I talked with a retired teacher who thinks AI will ruin critical thinking in kids

My neighbor Mary, who taught high school English for 35 years, told me last Tuesday that she watched her grandson use ChatGPT to write a whole book report without reading the book. She said the problem isn't the tool itself, but how kids will stop learning to form arguments on their own. On the other hand, I think AI could help students who struggle with writing get their ideas across better. So which side is right, is AI making us dumber or just changing how we think? What have you seen with young people using these tools?

2 comments

2 Comments

davis.dylan25d agoMost Upvoted

Oh man, "stopped learning to form arguments on their own" - yeah because nobody ever wrote a crappy book report before AI existed. I remember in 9th grade I wrote a whole report on Moby Dick after just reading the back cover and watching like 20 minutes of the movie. Turned in some real garbage about a whale that was actually a metaphor for... something. At least if that kid used ChatGPT he probably got a B instead of a D. Honestly I think the real test is whether they still get that same empty feeling when the teacher asks them what they thought about the book and they gotta make up something on the spot.

mason_barnes25d ago

Yeah @davis.dylan pretty much nailed it. I still remember a buddy in college who wrote a whole paper on The Great Gatsby based on the Wikipedia summary and the 2013 movie trailer. He got a C+ and the professor wrote "interesting take" in the margins which we all knew meant "what are you even talking about." At least with ChatGPT you get coherent nonsense instead of whatever desperate garbage we were all cranking out at 2am. The empty feeling when the teacher asks follow up questions hasn't changed though, that's been a staple of education since forever. Now kids just get to feel that emptiness while staring at a screen instead of a notebook.