122. Chris Linder and Homeschool Remix

In today’s episode, we get to spend time with Chris Linder from Georgia. Chris is a father of two, an author, and the founder of Homeschool Remix. We discuss the evolving landscape of education, hybrid homeschooling, and empowering families to take charge of their children’s learning. Chris shares his experiences growing up in Wisconsin as a charter school student to radio professional, English teacher in South Korea, and eventually an educator and author in Georgia. His experiences shaped his independent approach to learning and teaching. Motivated by gaps in his daughters’ traditional education, Chris developed a hybrid homeschooling method. This approach supplements public schooling with targeted home learning, focusing on practical life skills and subjects often overlooked in schools.

Connect with Chris

Homeschoolremix.com

Books

“Homeschool Remix”

“Work Your Way Around the World”

Proactive Homeschool Dad (PHD) Course

PHD Course

This Golden Hour

Transcript

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Chris Linder 0:00

I have a technical systems background and I was able to systemize this hybrid homeschooling method of basically taking whatever skills they're not getting in school and just figuring out how to best teach that at home.

Timmy Eaton 0:19

Hi. I am Timmy Eaton, homeschool father of six and Doctor of Education. We've been homeschooling for more than 15 years and have watched our children go from birth to university successfully and completely without the school system. Homeschooling has grown tremendously in recent years, and tons of parents are becoming interested in trying it out, but people have questions and concerns and misconceptions and lack the confidence to get started. New and seasoned homeschoolers are looking for more knowledge and peace and assurance to continue. New homeschooling. The guests and discussions on this podcast will empower anyone thinking of homeschooling to bring their kids home and start homeschooling and homeschoolers at all stages of the journey will get what they need and want from these conversations. Thank you for joining us today and enjoy this episode of This Golden Hour podcast. As you exercise, drive clean or just chill. You are listening to this Golden Hour podcast. In today's episode, we get to spend time with Chris Linder from Georgia. Chris is a father of two, an author and the founder of Homeschool Remix. We discuss the evolving landscape of education, hybrid homeschooling and empowering families to take charge of their children's learning. Chris shares his experiences growing up in Wisconsin as a charter school student to radio professional English teacher in South Korea, and eventually an educator and author in Georgia. His experiences shaped his independent approach to learning and teaching. Motivated by gaps in his daughter's traditional education, Chris developed a hybrid homeschooling method. This approach supplements public schooling with targeted home learning, focusing on practical life skills and subjects often overlooked in schools. Welcome back to this Golden Hour podcast today. We're very excited to finally have with us Chris Linder. He and I connected a bit ago, and then we had to postpone. So glad you're with us, Chris. Thanks for joining us.

Chris Linder 2:12

Thanks for having me, Timmy.

Timmy Eaton 2:13

So great to be with you. Lemme just do a little bio and then you can add to it what you will. Chris is in Georgia and he's a father of two, an author, a content creator, an educator, a tech professional, and a founder of Homeschool Remix. And we're gonna talk a lot about that. My audience can find his stuff on homeschool remix.com, which is basically this idea of of. A hybrid between joining homeschool principals with public school principals. And so we're gonna talk about that throughout the episode today. But go ahead and add anything you want to that bio

Chris Linder 2:42

that's pretty much it in a nutshell. We combine the best of homeschooling. And it's the freedom, it's the flexibility along with the traditional structure of the classroom where you can get the socialization and everything like that. And it just remixes it. It's the best of both worlds.

Timmy Eaton 3:03

Why don't you give us just like a little bit of background as far as just your family situation and your children and then how you got to this point of this idea of homeschool remix.

