How AI is Giving Teaching Back Its Soul

Teaching wasn’t always a total sh*t show.

There was a time when teachers were regarded as highly as doctors and lawyers.

You don’t have to look back far to remember.

Some of the greatest teachers in history were also the keenest philosophical minds of the day, educating people in ways today’s system has entirely forgotten.

• Socrates: The Greek philosopher who taught by questioning, not lecturing. Instead of feeding students’ answers, he challenged them to think, debate, and discover truth for themselves.
• Gandhi: The social activist who rejected rigid, colonial schooling. He believed education should be about self-discovery, hands-on learning, and shaping character - not just remembering facts.
• Maria Montessori: The rebellious educator who proved that students learn best through experience. She pioneered student-led learning, where curiosity, independence, and real-world engagement drive education.

Socrates, Gandhi, and Montessori - visionary educators who showed us what learning could be… if we hadn’t completely ruined it (which we did).

Now imagine THEM drowning in grading, buried under paperwork, and too exhausted to teach with purpose.

That’s the tragic reality for today’s educators.

No wonder there’s a HUGE teacher shortage in the US!

For centuries teaching was a lauded art.

Educators were mentors, guides and the souls of learning itself. Somewhere along the way, we lost the essence of that idea.

I think we traded it in for a fast-food version of teaching that promised speed and efficiency, but just ended up making everyone sick, and tired.

The good news is that it’s switching back.

Thanks to AI and a new educational concept called hybrid learning - it’s finally returning teachers to their original vocation: mentorship, connection and creativity.

Here’s how AI is reviving education, why hybrid learning is the future you don’t want to miss, and how you can lead the charge in the AI-powered classroom. Educators, this one’s for you.

The Slow Death of Traditional Education: RIP

So, how is AI changing traditional education?

To understand that we need a quick recap on reality. It’s not being overly dramatic to say education in the US is in a state of crisis.

Pay for Educators Makes No Sense

Sure, nominal pay has increased nationwide, but inflation adjusted pay has dropped by 5% since 2018. It’s so common that there’s a term for it: the teacher pay penalty. A literal penalty for choosing teaching instead of another profession!

That’s messed up.

This gap between teacher pay and what other professionals earn hit a record high in 2022 – 26.4%. So… teachers earn 74c for every buck their peers make.

Teachers are out here broke AF. They can’t afford to pay their bills or their student loans. The people teaching the kids of America can’t afford to live.

One third of teachers take on second and third jobs!

Your flabbers should be ghasted – that’s the appropriate reaction.  

I had a friend called Alice who immigrated to the US some years ago, and we lost touch. Now I realize because she’s a teacher they’ll probably just find her charred remains beneath a teetering pile of grading papers someday.

The traditional school system in the US takes people with a passion for learning and snuffs out their ability to teach. Passion is not a paycheck, and it runs out.

Educators are Skedaddling at Alarming Rates

It’s true.

It doesn’t take long for a highly educated teacher to realize they’ve scored a bad deal. Teachers are leaving the profession faster than they can be replaced.

That’s 1 in 12 who throw in the towel and quit every year. And in high-poverty districts, the ones really underpaying their teachers – that rate is more like 12-14%.

It’s not just the actual leaving – it’s wanting to leave. A heartbreaking 55% of educators say they’re considering leaving earlier than planned.

The stress and burnout is too much for them.

People Don’t Want to BE Teachers

Teaching is a vocation.

It was hard before the pay suffocation, the unnatural workloads and the vanishing budgets. It was a challenge before overcrowded classrooms and bureaucracy squeezed every drop of patience and passion from staff.

Now the teacher pipeline is running dry – and we only have ourselves to blame. Enrolment in teaching programs is WAY down. It’s plunged in the last decade by 40%.

College kids don’t want that #trauma life.

There are currently 55,000 vacancies and 406,000 classrooms led by underqualified teachers – because supply can’t keep up with demand.  

Here we are.

No-one wants to be a teacher. Education is losing great people on the reg – and the ones who stay are sacrificing themselves to a broken system.

Crisis perhaps isn’t a strong enough word.

What happens to the kids when there’s no-one left to teach them?

AI – used correctly – is the nationwide system reboot education desperately needs.

Hybrid Learning and The Great Teaching Revival

I’ve spoken about what teaching used to be and outlined where we are now.

Our fast-food education system was built for scale, not for quality. It was designed to churn out same-same students of magnificent mediocrity, and it’s leaving teachers burned out and students starved of real learning.

Just like cheap meals filled with plastic and preservatives, the system is outdated, over-processed, and FAILING the people it was meant to serve.

It’s time for something better.

And that better system is called hybrid learning.

It delicately and expertly picks out the great parts of traditional teaching, and combines it with new technology, and new models, to REPAIR the system.

For centuries, teaching was about mentorship, wisdom, and human connection. Then, bureaucracy took over. But now, AI and hybrid learning are handing teaching back to its rightful owners: teachers.

What is Hybrid Learning?

Neatly defined, hybrid learning (or blended learning) is a teaching model that combines the best of both worlds - technology-driven instruction and human-led teaching.

It blends AI-powered tools, remote resources, and adaptive learning systems with in-person mentorship, creativity, and real-world skill development to create a more personalized, flexible, and effective education experience.

In other words:

• Hybrid Learning = AI-Powered Academic Efficiency + Human-Led Teaching

What Does This Look Like in Practice?

Crossover hires for the most amazing group of schools rolling out the hybrid learning model nationwide in the US – right now.

These are schools using this new model and achieving amazing results.

The reason why is simple: They didn’t slap AI onto a broken system - they rebuilt school from the ground up with AI and remote tech at the core.

Modern progress isn’t an add-on, it’s the very foundation.

