On today’s episode Priyanka will be speaking with Tom Hobson, also known as “Teacher Tom”.

Teacher Tom is an early childhood educator, education consultant and author. He’s best known for his blog called “Teacher Tom’s Blog” where he has posted daily for over 13 years about his experiences teaching young children. 

Tom is a passionate proponent of play based pedagogy and he’s written two books on the subject. The first book is called “Teacher Tom’s First Book” and we'll let you guess the name of his second book. 

In this discussion Tom and Priyanka talk about many subjects: from play based learning to cooperative schools to building a community for your child. 

They talk about risky play and why it just might be more risky to avoid it. 

Tom talks about his way of dealing with kids who are bickering. Very helpful.

Tom explains why there are only 3 things that adults do better than children.

There’s a lot to learn in this episode. Alan couldn’t be there in person to talk with Tom because of schedules, and Priyanka was flying solo on this one.

Here's more info about Teacher Tom:

• Teacher Tom's Website

• Teacher Tom's Blog

• Upcoming Courses

• Teacher Tom's Books on Amazon (you can also buy them directly from him on his site)

Today’s guest is Mark Bauerlein, Professor of English at Emory University, where he has taught since earning his PhD in English at UCLA in 1989.  He is the author of several books, including The Dumbest Generation: How the Digital Age Stupefies Young Americans and Jeopardizes Our Future.

He has also worked as a director of Research and Analysis at the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversaw studies about culture and American life, including the much discussed Reading at Risk: A Survey of Literary Reading in America.  His commentaries and reviews have appeared in many publications including the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, and the New York Times.

 We had the good fortune to get a preview copy of his latest book bearing the provocative title The Dumbest Generation Grows up, which will be released on February 1st.  Backed by years of research and anecdotal evidence, The Dumbest Generation Grows Up offers astute observations into the Millennial Generation which came of age during the "Internet Revolution."  According to Professor Bauerlein, while compared to their predecessors, Millennials may have had more access to information, they ultimately lack the skills, knowledge, religion, and a cultural frame of reference, due in part to the failings of the American education system, leaving them purposeless and unfulfilled.  Mark Bauerlein joins us today for a thought-provoking and provocative conversation.

Mark's upcoming book can be found HERE.

His Twitter: @mark_bauerlein

On November 10th, we came across an op ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “What Homeschoolars Are Doing Right”, which you can imagine immediately got our attention.

What? We’re doing something right? Can’t be. Gotta read this article.

In the article, the authors Brendan Case and Ying Chen, both social scientists at Harvard, discuss the results of an 11 year study which followed 12,000 children in public and private schools as well as homeschooled kids and measured their long term outcomes in terms of education attainment, mental health and social integration.

Case and Chen conclude from the study that homeschoolers have a significant advantage vis-a-vis schooled kids in terms of health, happiness and virtue, to the extent those things can be accurately measured by social scientists. They looked at things like:

• Rates of volunteering

• Likelihood of attending religious services

• Likelihood to articulate a sense of purpose in life

• Levels of being “forgiving”

• Amount of marijuana use, among other things.

There was only one area where homeschoolers seemed to lag behind schooled kids, and we’ll get to that in the podcast itself, so you have to listen.

Interestingly, the study found no significant differences between kids who go to public school, private school and religious schools. The only kids who stood out, in a positive sense, were kids who are homeschooled. Interesting.

To help us sort through this study, we’ve invited one of the article's authors to join us on the show today. 

His name is Brendan Case and he’s the Associate Director of Research at Harvard’s Human Flourishing Program. Dr. Case got his PhD at Duke Divinity School. He’s the author of two books, the most recent of which is called “The Accountable Animal: Justice, Justification and Judgment.” 

Here's a LINK to Dr. Case’s blog post on this subject.

Totally unexpectedly, Brendan will be joined by his wife Alysse. As fate would have it, Brendan and Alysse homeschool their 4 children ages 7, 5, 3 and 1 and hopefully, we’ll get around to talking with them about how it’s going.

