The café was full of laptops and toddlers, that strange mix you only see in city centers on a weekday afternoon. At the corner table, a dad in a crumpled hoodie was trying to keep his daughter’s crayons from rolling to the floor while refreshing his email every thirty seconds. When the conversation turned to schools, he sighed, leaned back, and said a sentence that sliced through the background noise: “Twenty years ago, I would have done anything to get her into the best school. Today, I think it no longer matters.”
Ben Mann, co‑founder of Anthropic, wasn’t saying this to shock.
He was saying it with the quiet certainty of someone who’s watched the ground shift under our feet.
When “the best school” stopped being the magic ticket
If you grew up in the 90s or early 2000s, the story was simple. Work hard, get into a good school, collect the right diplomas, and life would basically “work out.” Parents built their whole strategy around that narrative. Neighborhoods, mortgages, commutes… all calibrated to catch a place in those few classrooms with the right logo on the gate.
Today, that script feels strangely outdated.
The logos are still there, but the guarantees have quietly vanished.
Talk to parents at drop‑off and you hear the same anxious remix of the same old dream. One mother in London told me she spends over $20,000 a year per child on private tuition and prep, “so they’ll be safe later.” Then she paused and admitted she didn’t really know what “safe” meant anymore.
Because her neighbor’s son did everything right. Top university, internship at a big bank, clean LinkedIn page. Two years later, his job was outsourced and then half‑automated. Now he’s relearning his skills from scratch on YouTube alongside teenagers who never set foot in a fancy campus.
What changed is not just the job market.
The whole information structure collapsed. When any teenager can watch MIT lectures on their phone for free, the old monopoly of the “best schools” starts to look fragile. When AI tools can help you write, code, design, and analyze like a small team, the value of pure credential collecting shrinks.
➡️ Psychology reveals why emotional clarity often comes after distancing, not confrontation
➡️ Sophie Adenot: the extraordinary path of France’s next female astronaut
➡️ If you feel tired without being exhausted, this habit might be draining you
➡️ The Lazy Cook’s Creamy Mushroom Risotto That Doesn’t Require Constant Stirring
➡️ Every autumn, gardeners make this mistake with their leaves
The real premium has shifted toward something schools only touch by accident: curiosity, adaptability, the ability to learn fast and unlearn faster. The “best school” used to be a place. Now it’s closer to a habit.
Raising kids for a world where no one knows the curriculum
So what do you do if the old game board just dissolved?
One concrete shift more parents are making: they invest less in the brand name and more in the daily learning ecosystem around their child. That can look wildly unglamorous from the outside. A boring local school, but a home full of books, tools, cheap second‑hand devices they’re allowed to tinker with. Regular excursions to libraries, makerspaces, community centers, or simply long walks where questions are not only allowed, they’re welcomed.
The “program” is not on a brochure anymore. It lives in the small rituals of how a child is allowed to explore the world.
A father I interviewed in Berlin had turned down a coveted bilingual private school for his 8‑year‑old son. The fees would have eaten half the family’s income. Instead, his son attends the public school three blocks away. The tradeoff? Every Wednesday afternoon, they sit together and explore something outside the curriculum: how bicycles work, why some videos go viral, what a neural network is.
They get lost in Wikipedia holes, break down news headlines, test small experiments in the kitchen. That boy now asks questions most adults don’t dare to ask out loud. And yes, he also plays Minecraft for hours. The difference is that someone in his life is willing to ask, “What did you build today?” instead of just, “How long were you on the screen?”
Ben Mann’s remark lands in this new reality. When a co‑founder of an AI company says the school brand “no longer matters,” he’s not dismissing education. He’s pointing out a mismatch. The world is updating on an almost monthly basis. Many institutions, including some very prestigious ones, are still teaching to a labor market that existed ten or fifteen years ago.
*The real scarce resource is no longer access to knowledge, but the habit of engaging with it actively rather than passively.*
A famous gate on a campus can’t guarantee that habit. A curious adult, a messy living room full of projects, and the right questions at the right time often can.
From chasing prestige to building an actual learning life
If you’re a parent trapped in the “best school or bust” mindset, one practical move is to zoom out from the school to the week. Ask yourself: over seven days, how many moments does my child have to explore, build, question, or create something that has nothing to do with a grade? Then, add one. Just one.
It could be a Sunday morning “question walk” where they pick a topic and try to answer it together, phones allowed. It could be a weekly “build hour” where you fix things around the house and let them hold the screwdriver. It could be letting them use AI tools as a kind of thinking partner instead of banning them outright.
