Have you ever watched a child teach themselves something they really care about?
Maybe it was learning to ride a bike, figuring out a video game, or mastering something they’re really passionate about like painting, coding, building, baking, playing the piano, or even just memorizing obscure animal facts.
When it matters to them, they become laser-focused. Obstacles aren’t frustrating—they’re fuel. They’ll try and fail and try again until they finally get it right.
That drive to learn doesn’t disappear as kids grow older. But it does get buried.
Because from the time they’re four years old, we start telling them what they have to learn. Not why what they’re learning matters, and how it connects to their lives. We just tell them that it’s required.
For the test.
For the grade.
For the box-check.
And make no mistake. Kids are smart—they know when they’re just checking boxes.
So when tools like ChatGPT come along, and they realize the whole thing can be gamed—they use it. Not because they’re lazy or hate learning, but because the system trained them to value credentials over curiosity, and to see education as a hoop-jumping exercise instead of a journey of discovery and self-betterment.
One student quoted in a recent article said most of his college assignments are “hackable by AI,” and that he used ChatGPT to breeze through them with minimal effort. He’s a sophomore at Columbia.
Another admitted to using AI for every single class and said it “changed her life.”
I suspect this is simply the norm in school now, and honestly, I struggle to see it as cheating.
It’s the natural result of a conveyor belt system that sends kids from one institution to the next without ever helping them understand why the things they learn are even worth learning, or how their skills and interests translate into adult pursuits like having a meaningful and prosperous career.
Many (most?) students in college today are there because a guidance counselor said so, because their friends are going, and because their parents still believe college is the golden ticket to success. Parents who haven’t yet figured out that college is actually just a debt trap that offers young people no clear direction and a shrinking ROI.
Of course, there’s a better way.
When kids are given the freedom to pursue knowledge that matters, in an environment that respects their agency and supports their growth, they thrive. They want to learn. They push themselves and seek out answers not because they’re told to—but because they’re invested in a process that they believe has a positive and beneficial outcome.
That’s what real education looks like. And it almost never comes from a system.
It comes from parents who are paying attention. From parents who see their child’s potential and care more about long-term purpose than short-term performance.
This Mother’s Day, we’re honoring the parents who choose this better way.
Parents who aren’t waiting around for institutions to chart the future for their kids and who know that the most important lessons—the ones that shape character, values, and long-term success—happen at home.
To celebrate you, we’re offering 20% off all Tuttle Twins books with the code MOTHER.
To sweeten the deal, we’re giving away a complete Tuttle Twins collection to one deserving mother!
Nominate your liberty-loving, hero-mom by commenting on our social media and tagging who you think deserves this prize, and why! A winner will be chosen on Monday, May 12!
I know that when you raise a child who knows how to think, not just what to think, you’ve already given them something more valuable than anything they could get from any institution of so-called higher learning.
You’re doing the real work—and your kids are benefitting in ways that set them lightyears ahead of their peers.
So three cheers for the moms!
You guys rock.
— Connor