Chris Linder 3:11

Sure. I grew up in a small town in Wisconsin. I went to a small charter school where we worked in individual cubicles on little booklets at our own pace. So I didn't see the inside of a traditional classroom until middle school or high school. And so that kind of, led me down a path of independence when it came to learning when it came to picking up new concepts and things like that. And then when I got into high school I had teachers that kind of just worked with me, helped me, it helped inspire me to write how to express myself. My high school had a radio station, so I got into radio and did that as a career after college for a few years. And one day I was very bored on the radio. I was almost falling asleep, and I decided, okay, I have to go get this wanderlust outta my system, so what's the furthest away I can travel? And still make some money. And I got this book called Work Your Way Around the World. And it explained that you could go to South America or go to Europe and pick fruit, pick vegetables make a little money. You could go to Asia, you could teach English. And I was like, that's the one for me, because I'm not a farmer, I'm pretty much lazy at heart. If I can sit in an air conditioned room and speak English, okay, yeah, I can do that. So I I bought a ticket for South Korea and went there and taught English for a couple of years. And that's where I got the teaching bug. I had really great students. They were, college age and some older, like businessmen and housewives, all wanting to learn English to get a handle on our slang and our idioms so that they could watch, American movies and. Also step up and all the stuff that matters. Yeah. It was really all about the movies but I learned that if people are motivated to learn, then it makes it a lot easier to teach. And the kind of language institute that I worked at was a hoggan, so it was open like at six in the morning and all the way until 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock at night. So kids were taking classes both before and after school.

Timmy Eaton 5:40

I've heard about that in Korea. Man, I like when I was doing my doctorate degree here in in Alberta. I remember people talking about that we had exchange students from Korea and they would say their schools would go like all day. And I was like, that is a different world, man.

Chris Linder 5:52

Yeah, totally. But it was, if people are, like I said, if people are motivated to learn, nothing's gonna stop them, no, that's totally right. Yeah. I took that to heart. And long story short, I got back into radio for a few years, bounced around, wound up in Atlanta. I met my wife who was an elementary school teacher, and she said radio doesn't really pay a lot and you should have something to fall back on. Maybe consider teaching. And I eventually, took that to heart, went back to the classroom. I got my my master's in Instructional technology and went back and I taught high school English for a couple of years and realized that I was a better teacher than I was a babysitter, there's a lot to be said for classroom management. Some teachers have, and some teachers will struggle with it. Yes. No, that's a, that's definitely a

Timmy Eaton 6:45

valid observation for sure. So is that in Atlanta that you were teaching?

Chris Linder 6:49

Yes. Yes. Cool, cool. Just south of Atlanta. Yeah.

Timmy Eaton 6:52

And how'd you end

Chris Linder 6:52

up there? How'd you get to Atlanta? So when I was in Korea, I got homesick for Wisconsin. I moved back to Wisconsin, got a job at a radio station there. Then the manager of the radio station left and he went to Houston, Texas and he brought me along with him. So I was on the radio in Houston and then. He left Houston and came to Atlanta, brought me here, and I came to Atlanta. So there

Timmy Eaton 7:26

you are man. So there you remain. Yeah. Cool.

Chris Linder 7:29

It was like WKRP when you know, town to town up and down the dial, that kind of thing.

Timmy Eaton 7:34

And I love that you're from Wisconsin. 'cause I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago. You and I talked about that beforehand and I can tell in some of your words that you got Midwest. Yes. I like it, man. I like it.

Chris Linder 7:43

Can't get it outta my system really. So then you moved there, you met

Timmy Eaton 7:45

your wife, you got a teaching degree, but, and then how'd you get to this homeschool remix?

Chris Linder 7:50

My wife passed away about eight years ago. Before she passed away, she was writing books. She wrote. Several books on the common Core and she wrote the Chart Sense series, which is about using anchor charts in the classroom. And then we started doing professional development for teachers across the country. And then she passed. And our two daughters were doing fine in school, and we didn't homeschool them because she was a teacher and she was like, there's a stigma about homeschool kids that they're not socialized well or they don't get along or they don't learn as much as they would in a regular school. She had all of these. Conception, preconceived notions that a lot of people have. Yeah. I didn't really have that, I had to, had to defer to her maybe you have a point, because it is hard teaching, yeah. Especially teaching at home. Yeah, for sure. So they were, we just picked good schools and they were fine in those schools. But after COVID we realized that they weren't getting everything that they should be getting in school. With regards to the different subjects that, maybe we learned growing up in school, they're not getting financial literacy, they're not getting much in the way of practical life skills. And I could get out a big soapbox about how, I think we're. Raising a generation of kids that are more prepared for an active shooter than they are to balance a checkbook.

Timmy Eaton 9:30

Yeah. Yeah.

