Austin Scholar #117: How I graduated high school without a teacher
& what your kid can learn from my experience
Hey, y'all!
This week from Austin Scholar...
How I graduated high school without a teacher (& what your kid can learn from my experience)
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been up to…
I truly, genuinely, cannot believe I graduated high school. It's been two days and it hasn't sunk in at all.
What an incredible journey I’ve had. When I walked into a garage in fourth grade and learned that it was my new school, I never would’ve imagined I’d one day be writing a newsletter to thousands of people describing my experience. I am beyond grateful for everything that led to this moment.
It’s hard to put into words the gratitude I feel towards all of you – without whom it wouldn’t be possible for me to be the person I am today.
You have all supported me throughout this crazy journey and I can only hope that I’ve helped you as much as you’ve helped me.
As I transition out of this phase of my life and into the next, I will continue to write about my experiences as an 18-year-old who hasn’t had a teacher since the 4th grade who goes to *shudder* normal college classes. I hope you stay with me on this next exciting journey :)
How I graduated high school without a teacher (& what your kid can learn from my experience)
I took accountability for my education
I knew from the beginning I was entering a weird, new education space. I was embarking on a journey that no one else had been on before. (Literally – I’m in the first true graduating class of my school.)
But it wouldn’t work if I didn’t take accountability for what I was doing. Without a teacher telling me what to do every day, I knew I wouldn't learn anything if I didn’t take accountability for what I was doing.
I took the initiative. I made the decision to do this.
I couldn’t blame other people or circumstances for anything that went wrong. It was my job to do whatever I needed to do to graduate high school.
My education truly became my own. My wins were mine, but so were my losses. And this just made me work harder and harder to ensure those wins – because I knew they were in my control.
By far and away, this was the biggest game-changer for me. This paradigm will make a difference for every high schooler, even if they're in a traditional school.
Talk to your kid about why they want to do well in school – what their wins now will give them later on in life. Let them make decisions about their education and support their dreams.
And if it’s not intuitive for them (because let’s be real, most schools don’t teach this), show your kid how to take control of their education.
I learned how to learn
If you don’t have a teacher, you need to learn how to learn on your own.
When I started at Alpha, I had to pick this skill up fast.
I learned about learning science – spaced repetition, retrieval practice, interleaving, and so much more – to make studying more efficient.
I put together learning plans to ensure I could become an expert in whatever topic I needed.
And most importantly, I learned how I personally learn best – through explaining a concept to someone else. After I got the basic idea down through videos, articles, or practice questions, I would explain that concept either to one of my friends or to my computer (yes, I probably looked a little crazy). Through the explanation process, I was able to fully cement any idea in my brain.
That’s how I learn best.
But every kid is different – and you, as a parent, should help your kid identify both how to learn (broadly) and what method of learning works best for them.
A lot of it comes from exposure to different ideas. Tell them about different learning strategies and talk with them about which they like most.
Show them how to use ChatGPT (with its new -4o update!!) and YouTube to learn concepts on their own – and how to find different books, articles, and documentaries about specific topics to expand their knowledge.
And, of course, encourage them to practice – give them fun topics (like the Six Flags amusement park or Lululemon) and have them learn everything there is to know about it.
They’ll be experts in no time.
I compiled resources before starting
Before every school year, I planned out the courses I was going to take. For example, in my junior year I did AP Statistics, AP Physics 1, AP Literature, US History, and German 3.
Before I even stepped foot in my school building, I created study guides for every single course and curated all of the resources I was going to use to ensure my success.
Not only did this pre-planning help me become familiarized with the material before I started really studying, but it also allowed me to know exactly what to do if I was ever stuck in a course. Whether it was Fiveable or Heimler’s History or AP Daily or albert.io or IXL or Khan Academy, I had everything I needed to succeed.
I used online apps
I didn’t need teachers, because I used online, adaptive, AI-powered apps to learn instead.
These apps allowed me to have a completely personalized education and learn at my own pace. If I was stuck on a topic, I would be able to spend more time mastering it, and if I already knew the concept I was able to skip ahead.
Because of this, I finished Calculus in my sophomore year of high school and started college English classes my senior year. In science and history, which were my weaker points, I stayed pretty “on-track” – because the apps didn’t rush me past content I didn’t understand.
Here are the apps I used the most:
Math
English
History
Science
I believed in myself, even when I failed
When I was in seventh grade, I failed my exams.
I was three years into this new way of learning and I took the state standardized tests for the first time since and I failed them.
I could’ve given up – blamed the system and moved on.
