How Screens, Schooling & AI Shape Today’s Kids and Careers ft. Michael Horn | Navigating Wealth
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We spoke to Michael Horn on this week’s episode of Navigating Wealth.
Michael is a leading education strategist, bestselling author, and advisor whose work focuses on how innovation can reshape learning and workforce readiness. He has written extensively on the future of education, publishes The Future of Education on Substack, and frequently collaborates with school systems, nonprofits, and entrepreneurs navigating the transition to AI-enabled learning environments.
In this conversation, Michael dives into the realities of raising kids in a screen-saturated world, the future of tech in classrooms post-COVID, and how AI is rapidly reshaping both K–12 schooling and the early-career job market. We cover how families can set guardrails on phones and social media, why boredom is essential for child development, what schools misunderstand about technology, and why experiential learning may be the only durable strategy for preparing young people for an AI-driven economy.
We also went deep on: how “wait until eighth” policies work in practice, why phone bans are spreading across U.S. school districts, what project-based learning models like Alpha and Acton get right, and how teens and college students can build real work experience before traditional entry-level jobs disappear.
Key Ideas from This Episode
Guest Snapshot
Name: Michael Horn
Titles: Author, education strategist, innovation researcher
Credentials: Author of multiple books on education and workforce development; publisher of The Future of Education; advisor to schools, nonprofits, and education organizations
Current focus: How technology, AI, and experiential learning are reshaping the future of schooling and early-career work
Additional areas of expertise: Ed-tech adoption, mastery-based learning, project-based models, policy analysis, and advising families on navigating the modern education landscape
How Michael Thinks About Screens, Phones & Kids
The episode opens with a top Long Angle thread: screen time, gaming, and digital habits for kids. Michael emphasizes that family context matters, but he outlines a clear developmental progression he uses with his 11-year-old twins:
Start with minimal, parent-involved screen use in early years
Interactive and social use (like FaceTime with grandparents) matters more than passive entertainment.Gradually introduce autonomy—with firm boundaries
Short daily windows, device-free bedrooms, and parent modeling are core pillars of his approach.Adopt a “wait until eighth” philosophy on phones and social media
Michael sees the primary risk not as the phone itself but the addictive dynamics of social platforms.Support independence without constant digital tethering
His kids navigate the neighborhood freely with no phones; a simple “gab phone” serves as a household landline when needed.
He also highlights the nuance: depending on peer norms, communication tools may be necessary to avoid social exclusion — especially as group texts become default coordination channels.
Why Boredom Is a Feature, Not a Bug
Michael argues that boredom is a privilege and a critical driver of creativity. His kids didn’t use the word “bored” until age 7 or 8 because downtime was a source of exploration rather than frustration. He supports moderate screen time (30–60 minutes a day for younger grades) and celebrates when kids use devices for surprisingly educational or self-directed pursuits.
How Schools Should Use Tech — and What COVID Got Wrong
Michael draws a sharp distinction between layering technology onto the traditional classroom model and redesigning the model itself.
COVID led to the worst version: replicating the classroom on Zoom, often with teachers managing both in-person and virtual students simultaneously — something he calls “the dumbest thing I could imagine” for learning.
Instead, he outlines what effective tech-enabled learning looks like:
Short, targeted bursts (about 30 minutes/day) of mastery-based adaptive learning using tools like Amira or LO
Teacher time spent in small-group instruction, driven by real-time data
More experiential, real-world projects, especially as kids enter middle and high school
Integration with local employers, community organizations, and real work settings
He argues that the real problem isn’t phones — it’s disengagement. Chronic absenteeism and apathy are at all-time highs, and schools are searching for meaningful ways to reengage students.
What Alternative School Models Get Right
Michael discusses the rising interest in models like Alpha, Acton Academy, and Summit Public Schools, which use:
2 hours/day of personalized, mastery-based work
Long blocks of interdisciplinary projects
High autonomy and real-world application
AI-enabled tools with higher mastery thresholds than typical commercial ed-tech products
The approach isn’t entirely new — homeschoolers and micro-schools have used similar models for years — but AI makes the execution more scalable.
AI in Schools: What Should Be Allowed?
Michael distinguishes between:
Purpose-built educational AI tools (appropriate and useful)
General LLMs like ChatGPT/Gemini (easy to misuse as shortcuts)
He notes the inconsistency between schools banning AI and kids using it at home — and argues that assignments themselves need redesigning, not just new rules. This mirrors how calculators were adopted over time: first learn the underlying skill, then use the tool.
Preparing Teens & College Students for an AI-Driven Job Market
With AI automating many entry-level tasks, Michael believes the traditional “first job” is changing rapidly.
He offers two core recommendations:
Get real work experience earlier
Not more academic camps. Real projects, apprenticeships, entrepreneurial attempts, or hands-on internships.Learn how to make trade-offs in the job market
Many college grads don’t know how to evaluate opportunities or understand what skills map to real-world roles.
He emphasizes that teens today also have less early work exposure than any previous generation — a structural disadvantage that must be corrected.
Other Quotes Worth Sitting With
A few lines that capture Michael’s worldview:
“Boredom is a privilege. It’s an opportunity to be creative and sit in your own head.”
“COVID was the worst of all worlds — we put the traditional model online and expected it to work.”
“If you use technology to slightly improve what you already have, it’s probably not going to work. You have to change the model first.”
“AI is automating the entry-level. The traditional first rung on the ladder may not exist for this generation.”
“We’ve let kids into the online world with very little supervision — and overcorrected with too much supervision in the offline world.”
Links You Might Find Valuable
All of these came up directly in the episode:
Join Long Angle Community - A private, vetted community of accomplished wealth builders.
Michael Horn’s Substack – The Future of Education newsletter.
MichaelBHorn.com – Michael’s writing, books, and research.
Michael Horn on LinkedIn – Where he shares ongoing analysis of education and workforce trends.