Chris Linder 9:31

One day I was taking my oldest to work and she asked me what a mortgage was, and I thought you're a senior in high school, you should know the basics of what a mortgage or a home loan is all about. But they don't teach that in school. I realized that there had to be, there were gaps some additional things that they had to learn and they weren't gonna get it in school. So I had to step up and figure out how to supplement that. My youngest was having trouble in algebra, and I'm not a math person, but I realized that either she's going to pass or she's going to fail and be left behind. And so I got a curriculum that was actually similar to the curriculum that I had used when I was an elementary school student. Working at your own pace. And I worked with my youngest through this algebra. Course paralleling what she learned in school and just backing that up, supplementing that with targeted home learning. And I realized that if I could, basically systemize this because I have a tech background too when I was in radio, I got into web development and put our radio station on the air and got bitten by the web bug and started making websites and things. So I have a technical systems background and I was able to systemize this hybrid homeschooling method of basically taking whatever skills they're not getting in school and just figuring out how to best teach that at home.

Timmy Eaton 11:12

Yeah. And so that's the birth of homeschool remix.

Chris Linder 11:15

Exactly.

Timmy Eaton 11:16

So when people go to the website homeschool remix, what kind of resources do they find to bridge this or like the hybrid world? And then I'll, and then I'll ask some questions about that.

Chris Linder 11:24

Cool. I put it all in a book. Homeschool remix is like a book, and that's the framework. And the book's basically some basic pedagogy so that parents can step into homeschooling without feeling overwhelmed by, how do I teach this? I'm not a master of every subject, so how am I supposed to teach things? When I talk to different parents, that's the thing that's holding a lot of them back. I'm not a professional teacher, so you know, I can't be qualified to teach this stuff, which couldn't be further from the truth because really no one knows your student. No one knows your child better than you do. Absolutely. It's, really hard to expect a teacher who has, 25 different students an hour, four or five or six classes a day. It's hard to expect them to give your child the individual attention that they actually need,

Timmy Eaton 12:23

especially depending on glass sizes.

Chris Linder 12:25

Exactly. Maybe it's not 25, maybe it's more like 28 or 30, yeah. It there's so much potential for kids to slip through the cracks and that's a shame. But parents need that confidence. So the book. Establishes a baseline of, hey, if you can, learn these five or six basic pedagogy skills that'll help you a lot. And then it gives subject guidance. We've got sections on English, stem, arts. And just basically finding what your kid is interested in. What. Skills that they'll need to survive and thrive when they get older. Maybe they're more into arts, so you know, maybe you need to supplement whatever. Basic art class they're getting in high school was something, a little bit more targeted. So you know, the book has that kind of guidance and then some resources as well. If you go to the website, we've got a community called the Seat Squad. SEAT stands for support, educate, adapt, and Thrive. And it comes from that Shirley Chisholm quote. If they don't. Have a seat for you at the table. Bring a folding chair and it's all about, just making a way fitting in where you can get in.

Timmy Eaton 13:46

Yeah.

Chris Linder 13:47

It's kind of our guiding philosophy and it's really about making a way with homeschooling that doesn't cost a lot of money. I deal with a lot of marginalized communities, a lot of parents who maybe they have a single parent earner, or both parents are working full time, so they don't have the time, the money, or the energy to do full-time homeschooling. So my method. Is basically showing them how to do homeschooling, how to get the benefits of homeschooling without the full-time investment if they don't have the time,, no amount of budgeting is gonna fix that. But if you are smart about it, you can budget your time and budget your money so that you can get. A good outcome for your kid. So that's what the remix is all about. Cool. That's what framework of, hybrid homeschooling is all about.

