AI in schools - Interview w/ Tory Thompson

<p>In this episode, Drew sits down with <strong>Tory Thompson</strong>, Head of School at <strong>Elysium School of Innovation</strong> — a hybrid micro school in Huntersville, NC. Students are in the classroom two days a week, learning remotely two days, and out in the world on &quot;field experience&quot; Fridays, at a 10-to-1 ratio. Tory&#39;s path to running a school started with her own son: one of the brightest kids she knew, quietly failing fourth grade in a traditional classroom. When the hybrid program that turned him around got shut down, she built her own.</p><p>Tory and Drew get into what education actually looks like in the age of AI — not as a threat to be managed, but as the first real chance to teach every kid at their own level.</p><p>The conversation explores:</p><ul><li>Why the problem isn&#39;t the kids or the teachers, it&#39;s <strong>the architecture</strong> — a system designed for the industrial revolution</li><li><strong>Guardrails vs. barriers</strong>: the three layers of protection Tory uses at home and at school, and why blocking everything is the wrong instinct</li><li><strong>Cognitive amplifier vs. cognitive offload</strong> — and how to tell which one your kid is actually doing</li><li>Why the student who hacked the school iPad got praised instead of punished</li><li>How testing has to change: &quot;I know you&#39;re going to use AI. Now tell me what questions you asked and where they took you.&quot;</li><li>Financial literacy and real-life skills — a sixth grader researching mutual funds instead of writing another book report</li><li>Why AI won&#39;t replace teachers, but teachers who refuse to use it will be outdated</li><li>Protecting childhood: the two-hour screen limit and &quot;this is their one childhood and my one motherhood&quot;</li></ul><p>If you&#39;re a parent trying to prepare your kids for a world that&#39;s changing faster than the curriculum, or an educator trying to figure out where AI actually fits, this one is worth your time.</p><p><strong>Chapters</strong><br>00:00 – Intro: what a hybrid micro school actually is<br>02:05 – Tory&#39;s path: teacher, tutoring company, four kids<br>04:20 – COVID, homeschooling, and a bright kid struggling<br>09:06 – From failing fourth grade to the top 9% in the state<br>11:22 – The program gets cancelled, so she builds her own school<br>15:52 – 4,000 missing middle school seats and the hybrid model<br>18:17 – Every new tool starts as a threat: AI as the great equalizer<br>20:38 – Foundations first: hallucinations and verifying the source<br>22:57 – What guardrails actually look like<br>25:09 – &quot;He hacked the game I made him&quot;<br>29:48 – Protecting childhood and giving family time back<br>32:02 – Progress over perfection: 1.5x growth in three months<br>34:24 – Teaching financial literacy: lemonade stands and mutual funds<br>39:01 – &quot;The valedictorian is often just the best cheater&quot;<br>43:43 – AI won&#39;t replace teachers, it will outdate the ones who ignore it<br>46:00 – Scaling micro schools, community, and being known<br>50:36 – The &quot;Age of Innovation&quot;: the stuff we wish we&#39;d been taught<br>55:14 – 700 reports in an hour: amplify, don&#39;t offload</p><p><strong>Connect w/ Tory &amp; Elysium School of Innovation:</strong><br><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/tory-thompson/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/tory-thompson/</a><br><a href="https://elysiumschools.org">https://elysiumschools.org</a><br>Instagram: @elysiumschools</p><p><strong>Connect w/ Drew &amp; StealthX:</strong><br><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhburdick/">https://www.linkedin.com/in/drewhburdick/</a><br><a href="https://stealthx.co">https://stealthx.co</a></p>