The education system has always been stupid and it's about time it stopped with it's Victorian era, one size fits all, "the student is needs to be whipped into shape" style teaching.

You do not know your students commitments outside of study. You probably also do not know how best they themselves learn. They have the right to have their time respected as much as anyone else, and they aren't even getting paid for their time and effort

Strict deadlines are stupid. In the real world, illness happens, tragedy happens, bad traffic happens, etc and deadlines aren't always going to be met. Closed book tests are also stupid. In the real world there is hardly ever going to be a time you cannot consult your notes.

Also, because we stand on the shoulders of giants and forever expand the scope of human knowledge, teachers are finding that they have too much content to teach and not enough time to teach it (also lack of education funding and pressure to get students into the workforce as soon as possible doesn't help). As a consequence, students are bombarded with an avalanche of content in a short time, more content than is physically possible for a human brain to retain in such a short time. Therefore, students trying to work smarter rather than harder isn't just understandable, but is increasingly becoming mandatory.

Do I think AI is a good substitute for a real education? Hell no. But I do think it's use among students is the natural result of a broken education system rather than "them lazy students can't think for themselves."

Also I hope this rant doesn't make it sound like I'm blaming teachers, they're doing the best with what the system demands of them. I'm talking more about the whole damn structure of the education system. It fucks over teachers as much as it does students.

any education that can be ruined by chatgpt is an education that wasn't valuable in the first place. you can't force someone to learn, that's always been true, this just reduces the burden on people who were never going to give it their all anyway. even if you manage to force some information into their brain that they're not interested in, they'll forget it as soon as they're allowed. i think the solution is to structure all school like college and let kids choose which classes they want, ranging from as many as they can fit to zero. why worry about the academic integrity of kids who are literally prisoners having their time and energy stolen from them for things that they don't think are important? everyone has interests they'll pursue, they just need the right to choose how they spend their time and energy, and to be treated like they actually have some sort of control over their own brains. letting kids choose their own classes will not only make them happier and healthier, but more employable and more educated in what they were actually gonna end up being smart about anyway. they'll also see the value in classes they find boring once they actually have something to apply them to. if you gave kids the option to just leave (something everyone should have at any time unless you believe in incarceration), you would see zero phones out in classrooms. also, get rid of grades, they serve absolutely no purpose other than coercion, they're using chatgpt to get a report card that won't make their parents mad.

We are struggling to receive the lessons of discipline that used to come from having to complete complicated work on a tight deadline

I made every effort I could to not use AI. I never even used chegg or stackoverflow to get quick homework answers. I always did work by myself because I genuinely loved the aspect of learning where it feels like I'm solving a puzzle and trying to understand things.

And yet I fucking hate deadlines and never stopped being a procrastinator.

Many of us were propelled by a kind of frantic productivity as we approached midnight, putting the finishing touches on our ideas and work.

People knew how to take shortcuts before AI as well. What is this gaslighting? AI of this level has not been around for more than 3 years. The "frantic productivity" is nothing to reminisce happily about. I remember how many sleepless nights I had. I remember kids crying to the teacher. I remember doing other kids' homework cause they were deep in the shit. None of it taught me anything. Instead, the constant stress has made me into less of a person.

The technology has also led students to focus on external results at the expense of internal growth.

I'm sorry kid. You gotta learn the truth early. This has been the case in the adult world forever as well. Things weren't different in my time.

Something I once loved now feels empty.

I feel sad for this kid.

Many of us are so accustomed to outsourcing that we’re dulling the very instincts that we need to prevail in life: grit, critical thinking, and the ability to function smoothly under stress.

This kid has such an idealistic outlook in life. They have exchanged out "ass-kissing, head-lowering, parroting and coping" with these high sounding phrases.

Hexbear: AI is literally making people stupid! It's a demonic abomination that must be abolished

Also hexbear: but not when it's negatively impacting our shitty education system

contrasts

I watched a classmate discreetly shift in their seat, prop their laptop up on a crossed leg, and highlight the entirety of the chapter under discussion.

It's saying something that the rest of the article's pretty good for the atlantic lol. A little pearl clutchy but no more than is reasonable for a teenager. Also probably written with an LLM.

eight em dashes? Either this person is trying their best to write like a journalist or they used an LLM to write this article