Timmy Eaton 14:47

Awesome. So my wife and I are both public schooled, but then we decided to homeschool and I talk about that story all the time in my episodes. But that's all we've done with our kids. We've got six kids from 12 to 21, 3 have finished homeschool without a diploma. None of 'em have had a diploma. They've all done university. So like I come from that background. So I just wanted to like, ask some questions, especially 'cause my audience is homeschool families. Sure. I don't know how many of those do a hybrid approach. When they think of hybrid, a lot of times they think of I'll take a couple of courses at the school, but like I register through homeschooling, depending on the state or the province where you live. So like the question I was wondering about I because I was going over your website and that video was really helpful to watch that you have on there where it talks about the homeschool remix tape and so the one thing I was wondering about because the first thing it says is keep your kid enrolled in school. So how many of them feel overwhelmed though if they're taking a full school load? And then also supplementing, because one of the beauties of home education is that like the whole thing is done at home. There's no such thing as homework. It's just all learning at home. And so the whole thing is that way. But I understand that not every family situation is the same. I totally get that. So how do you respond to that when are families feeling overwhelmed and they go, man I've got the public school expectations and requirements testing and all the rest of it. How do I do that when I want to supplement? Like what you're saying, the gaps of the public education system, but doesn't that add more to especially a working couple or a single mom?

Chris Linder 16:18

To be honest, yes, in a lot of cases it does add more work and I'm not so concerned about, yes, it's going to add work to the parents, but also it is going to add. A certain level of work to the student, and that's why you need to have that kind of buy-in

Timmy Eaton 16:37

Yes. From

Chris Linder 16:38

the student. But the beauty of it is that it's flexible. It looks different for different families, but you can leave your student enrolled five days a week, or in some states you can do two days a week in school and then the rest of it you supplement with classes at home. Or it may be that you are just teaching one or two classes to them. In one or two subjects a week. So it's very flexible, in a lot of cases, some students are going to have to do more work than the average high school student. And that kind of ties back to my experiences in Korea. Taught me that if a person is motivated to learn what they need to know to do well in their future career, or if it's a skill that they can see a benefit from, they'll buy in they'll commit to that. Yeah. And that's what you want to do. You want to have the conversation. You probably have to have it repeatedly, with your kid. You need to know this to survive. You're not going to get this in school. So we're gonna spend an hour every week or two hours every week going over the fundamentals of financial literacy.

Timmy Eaton 17:58

Yeah.

Chris Linder 17:58

Or, yeah. Cultural history or health and wellness. If they're not getting, you know that in school, maybe that's something you need to drive home. Practical life skills. They're not learning how to cook. Maybe you know, you need to spend, and all of this is learning all of this. I don't like to put the label school of this is homeschool. This is regular school. Amen. I agree. It's just all learning. When I was a kid, you're probably the same way. Your parents taught you things, your grandparents taught you things. Maybe it wasn't formalized but I remember my grandmother teaching me it like I must have been. I think it was before school, so I'm thinking like four years old. Yeah. Learning how to count money, learning what a quarter was, what a nickel was, what a dime was.

Timmy Eaton 18:50

Yeah, man,

Chris Linder 18:50

you need to learn the basics of things and now we've gotten away from that. We've gotten to, it's easy for us to think, okay, I dropped my kid off at school at eight 30 and. Leave it up to the state to teach them what they need to know. Yeah. From eight 30 to three 30 and then learning stops. And then learning stops. And we just assume that when they graduate 12th grade, that they'll know everything they need to know.

Timmy Eaton 19:20

Yeah.

Chris Linder 19:21

Or that they'll automatically just go on and be qualified to go into a good college. And that's not the case and again I get on my high horse here. But that's not the goal of the traditional educational system. At least not in the states. No. The goal is to. Just get you smart enough to be able to follow directions and become a good laborer.

Timmy Eaton 19:44

Chris, if you listen to any of my episodes, you'll hear me say often that homeschooling is a misnomer and what I would say if I could represent the homeschool side of things. 'cause it's true, man. It's been an evolution and it's gone from like weird people doing it to all sorts of families doing it in fact. The fastest growing demographic of homeschoolers are African Americans in the United States. Especially since COVID. Especially since COVID but it's been since 2016, that's been a consistent thing. Dr. Amma Sama at Temple University does a lot of studies on that, but the thing that I was thinking was like, like you said, like this idea that learning happens in a certain place or at a certain time is just such a ridiculous notion. And common sense just tells you that it's like we're learning things all the time and for certain personalities. The system, how it is not set up for so many people's way of learning. And so I can just sense about you and I don't want to call it a homeschool philosophy, but the way you're talking is so consistent with homeschool literature the term is deschooling. We have to deinstitutionalized and break out of the conventions to be able to help individuals, learners customize their learning. For the future. They want this idea that we cook and cut Exactly, a few types of laborers as if there's a few jobs. Dude, there's millions of jobs and there's millions of things that people can learn. And for a lot of us homeschool families, it's like the school's slowing the kids down because they gotta ride a bus, wait in line, do all these things. And at home they cover that stuff in two or three hours and then they're just exploring the world, so one thing I was gonna ask you about with that 'cause you said like a lot of the families that you've worked with I'm, I guess what I'm curious about is what type of people are doing your program or like what type of families, and I'm not saying to categorize them, but I'm saying how would you describe the families that are typically doing that? Because you said a the target is marginalized families, but I find that in the system, the marginalized families aren't being helped in the best ways to prepare them in a customized way for the future they want. So how would you describe the families that are taking your program?

