTeenagers are learning about sex from pornography \u2013 schools must do better\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>But schools are also letting children down when ... they all need to be much better informed on crucial health issues than they currently are. I was appalled to read in the Sex Education Forum ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            \n            <li>\t\t\t\t<span class=\"title\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bing.com\/news\/apiclick.aspx?ref=FexRss&amp;aid=&amp;tid=66362ba4e6f645b4bb38412482be6dc8&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.army.mil%2Farticle%2F275397%2Fbetter_late_than_never&amp;c=13401703804462269461&amp;mkt=en-us\" rel=\"nofollow\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBetter Late Than Never\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<p>Even though he moved to Tennessee in search of better schools for his children a decade ago, Doak still represents long-time clients back in his hometown of Freeport, Illinois. \u201cI like making my ...<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<\/li>\n            <\/ul> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kids do real work at a new kind of school. &#8212;&#8212;&#8212; Subscribe to our YouTube channel: http:\/\/youtube.com\/reasontv Like us on Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Reason.Magazine Follow us on Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/reason Subscribe to our podcast at iTunes: https:\/\/goo.gl\/az3a7a Reason is the planet&#8217;s leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8776,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1871,909,4309],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/mdL8VCcN0IE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8775"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8775\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8776"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.austinshortfilm.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}