Live data from Hacker News

My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

old.reddit.com

501–510 of 523 posts

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#501
post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an important discussion, as are many other tangents, but it's not really related to what the post was discussing as problematic.

Because the post missed the point. It natural for humans to use tools to make tasks as easy as possible. Doesn’t mean the users are dumb or uneducated just lazy.

I dunno that I'd agree with that either (for this specific type of example at least).

An adult wanting to find "how many hours are in 3.228 years?" when some task is looking for the answer aligns a bit with what you're saying. In this kind of scenario it has nothing with the adult not understanding how to do the conversion and everything to do with what the most accurate way to quickly complete the conversion itself is. I.e. the task is "produce an answer so we can use it". Whether that be done via calculator, spreadsheet, timespan conversion tool, or LLM (though the latter can be a bit of a poor choice for this type of task to be honest) the use of the tool is about best achieving the original goal accurately and quickly, not about sidestepping it.

A student wanting to find "how many hours are there in 1 day and 7 hours" on their homework aligns very differently in my opinion. In this kind of scenario the goal was that the student become more educated on time conversions by practicing them. The actual answer provided is just a way to be able to provide feedback on how accurately that learning process went. Learning these kinds of basic things through experience allows them to tackle learning ever more complex things as they advance through their education. Faking gaining that education by using a tool to get an answer to write down isn't just the lazier way to do the conversion, it does leave them without the education the task was actually about.

Not only that, learning to do such basic timespan conversions is going to be the lazy way for such tasks over anything but the briefest timespan anyways!

If LLMs were being used as part of the learning process instead of a replacement of the learning process I'd hold different opinions of the post. I think tools (be it calculators or LLMs) can be extremely powerful learning aids... but extremely weak ones when used as learning replacements.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#502

I think one thing few are willing to admit is that a large blame for this can be placed on disinterested parents. Parents that believe it is solely the school/teacher's job to educate their child. When kids are at home, parents should be involved in the learning process. You don't have to be a helicopter and monitor everything, but you should take interest in the work your child is doing. If you check in at least onc…

> it is solely the school/teacher's job to educate their child. Parents are not teachers and teachers are not parents I do not teach my kids math, even though I could, it's their duty to learn at school and it's their teachers' job to teach them. OTOH, I don’t expect them to learn proper table manners or public behavior from their school teachers. EDIT: grammar

I think there is a difference between teaching your child and your child entering kindergarten knowing their letters and being out of diapers.

Yes, children entering kindergarten still in diapers is on the rise and significant problem.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#503

Earlier quoted context omitted.

4o-mini is more than capable of doing grade school homework.

It's the other way around, no model is capable (or should be put in charge of) doing grade school homework. So the pro version is less shit at it. The fact that we use the LLM should always be preceded with, "I know I shouldn't be doing this but..."

We get it, you don't like LLMs, but nothing of what you mentioned pertains to the point I made initially, which is that locking down one's own account does not prevent someone else from making their own.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#504
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point, but also 50 years ago, all-caps would have been one of only two available ways to emphasise text, the other being underlines. Typewriters weren't able to do much else. At least, not the ones you could easily get. Aired 1993, February 25: https://youtu.be/nN9wNvEnn-Q?si=eqUWiZTxYach3db-&t=975

> one of only two available ways Three ways : many could also type in red: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B009KXXSOI (showing a red/black ribbon). 7:05 shows the lever for a Brother typewriter in this video and a bit before that shows a different lever for heavyness (although I don't know if that would do bold): https://youtube.com/watch?v=d_dTu6T87Cg&t=6m50s And AFAIR you could somewhat do bold by overtyping a few tim…

Huh, interesting. I don't think we ever had multi-colour ribbons on the typewriters I played with as a kid.

(It would have been the late 80s in the UK, I have no idea how representative my experiences were).

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#505

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> it is solely the school/teacher's job to educate their child. Parents are not teachers and teachers are not parents I do not teach my kids math, even though I could, it's their duty to learn at school and it's their teachers' job to teach them. OTOH, I don’t expect them to learn proper table manners or public behavior from their school teachers. EDIT: grammar

I think there is a difference between teaching your child and your child entering kindergarten knowing their letters and being out of diapers. Yes, children entering kindergarten still in diapers is on the rise and significant problem.

[dead]

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#506

Earlier quoted context omitted.

kids should be kids and do what other kids are doing, even if it's watching TV or playing video games, unless it’s something truly harmful. watching TV hasn't killed anyone and my generation, who grew up in front of the TV screen for lack of better alternatives, turned out just fine. The real issue now is with my parents’ generation, but that’s because they’re old and their mindset has become immutable, not because t…

>watching TV hasn't killed anyone and my generation, who grew up in front of the TV screen for lack of better alternatives, turned out just fine. I don’t think any previous generation kids spend as much time in front of the TV as they do with the screens today, sadly the damage will only be seen when it is done. The difference is mainly the content, as bad as TV could have been in the past at least there was someone…

[dead]

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#507

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It's not a competition. As a parent whose child has been in two school systems, respectfully: yes, it is. And it begins earlier than you think.

What if we all just stopped competing?

That's a good idea. You go first?

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#508
post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tests/quizzes are good teaching tools. Students learn more effectively when they are frequently tested on the material. https://www.hubermanlab.com/episode/optimal-protocols-for-st...

> Tests/quizzes are good teaching tools. I skimmed the linked material and that's not my conclusion. Practice tests are better teaching tools than just memorizing the material and then taking a real test, but on an absolute scale, I'm convinced that they're pretty terrible for most types of material. Throughout my education I've come across countless people who could memorize the material and recite it with relative…

What kind of school did you go to where you needed to memorize things? That's not how schools usually are these days. Tests don't test memorization, they ask you to solve problems.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#509
post #285

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm rising 3 kids (in France, I don't know if it changes much). We have banned TV, very heavily restricted phones, and we closely follow homework. I'm persuaded it makes a difference wrt parents that don't do that, but somehow isn't a sure fire way of being a "great parent".

We're in Canada; doing the same. But most of my kids' classmates are on YouTube all the time. The brainrot content is unavoidable and it's creating issues for my kids' socialization.

My parents didn't get me a nintendo when I was a child. My socialization also suffered, but I ended up with a job making AAA games and they did not so I consider it a fair trade now that I'm older.

Re: My little sister's use of ChatGPT for homework is heartbreaking

#510

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the other way around, no model is capable (or should be put in charge of) doing grade school homework. So the pro version is less shit at it. The fact that we use the LLM should always be preceded with, "I know I shouldn't be doing this but..."

We get it, you don't like LLMs, but nothing of what you mentioned pertains to the point I made initially, which is that locking down one's own account does not prevent someone else from making their own.

I do like LLMs, but I do no think they are appropriate for children. And the shit version much less so.

And if you are a parent or a big brother, you absolutely have control over what online services a child uses.

What an insane world we would live in otherwise.

Post reply on HN