I love school & mitochondria

Unf^cking Education, no. 6

January 13, 2026

Hello there,

Alright, this is the last Unf^cking Education newsletter.

Yes - I know you’re devastated.

But before you tell your boss that you need to take the day off, I’m just folding this into the Forge Prep newsletter as both are about education and so “syngergies”.

Will still be full of hot takes and other nonsense so don’t worry.

Now, let’s get to it.

Some housekeeping: As a reminder, Early Decision applications are due January 15, 2026 (in <3 days). I’ve been obsessively refreshing our applicant tracking system, and it’s been so cool to see the apps keep flowing in.

School of compliance

I recently read this essay by Thomas Arnett of the Clayton Christensen Institute which had me nodding along so hard that my neck almost fell off. (I recommend you read it)

He describes the ‘unofficial curriculum’ of school which teaches our kids that:

  • There is always someone above you who sets the assignment.

  • The path to success is deciphering what that person wants

  • The safest strategy is to follow instructions faithfully

  • Tasks come with rubrics that specify the criteria for a good performance.

  • Your job is to hit those criteria as cleanly as possible.

As you read it, you’ll see the Forge Prep model checks almost every point that the Clay Christensen team shares about what educaiton needs to look like in an AI age.

The question then is do you really want your kid going to these schools of compliance?

The AI doctor is coming for the surgeons

Elon is typically hyper-aggressive with his estimates so I’d bet against the timeline but not the direction.

Let’s say it is 4x longer and hence 12 years.

What does that mean for the jobs our kids are graduating into?

The jobs that you and I might have seen as safe paths will no longer be available.

In light of this, it’s certainly time to rethink education.

Imagine an alumni network that worked for you

We recently unveiled The Guild which is Forge Prep’s network of founders, public co CEOs, scientists, coaches and more who students can tap into.

Some of the names you’ll see are visible below but take a look at the site and you’ll see an amazing (and still growing) group of incredibly accomplished folks who want to pay it forward to the next gen:

  • Henry Schuck, founder & CEO of ZoomInfo (Nasdaq: GTM)

  • Martin Blackman, former GM of US Tennis Association Player Development

  • Neha Shah, co-founder of $1B supply chain/procurement business

  • Dr Andrew Abraham, founder of Orgain (acq by Nestle for $2B)

And many others.

I ‘love’ school

Give it a watch and let me know which one of these was your favorite thing about school.

My favorite was writing 1000 word essays on books I didn’t read.

At a minimum, the video will make you chuckle (underused word)

We underestimated the dissatisfaction

My calendar this week (see below) is absolutely jammed with parent conversations.

We are so happy with the response, but frankly, even we were not expecting this level of concern and/or dissatisfaction with the traditional factory model of education.

If you think your child is capable of and deserves more than the aforementioned ‘school of compliance’ provides them, feel free to set up time with us to learn more.

Or if you’re ready to give your child a modern education, apply here.

Living in my head rent free

By high school, 2 of 3 high school students are disengaged in their learning.

This is an absolutely staggering number.

We’ve somehow accepted that teenagers naturally disengage from learning, as if it were an immutable law of adolescence rather than a damning indictment of our educational system.

That’s all for today.

Have a great week ahead.

Love,

Anand

P.S. We built an AI Head of School and 75% of the questions are “what is tuition?”

Please go ask it some more interesting questions and let me know how it does. We’re still fine tuning it so it’d help a lot.

You can just reply to this email with screenshots of your conversation and/or any commentary.