I asked Wendy if I could read the paper she turned in, and when I opened the document, I was surprised to see the topic: critical pedagogy, the philosophy of education pioneered by Paulo Freire. The philosophy examines the influence of social and political forces on learning and classroom dynamics. Her opening line: “To what extent is schooling hindering students’ cognitive ability to think critically?” Later, I asked Wendy if she recognized the irony in using AI to write not just a paper on critical pedagogy but one that argues learning is what “makes us truly human.” She wasn’t sure what to make of the question. “I use AI a lot. Like, every day,” she said. “And I do believe it could take away that critical-thinking part. But it’s just — now that we rely on it, we can’t really imagine living without it.”
I went to an engineering school and in undergrad people who had the same opinion typically just did their assignments as a group and copied each other. The reality is that they didn't want to put in the 10 hours-ish a day that the job of being a student technically entails, each 4 credit course is supposed to be ~12-16 hours. a week. Some places it's longer/shorted depending on the school/curriculum. If you're taking a full semester which is typically 16 credits at many places, that's 48-64 hours a week.
It's a lot of time. I feel for people who struggle with it because they have to work, I did as well, but a lot of kids just wanted to party.