Chris Linder 21:47

That's it. A lot of the families that I deal with that I help, I try to help anyway are marginalized families who see that if they don't do anything, their child is one of the masses who will be left behind. Yes, they may graduate, but college is you saying,

Timmy Eaton 22:07

are you saying because the system isn't serving them adequately?

Chris Linder 22:09

The system may be serving them adequately, but adequately isn't enough. And I think that a lot of the parents that I deal with are realizing the fact that adequate isn't enough. Especially this year, things have been rolling backwards with changes to the Department of Education, changes of the administration. And it's been this way for a few years where, school boards are challenging books and having books banned from the school libraries taken outta the classroom. There's a culture war that's going on. And right now our students are in the crossfire of this culture war that's going on. And a lot of people are like it's like a pendulum. Things come in waves, it'll get better.

Timmy Eaton 22:58

Yeah.

Chris Linder 22:58

But students are going to grow up. They're not going to pause while we get our stuff together and fix education and, yeah, man they're moving on.

Timmy Eaton 23:08

Exactly.

Chris Linder 23:08

They're moving on, my youngest is graduating high school this year. Whether the educational system is fixed or not.

Timmy Eaton 23:16

I think the principle for me is if you elect to have your kid in that situation and to each his or her own, right? Everyone has their own situation they gotta deal with. I understand that. But as for me, I'm just like, man if in any way I can empower families to take that on their own and to say. If it's a pendulum or not it's actually irrelevant because you can take charge of your own education, which I think that's why I was drawn to your stuff. 'cause that's what you're saying. You're going, man, if you wanna do the hybrid thing because it's not possible to do this all at home or whatever, then this is a resource to help you go, man, let's take control of this and make sure that we secure the future that we want for our children, or that our children want for themselves. But it does require somebody to be self-directed and self-motivated because life and the world's not gonna just give it to you. And that's what we're finding 'cause we're at the mercy of how a system is set up. And so if that doesn't serve us well. Like you said your daughter's gonna graduate either way. So what is she doing on her own to prepare for her future? So would you say what's your opinion? Is your opinion that ideally people would homeschool or alternative education?

Chris Linder 24:23

I believe that the future is hybrid. I believe that for some. I would love a world where everybody was open to the possibility of homeschooling their kids, but I realized that homeschooling is not for everyone. But I also believe firmly that traditional classroom education solely is not for anyone. I believe that the future is hybrid. The future is parents taking control and supplementing whatever their kid learns in regular school. And if that. Involves totally pulling them out of school and, cobbling together whatever curriculum they want to use to teach them 100% at home. I'm all for that too.

Timmy Eaton 25:09

Cool.

Chris Linder 25:09

But it doesn't have to be that way. So that's my standpoint. That's where I come from.

Timmy Eaton 25:14

No I think you and I are similar in that, I when I was in school, it's a similar system, but things have changed so much and we're talking only mid nineties, you go back to the sixties, seventies and whatever, One of the things that a lot of homeschool families do and this will speak to the hybrid thing. They'll say here's one of the most common questions, maybe the most common question for homeschoolers what your wife was feeling. Your first wife saying, I just don't want our kids to be weird. And that's been the, stereotype of homeschool families. That's the stigma. Yeah, it's the stigma. But it's less and less but a lot of homeschool families will go, it depends on your definition of socialization. If socialization means, being accustomed to the norms of society. And figuring out how to communicate well and thrive in a society, they would say that's happening very well in homeschooling. And that's actually

Chris Linder 25:56

the secret. It's happening better in homeschooling families than it does in traditional school.