But instead, I took accountability for what I didn’t know. I got better and worked harder to pass these tests. I knew I could do it – I just needed to adjust a few things. So, I started to use more learning science techniques to improve my study sessions (I used Pomodoros, explained the concepts to a friend, and did practice questions right after learning). And pretty soon I started crushing it.
My belief in myself and my unwavering commitment allowed me to succeed.
There were so many times I could’ve given up, but pushing through led me to where I am today.
Parents: your job is to support your kid unconditionally, and show them you believe in them.
If they aren’t doing well in a class, don’t just get upset at them – problem-solve instead.
Work together to find ways to improve. And always tell them they can improve. Your encouragement will help them believe it.
I didn’t complain (I used the Serenity Prayer)
You gain nothing by complaining.
Nothing.
You just make yourself feel terrible and angry.
Because Alpha High is still growing and changing every day, there were things that didn’t work – whether it was a glitch in one of the new apps, or poor organization during an outing.
But I learned that complaining didn’t fix anything. The glitch wasn’t gone any faster and the outing didn’t magically become more fun. I just got upset and annoyed the people around me.
So I started to use the Serenity Prayer to help:
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.
Tell your kid to say this a few times if they get annoyed. It'll help them clear their mind.
I put in the work
There’s no way around it: high school is a lot of work.
But that’s what makes it valuable.
Yes, I stayed at school from 8:30am to 8:30pm day after day; I struggled for hours to understand a Calculus topic (and I still don’t really understand how to solve Taylor Series problems…); I lost sleep and had anxiety and worked my brain too hard. I did hours and hours of schoolwork while my sister was hanging out with her friends.
It was hard.
I struggled.
But I wouldn’t have the achievements I do today without that work. All of those hours were worth it.
And that’s just something your kid will have to accept. Yes, it will be a lot of work, but it will be worth it – the lessons they learn will be endlessly valuable.
I problem-solved my way through my failures
If I ever felt like I failed – if my thoughts were running wild and I had too much energy in my chest and my hands were shaking – I would let myself cry for a little bit, and then I would pick myself back up and start problem-solving.
First, I would write down every issue or failure I had.
For example, I might…
Have a headache
Have failed my practice test on electromagnetism in Physics 2
Not know what to post on Twitter
Feel left out because my friends didn’t invite me to hang out with them
Feel exhausted and sad
After I had my list, I’d write down a direct solution for every problem:
Take Advil and use an ice pack
Make a study plan for tomorrow (watch a video and do practice questions for one hour)
Ask ChatGPT or get inspiration from my friend Grace
Practice radical acceptance – unless I want to start prioritizing hanging out with my friends over studying, I just have to accept that they aren’t going to invite me out as often
Take a shower and then take a nap
Obviously, that wouldn’t have been a good day, even with my problem-solving, but I at least set myself up to have a better day tomorrow.
I raised my standards
You can’t do great things by doing what everyone else is doing.
If you want to get into a school with a 3% acceptance rate, you have to be doing what the top 3% is doing.
It might seem harsh, but you have to strive to be better and better.
If I couldn’t get at least 90% of my practice questions correct before a test, I would keep doing them until I could. If one of my Twitter posts didn’t do well, I would spend twice as much time the next day making a better one.
You can’t settle.
It’s like that story of Jay Williams seeing Kobe Bryant practicing before their game and Kobe practicing for so much longer than Jay and when Jay asked the reason, Kobe said that “I just wanted you to know that no matter how hard you work, I’m willing to work harder than you.”
Work harder. Raise the bar. Achieve your dreams.
Scholar’s Sources: What I’ve been up to…
The Fall Guy is one of the best movies I’ve seen all year. Everyone in your family will enjoy it: great action scenes for the dads and bros, super cute romance for the moms, and hilarious dialogue for the whole family. I absolutely loved this movie – and after watching it, my whole family had interesting conversations about “star power” and why this movie, despite the excellent quality, didn’t do well in its opening weekend. (Of course, this then got into the discussion of the importance of having an audience.) Highly highly recommend watching this movie.
As scary as it is to say, I really have to start preparing for college. I have a busy summer ahead and won’t have a ton of time to find all of the cute decor I want for my dorm. So it’s time to start now. The link above has a super comprehensive list that is separated into a bunch of categories, so it’s easy to understand.
This is a step-by-step guide on how to write an awesome graduation speech, which I definitely used this last week. Despite the very specific theme, the article has a ton of other useful tips on how to give a speech in general – practice in different locations, maintain eye contact, and visualize to name a few.
You can totally go through this list with your kid if they find themselves giving their own valedictorian speech when they graduate :)
Thanks for reading. Go crush the week! See y'all on Sunday.
And that is how David slayed the giant. Well done Austin. I hope that this summer you will do a thousand things that give you joy. ❤️