Thread

Tutoring company tells parents to save their money and 'use AI instead'

142 points · 233 comments · theanonymousone

radiorental · 1790264419 · focus · HN ↗
This isn't binary, teachers have limited bandwidth and supplementing real teaching with AI supported research can work.
Students need to understand what AI is and is not.
Something got lost as we transitioned from parents telling their kids to 'go play and do not come back until dinner is ready' to us handholding & driving our kids from one social/sport activity to the next.
While it causes fights with my kids, I blank refuse to do certain things for them (fix their internet connection, repair a toy or bike) I'll give them the tools and they know to ask when they get stuck.
The act of learning through failure is a dying art these days. It's 'teach to the test', stressed out teachers, parents having too much to do compounded by taking on second, third jobs in this economy.
Teaching our kids how to leverage AI is something parents should invest in. Its part of a broader education landscape.
1. yardie · 1790265709 · focus · HN ↗
  As a parent I agree with you, but watching other kids get a leg up because their parents continue to jump in and save them. And your own get the double harsh reality of learning failure and then being punished for it through loss of placement and status. It's tragedy of the commons since everyone must pass no one can fail.
  > Teaching our kids how to leverage AI is something parents should invest in. Its part of a broader education landscape.
  The same was said for laptops and tablets. Now there is a push to remove them from the curriculum. Having them meant the students didn't retain anything because they were distracting. I feel using AI in place of pedagogy will have similar results. Why bother learning to retain any information when AI knows everything and can recall it in a split second.
  1. singpolyma3 · 1790286374 · focus · HN ↗
    > Why bother learning to retain any information when AI knows everything and can recall it in a split second.
    This is a real question though. One I've been asking since the early 00s. Learning means something different than it did in decades previous. Merely remembering easy to look up facts is not the slam dunk it used to be.
    jolmg · 1790301917 · focus · HN ↗
    >> Why bother learning to retain any information when AI knows everything and can recall it in a split second.
    > This is a real question though.
    Is it? Why bother to learn how to add 2 numbers when you can just use a calculator.
    > Learning means something different than it did in decades previous.
    Not really. This is just the acquisition of a new tool. It can possibly be incorporated into education like how calculators were used in the 00s/90s, but you must know how to do the work without the tool.
    singpolyma3 · 1790348079 · focus · HN ↗
    You don't need to know how to do the work without the tool. Knowing how to add two numbers together is not the point. Knowing what numbers to add and why is what you need. Just computing the answer hasn't been an interesting skill in my whole lifetime.
    jolmg · 1790361978 · focus · HN ↗
    > You don't need to know how to do the work without the tool. Knowing how to add two numbers together is not the point.
    Would you really raise your kids to not know how to add 2 numbers on their own?
    I wouldn't even raise my kids to not know how to wash their clothes without a washing machine.
    Wouldn't want them to be useless on their own, to be dependent on tools to take care of them.
    It's fine to use tools to augment what you're able to do, but it'd be a kind of failure of their elders / of their environment to not teach them how to live on their own, independent, or at least dependent on as few things as possible. Tools aren't necessarily always going to be available in their lives. Having options for their life's necessities is good.
    It also helps to know when the job's done well. Just because clothes come out of the washing machine doesn't necessarily mean they're clean.
    If we're talking:
    > Why bother learning to retain any information when AI knows everything and can recall it in a split second.
    Kind of scary to think of adults that need AI to do their thinking for them, with the adults not knowing how to verify anything and just trust the output.
    singpolyma3 · 1790364148 · focus · HN ↗
    I mean, my kids can both do mental math because it's something they sort of absorbed along the way. But yeah I don't super value it as something to focus on. I've never done laundry without a washing machine nor would I know how to teach someone how. Though I'm sure I could look it up.

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