Timmy Eaton 26:05

So that's where my question lies. Yeah. Because in the program, and this is what I just wonder, I, because I love how you just said it right there, that's the secret. Like the socialization oftentimes that, that takes place in a school is undesirable for families. 'cause they're going, that's not socialization. That is kids learning what's culturally acceptable and cool and that actually kills learning and the love of learning a lot of it. 'Cause one of the things on there is you still get the socialization of sports and clubs and this public system with the hybrid thing. But to me that's almost like an undesirable 'cause I'm like, no dude, I don't want,

Chris Linder 26:39

it's a double-edged sword. I'll grant you that. Sometimes it is undesirable, but sometimes the structure of having a team sport available for them to play totally is desirable. It's the difference of having a student centered education and a family centered education.

Timmy Eaton 27:00

Cool.

Chris Linder 27:01

And right now you send your kids to school, public school, private school, whatever. They're getting a student centered education. 'cause they're around other students the whole time.

Timmy Eaton 27:12

Yeah. Very peer oriented

Chris Linder 27:14

and very peer oriented. Yes, exactly. But. I believe that parents should retake that control and make it more family first make it more of a family centered education that yes, they're going to be exposed and hang out with other kids. Yes, but at the end of the day. It all falls under the family umbrella.

Timmy Eaton 27:37

So what I get from that is that you're saying there's positive socialization that takes place in any forum. And but it's families kind of meeting the world together. So yeah, your kids are exposed to different things and then you talk about that 'cause my kids have been homeschooled the whole time, but where we live, they do participate in the school sports. They're like on the school teams. And so there's some positives to that, there's some negatives to that. But overall, we field that as a family. And I like how you emphasize that it's kind of rehr the family and parents as the primary educators of the home. One thing that I was thinking about was school choice. I wanted to ask you about. What were your thoughts on that? Because in some ways, homeschool families would go, we don't want any government money at all, because then they want their hands in what your curriculum is and what your teaching. And the whole point of homeschooling is the freedom and flexibility to choose that. On the other hand. Man, why not give them the amount that kids are getting in the public system, or at least a fraction, even if you got half of that?, I read this article last year. There was a school in New Jersey. A failing school when it comes to standardized testing, but they were spending $36,000 per student in this school and having failing outcomes. And I'm going, dude, if you gave mom and dad or just a mom who was single and was working, how beneficial would that be? To that mom who could say, even if it was a third of that, if she got 10 grand per kid, if she had four kids, 40 grand a year. And if they're spending all that on education with poor outcomes and homeschooling families are having awesome outcomes. And on the whole, there's obviously exceptions to everything, but like when you compare it anyway, a lot of that gimme your thoughts. I know you get what I'm saying.

Chris Linder 29:16

So I like the idea and states are doing this, some states offer 4,000, $5,000. Per year to homeschooling families. And I think that's great. My problem with school choice comes in when they're giving you a voucher to a private school I think it's great when you're, using that for homeschooling if your state allows that. But if you're cutting money from public school. To use as a voucher for private school. Where the private school doesn't have to let you in, they can be exclusive. That's where the problem comes in. With a public school you're guaranteed fee access. You're guaranteed access. Now if you flip that around and turn it to a private school will may say, we'd love to have you, but you're not our kind of student, whether a lot of kids are L-G-B-T-Q. A lot of kids just don't fit the, maybe there's a religious guideline.

Timmy Eaton 30:18

Yeah.

Chris Linder 30:18

Maybe. No, there's

Timmy Eaton 30:19

tons of, there's tons of discrimination that exists still in our world for sure.

Chris Linder 30:23

Sure.

Timmy Eaton 30:23

Yeah.

Chris Linder 30:24

But if you have a private institution. You have the right to decide who you want to let into your private institution.

Timmy Eaton 30:33

Yeah,

Chris Linder 30:33

but it shouldn't be paid for with public tax dollars. So here's another problem. Say you get a $4,000 voucher to a private school, tuition's 15,000. Where's the other 11,000 gonna come from? It still favors, the kids in wealthier communities who would normally send, probably send their kids there anyway.