1. Academic learning for 2 hours a day

An AI tutor that uses adaptive learning technology to personalize the learning experience, helps kids learn twice as fast – in only 2 hours a day.

This solves a lot of modern problems:

• Eliminates Admin for Teachers: No more lesson planning, test creation, or grading. AI handles the paperwork so teachers can focus on real teaching.
• Reduces Classroom Chaos: Students aren’t forced to sit still for 7-hour long lectures. After just 2 hours of AI-driven learning, they’re free to move around, explore ideas, build cool things and engage in other hands-on activities.
• Delivers Elite-Level Learning: Personalized AI instruction puts students in the top 1-2% across all subjects. At Alpha School for example, top students improve 3.9X faster, while every student sees at least 2.2X growth.

Needless to say - from kindergarten to high school, AI tutors are HIGHLY effective.

…where do the teachers come in?

Officially – nowhere. We’ve done away with the idea of traditional teaching.

BUT! Inspired by the older, better way of teaching that taps into the lessons around debate, self-discovery and exploration taught by Socrates, Gandhi and Maria Montessori – we now have guides.

2. Guides and school leadership

And guides ARE teachers – as they once were, not as they are now.

• Elite Pay for Elite Educators: Guides earn far above the national average, rewarding them for inspiring, mentoring, and shaping future leaders.
• No Bureaucracy, Just Real Teaching: No red tape, pointless admin, or outdated policies. Guides are free to be creative, expressive, and truly help students thrive - no matter the cost.
• Preparing Students for the Real World: More than teachers, Guides are mentors and motivators, ensuring every student develops critical thinking, leadership, and life-ready skills.

It’s a new model, and it’s growing FAST. We exist to disrupt the current broken education system, and to replace it with something that once again serves everyone.

Yes, we get criticized a lot. Nothing is perfect – but at least our schools have been willing to step forward and pioneer a better model.

And for teachers – it is life-changing!

MacKenzie Price leads the charge in this education rebellion.

We’re leading the great teaching revival, and it’s well overdue. Teachers deserve to be passionate, well-paid, widely loved guides again.

They deserve our greatest respect.

3 Steps to Becoming an Advocate for Hybrid Learning

So, you see - AI isn’t going to make things worse for teachers.

It’s going to disrupt the broken and twisted profession of teaching, melting it down and reforging it in the fires of AI innovation.

If you’re a teacher or an educator – you can help us create this future by embracing hybrid learning and being an advocate for change.

Here’s how:

Step 1: Embrace AI as Your Teaching Assistant (Not Your Enemy)

AI is only as transformative as we allow it to be.

I get it, traditional teaching has put you on the defense. So much has been taken from you already. But we can choose to embrace technology for what it is – a tool to make broken systems better.

• Two out of every three educators haven’t used AI in the classroom
• Only 2% of you are using it regularly
• 37% swore blind they’d never, ever use AI

Don’t allow yourself to be caught up in the mistakes of the past. AI is an incredible teaching assistant. What it can do for you (and the kids) will rock your world!

Learnwith.AI for example, uses AI to gamify learning – tapping into mentors of the past like Einstein, Isaac Newton, Marie Curie and Frida Kahlo, to educate kids.

Hot Tip! Start using AI tools in your classroom. Get creative and see how this new technology can already make your life easier. Build your AI skill sets!

Step 2: Reimagine Your Role (From Instructor to Guide)

The smartest educators focus on what AI can’t teach.

Along with building up your AI skills, you should adopt a mindset shift. AI can deliver things like facts and formulas better than we ever could.

But creativity, critical thinking, leadership and human connection are all part of your domain as a Guide. Your job is to think less like a lecturer, and more like a mentor.

No more parroting work. Think application – and how kids can apply knowledge, solve real world problems and discover who they really are.

Hot Tip! Learn about the ‘jagged frontier’ – and how to think and apply AI’s strengths to your own. It can’t replace human expertise, but it can amplify them.

Find out more about guides and lead guides here.

Step 3: Join Us and Lead the Rebellion

Hybrid learning is becoming every educator’s best career move.

You need a career adjustment, but it’s up to you how soon that happens. The data has shown us that there are thousands of highly educated, ultra smart teachers that want to shift careers into EdTech.

If this sounds like a mission you can get behind, we want you.

• Teachers to engineers
• Teachers to guides
• Teachers to school leadership positions
• Teachers to ops, marketing – you name it.

We’re looking for the teachers who ooze revolution and live the vocation – but don’t want to sacrifice their time, financial security or future to a thankless, feckless system.

And we’re hiring for fully remote, in-person and hybrid roles. Because of the nature of the new system – these models combine to get the absolute best out of education.

Most schools have staff with roles in all three.

Hot Tip! Explore our schools and see if you align with our mission. Check out Alpha School, 2 Hour Learning, Devoted Dreamers and Texas Sports Academy.

Reclaiming the Soul of Teaching

AI really is giving teaching back its soul - and we want you to be a part of that.

Remember why you started – why you were called to teach in the first place.

Not to fill out brain-numbing paperwork. Or teach to a test. Or be denied budget yet again for something important.

You became an educator to inspire, to guide, and to make a difference.

The system hasn’t been kind to you. Help us change it!

Together we can reclaim teaching and make it an honorable profession again.

Education was never meant to be a lifeless checklist of facts. It was meant to ignite something greater.

After all, it was Socrates who once said:

"Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel."

It’s time to move from burnout to the rekindling of that flame. The world needs light – and it’s our Guides who should burn the brightest.

Not to be consumed, but to pass that light on - to spark curiosity, ignite potential, and illuminate the path for the next generation.

So that when the time comes, they don’t wander aimlessly in the dark.

They light the way for all of us.

Join the education rebellion – apply now!