The format matters less than the regular signal: learning is not just something that happens inside a classroom.
Parents often confess they feel guilty because they can’t afford the “top” schools, or because entrance exams went badly. That guilt is heavy, and it’s real. But it can also blind you to the leverage you still have. You can’t rewrite admissions decisions. You can shape the atmosphere around homework so it’s less about fear and more about experimentation.
One common mistake is turning every learning moment into a performance review. Kids quickly internalize that the goal is not to understand, but to impress. Let’s be honest: nobody really does this every single day, yet many of us pretend. Dropping the performance mask from time to time—admitting you don’t know, looking things up together—can be a radical act.
“Twenty years ago, I would have enrolled my daughter in the best schools. Today, I think it no longer matters,” Ben Mann says. “What matters is whether she grows up believing she can figure things out. Because the hard truth is, none of us knows what the world will look like when she’s 30.”
- Shift your metric: Instead of asking “Is this the best school?”, ask “Will my child feel safe enough here to stay curious?”
- Protect unscheduled time: Over‑programmed kids learn to follow instructions. Under‑scheduled kids get bored, then inventive.
- Normalize learning in public: Talk out loud when you’re learning something new for work or life, including your mistakes.
- Use AI as a sandbox: Let your child experiment with AI tools to brainstorm, explain concepts, or test ideas, with you nearby as a guide.
- Stay flexible: The school choice is not the last word. You can course‑correct year by year with extracurriculars, mentors, and projects.
What if the “best school” is simply the one that doesn’t kill the spark?
Once you stop treating school as destiny, the whole picture softens a little. You notice details you might have ignored before: the teacher who actually listens, the class where your kid comes home buzzing, the after‑school club where they suddenly care again. You start to see education as a messy, long‑term relationship rather than a single judgment day at 17.
That doesn’t magically erase inequality or the brutal realities of access. But it does hand some agency back to families who feel frozen by rankings and league tables they didn’t create. It opens up a quieter, more personal question: what kind of human do we hope this child becomes, in a world of AI co‑workers and shifting careers?
Ben Mann’s sentence is unsettling because it breaks with a story many of us grew up with. Yet there’s also a strange relief in it. If the brand name is no longer the whole story, then tiny, ordinary choices start to matter more than we were told. The dinner‑table debate. The shared project. The permission to fail.
We’ve all been there, that moment when you look at a child’s future and realize no institution can guarantee anything anymore. The old game of climbing to the best possible rung is giving way to something less clear, but maybe more honest. Less about perfect pathways, more about durable inner tools. Less about chasing gates, more about keeping the lights on inside their eyes.
| Key point | Detail | Value for the reader |
|---|---|---|
| School brand is losing power | Access to knowledge is now widespread through online courses, AI tools, and global content | Relieves pressure to secure only “top” schools and opens more realistic options |
| Daily environment matters more | Home, routines, and adult attitudes shape curiosity and adaptability | Shows where parents can act immediately, regardless of budget |
| Focus on learning habits | Encouraging questions, projects, and experimentation builds long‑term resilience | Helps prepare children for unpredictable careers and technologies |
FAQ:
- Question 1Does this mean I shouldn’t care at all which school my child attends?Not exactly. Basic safety, teacher quality, and overall climate still matter. The point is that past a certain threshold, the school name is less decisive than the ongoing learning culture you build around your child.
- Question 2What if my child is already in a very competitive “top” school?You don’t need to pull them out. Focus on balance. Protect time for ungraded curiosity, help them separate their worth from their results, and encourage learning that isn’t just about outperforming others.
- Question 3We can’t afford private school. Is my child at a big disadvantage?There may be obstacles, but you also have leverage: libraries, low‑cost online resources, community programs, and your own attention. Many skills the future rewards—like adaptability and initiative—are trained far beyond classroom walls.
- Question 4Is using AI with my child “cheating” their education?Used passively, AI can replace thinking. Used thoughtfully, it becomes a powerful tutor and brainstorming partner. Sit beside them, question the answers, and treat AI as a tool to deepen understanding, not shortcut it.
- Question 5How do I know if my child’s school is “good enough” for this new world?Look less at rankings and more at signals: Are questions welcomed? Do teachers adjust to different kids? Is curiosity punished or encouraged? If your child still wants to learn after a day there, that’s a strong sign.