The hottest Alternative Education Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Education Topics

A Third Way for the Humanities

Justin E. H. Smith's Hinternet • 8156 implied HN points • 08 Mar 26
🚌 Education Alternative Education
  1. Universities have hollowed out traditional humanities: economic pressures, corporate influence, and technologies like AI have pushed departments toward market‑driven, business‑school models that prevent professors from teaching deep humanistic formation.
  2. The main intellectual responses—shrill “myth‑busting” critique and crude nationalist “myth‑making”—both miss the point and produce narrow, self‑defeating approaches that break the humanities’ broad, comparative, and democratic purpose.
  3. The real remedy is to build parallel, independent initiatives and community institutions that treat the humanities as a practice of self‑cultivation and collective study of cultural traditions, not merely as credentialing or corporate training.

The Hinternet Foundation

Justin E. H. Smith's Hinternet • 933 implied HN points • 08 Feb 26
🚌 Education Alternative Education
  1. A new nonprofit has been launched to protect and promote humanistic creativity in an AI-driven world, acting as a sober, programmatic counterpart to a more playful publication.
  2. In 2026 the group will run small, selective programs — an online summer school, paid fall courses, and a Paris summit — with limited spots, application deadlines, and modest fees.
  3. The initiative responds to a perceived failure of universities by building para-academic communities, adapting technology rather than rejecting it, and using boutique publishing and courses to sustain humanistic inquiry.

University and State

In My Tribe • 1093 implied HN points • 28 Nov 24
🚌 Education Alternative Education
  1. Government involvement in higher education often leads to a focus on pleasing officials rather than genuinely educating students. This can create a cycle that stifles diverse ideas.
  2. There are too many people going to college instead of exploring other options like trade schools or apprenticeships. We need to rethink and expand our education paths.
  3. Instead of just making universities hire more conservative professors, we should consider cutting funding for traditional higher education altogether, and instead support alternative educational models.

Innocence Lost

Becoming Noble • 538 implied HN points • 11 Aug 23
🚌 Education Alternative Education
  1. Children's childhoods are being sacrificed to the education machine, making them lose their innocence to endless hours of schooling and homework.
  2. The modern education system forces a desperate rat race where exceptional grades are paramount, disadvantaging many groups and perpetuating progressive control.
  3. To revolutionize hiring and education, businesses must embrace efficient cognitive aptitude tests to ensure fair selection processes and better predict job performance.
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They Have Different DNA

Outlandish Claims • 79 implied HN points • 11 Apr 24
🚌 Education Alternative Education
  1. Children often struggle to learn in traditional school settings compared to other environments where they excel.
  2. John Holt's book 'How Children Fail' discusses the challenges of traditional education and the impact on students' learning processes.
  3. School structures, fear of failure, and boredom can hinder children's intrinsic motivation to learn and impact their long-term relationship with education.

Short, Affordable Alternatives to College

The Future of Education • 218 implied HN points • 02 Mar 23
🚌 Education Alternative Education
  1. Over 50 million people in the US are in low-wage jobs with limited career mobility and education.
  2. Innovative programs like Merit America and Marcy Lab School provide affordable, supportive, and career-focused alternatives to traditional college.
  3. These alternatives rethink college costs, advocate for federal financial aid eligibility, and prioritize a no-excuses mindset for student success.

The opposite of school

Thoughts on Writing • 419 implied HN points • 07 Oct 21
🚌 Education Alternative Education
  1. The family chose 'unschooling' as a way for their child to follow his interests and instincts, rather than sticking to traditional schooling.
  2. The decision to unschool was influenced by their child's diagnosis of autism, which made the school system challenging for him.
  3. Reading a book on self-directed education played a significant role in convincing the family that unschooling was a hopeful alternative to traditional schooling.