Exclusive | Elite parents ditch trad classrooms for robot-powered homeschools: Disrespectful of kids time

School’s out forever for some California kids. Elite techies in the San Francisco Bay Area are part of a nationwide rise in homeschooling that bucks the stereotypes of rural Bible thumpers or hardcore hippies — as they ditch traditional classrooms in favor of using AI to give kids home lessons.Mrugesha Sathappan, a 32-year-old mother of three living in San Francisco’s Nob Hill neighborhood, is at the forefront of a small but growing cohort of families exploring tech-fueled homeschooling for their preschool and elementary-aged children, believing it will give kids the “agency” to survive societal disruptions.“I just want to be able to pay as much attention as possible to what my kids are learning, what are the values they’re learning — whether that is, being adaptable, being kind, being useful,” said Sathappan.   The biggest news, opinion and culture shaping California right now.

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Never miss a story “It’s not so much about getting a job in the future.It’s more about how do I make this individual adaptable to whatever comes next,’ she added. A typical day teaching her preschool-age son involves about 20 minutes of phonics or math alongside projects and outings to local museums, parks or even tech offices — sometimes with other homeschooled kids.

Sathanppan and her husband, investor Kartik Sathappan, have launched a meetup group for families who are also delaying or skipping traditional school. The couple uses AI to create custom games in phonics and STEM alongside “child led” field trips and activities, and says their son devours 15 to 20 books in one sitting.“He recently picked up being into rockets.So we just bought him like a rocket kit … and we’re going to build this rocket that can go like, 500 ft into the air,” Kartik added.

“You can’t really do when you’re ...