Today we’ve invited Michael McShane to the podcast to discuss something called "Hybrid Homeschooling."  What exactly is hybrid homeschooling and does it use less gas than regular homeschooling, that is the question of the day.

Mike is the Director of Research at EdChoice, which is a non profit dedicated to expanding educational choice for parents around the country. Their website is EdChoice.org if you want to look them up.

Mike used to teach English at St. Jude’s Catholic school in Montgomery, Alabama, and there he got inspired to get his masters degree in Education from the University of Notre Dame, then his PhD from the University of Arkansas.

He recently wrote a book called “Hybrid Homeschooling: A Guide to the Future of Education” which really caught our attention. 

First of all, we love that someone is writing about Homeschooling and second, we love investigating new and creative, outside the box, ways of turbocharging what we are already doing to accomplish more for our kids. 

Mike graciously accepted our invitation to come on the podcast and talk to us about his concept of hybrid homeschooling and how it’s being used by parents around the country to give their kids the best possible educational experience.

You can follow Mike on Twitter at @MQ_McShane.

If you would like to ask a question about the topics discussed in this episode and have it aired on a future podcast, just email us an audio file of you asking the question: [email protected].

Lenore Skenazy is the author of Free Range Kids: how parents and teachers can let go and let grow.

Lenore runs "Let Grow", a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting childhood independence through school programs as well through advocacy work to shift the legal boundaries of what's allowable in local communities.

Lenore also has her own podcast called "Free Range Kids with Lenore Skenazy"

We discuss:
• The rewards of free-range parenting, for our kids and for us
• What stops us from giving out children the independence which our parents offered us a generation ago
• The mental framework which keeps us trapped in a "worst first" attitude of focusing mostly on the worst possible scenario and limiting our kids based on that.
• How the illusion of control keeps us trapped.

You can reach Lenore at [email protected].

If you would like to ask a question about the topics discussed in this episode and have it aired on a future podcast, just email us an audio file of you asking the question: [email protected]

Priyanka and Alan interview Dr. Peter Gray, author of Free to Learn, one of the classic motivational texts in the world of Homeschooling, and one of the books which launched us on our homeschooling journey.

We discuss:
• What is the Sudbury Valley School and why do kids thrive there
• How kids really learn to read
• Why higher level math isn't important for everyone to learn
• Why video games might actually be good for the brain
• Why the pandemic was a blessing in disguise for families with kids in school

So bring your paradigm with you and get ready to have it shifted by Dr. Gray's educational insights!

To order Free to Learn, click HERE.

To read Dr. Gray's blog on Psychology Today, click HERE.

Priyanka talks about some of her struggles with homeschooling and parenting in general.
What is "one man band syndrome" and is there a cure for this condition?
Alan talks about channeling Mr. Rogers, leaving his phone at home and why these might just be the good old days in disguise.

If you would like to ask a question about the topics discussed in this episode and have it aired on a future podcast, just email us an audio file of you asking the question: [email protected]

In this episode, Priyanka discusses how she taught our kids to read, why she believes in having tons of physical books all around the house and what the value is of stacking books in vertical piles.  Alan talks about the pitfalls of "Compare and Despair."

If you would like to ask a question about the topics discussed in this episode and have it aired on a future podcast, just email us an audio file of you asking the question: [email protected]

In this episode, Priyanka and Alan grapple with their no (low) media policy. Should the kids be watching movies, TV, playing video games and other electronic media? What are the benefits and tradeoffs at stake in this decision? They don't have all the answers, but they do have a lot of  questions! 

If you want to reach out to us by email: [email protected]

NEW: Priyanka reflects on many of these issues on her new Substack: PriyankaWolan.substack.com

In the first episode, Priyanka and Alan introduce themselves and discuss how they got introduced to the world of homeschooling.

If you'd like to reach out to us with questions or suggestions, free free to email us at:
[email protected].