Timmy Eaton 30:57

Yeah. That's where I personally have a lot more to learn about that. But this has been such an awesome conversation. I've really enjoyed so much ideas that are coming through. That's why I love doing this podcast. But I'll give you the last word. Anything you wanna say, any questions, thoughts, anything you wanna say at the end? And then we'll wrap it together.

Chris Linder 31:13

Yeah aI is one of those things that keeps popping up in conversations all the time. And I just wanna say to people, and I know we haven't talked about ai, but don't be afraid of ai. The antidote to AI is critical thinking. And at the end of the day, that's what you should be teaching your kids critical thinking. As long as you can model. For them how to think about things, how to find answers to questions that they have, how to actually formulate those questions. If you can teach them how to learn, you're gonna go a long way and you won't have to worry about. Them losing their job to ai.

Timmy Eaton 31:56

I'm glad you brought that up because one thing I've been feeling, tell me if this resonates with you, but the idea is instead of being afraid, like you just said, like why don't we take it as okay, if this, make some things obsolete. Doesn't that mean it's going to compel us, to be better critical thinkers and to be more innovative and then utilize it as a tool that is so helpful instead of being afraid, oh, this is gonna make me obsolete, or my work, or whatever. Why don't we think of it as man,, this is gonna propel us into like critical thinking. Like innovative ways of improving things because to try to combat it. You're not going to man. You're just not going to, no, it's inevitable. It's inevitable, right? Yeah.

Chris Linder 32:39

To go into it and be prepared for it, or are you going to, let it steamroll you?

Timmy Eaton 32:44

Yeah. If people wanna happily ride their carriage into town and take a few more hours, that's totally fine. I'm actually totally cool with that, but if you wanna hop in my car and get a ride I'm totally fine with that too. So it really is a matter of, what do you want? And like, how do you want to navigate the future?

Chris Linder 32:59

That's exactly what I used to explain that to. My youngest, my kids are firmly against ai. Oh, no way. Totally against ai. I work with some AI prompts and I dabble a little bit. Yeah. They don't even want to touch them. It's like the people who are producing buggy whips a hundred years ago, they went outta business and Yes. But. It evolves. It, everything evolves. It evolves, man. What's their

Timmy Eaton 33:26

reason? Is there, is your daughter's thinking just like it's annoying to have to learn a bunch of new stuff? Or is it more

Chris Linder 33:30

my oldest is an artist. They're actually both artists, but my youngest is a writer.

Timmy Eaton 33:35

And at

Chris Linder 33:36

least my youngest qualifies it and says that they're against generative ai. Which, okay. I can get that. I think, there's gonna be a lot of AI slop you see it on your news feeds, you see it. Totally. Man, there is some real slop. It goes for all those blogs that were obviously written by a robot. Yeah. All those pictures, all those videos that are, obviously, just generated from some prompt I, which again, I'm not against ai don't try to pass that off as actual creations.

Timmy Eaton 34:07

Totally. Yeah. Or like art, like your daughters are saying. Yeah. I had a student, she's a senior in high school and so she was saying what's hard to wrap our brain around now is if AI has improved and it's improving so exponentially. Then you're going what was ai? And what wasn't ai? Because some of it is so like the slop pretty easy to identify, but then you're going what was ai? I mean, You gotta check news three times now to even know if it's accurate or what.

Chris Linder 34:30

If you have critical thinking skills, if you have that foundation built up and that's why you gotta teach it to your kids.

Timmy Eaton 34:38

Yeah.

Chris Linder 34:38

You'll be able to realize when you're, having the wool pulled over your eyes.

Timmy Eaton 34:43

Thank you so much for taking time today. I really appreciate you doing that, and uh, yeah, it was great

Chris Linder 34:47

talking to you, Timmy.

Timmy Eaton 34:48

Yeah, it was great talking to you

Chris Linder 34:49

thanks for having me.

Timmy Eaton 34:55

That wraps up another edition of this Golden Hour podcast. If you haven't done so already, I would totally appreciate it if you would take a minute and give us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify. It helps out a lot, and if you've done that already, thank you much. Please consider sharing this show with friends and family members that you think would get something out of it. And thank you for listening and for your support. I'm your host, Tim Eaton. Until next time, remember to cherish this golden hour with your children and family.