‹ BackHN Continuity

Thread

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

142 points · 233 comments · theanonymousone

  1. radiorental · · 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 · · 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. phyzix5761 · · focus · HN ↗
        If parents are stepping in and constantly saving their kids they are not giving them a leg up. They are effectively handicapping them.
        1. brnt · · focus · HN ↗
          Being able to say 'I attended $famous_uni' counts for much if not most in many circles. Upper classes are beyond merit; being there and staying there is all that's needed. In fact, stepping in to save offspring is a way of life for them. School is just the first time it happens.
          1. phyzix5761 · · focus · HN ↗
            Generational wealth usually disappears within 3 generations so real life skills are necessary if the upper class wants to remain there.
            1. Terr_ · · focus · HN ↗
              Is that summing the wealth of every single person in a (usually growing) group of inheritors, or averaging it?

              If 1 guy with $16 billion turns into 16 grandkids with (inflation adjusted) $1 billion endowments each, it sounds to me like the family fortune was preserved extremely well, the family is simply bigger.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.