A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom • Hacker News Board

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#91

Post by flappyeagle » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:15 PM UTC

polotics wrote: post #40

textadventure wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm wondering why is this being published in the first place. It's not an interesting or illuminating perspective, it's a pretentious student telling us nothing new. I gave no opinions on AI, yet I do think it's very much a problem. This article presents neither good ideas to tackle it, nor an insightful perspective on the problem.

can you highlight the pretentious bits i totally missed them

It’s a good student writing the piece, which is somehow fundamentally pretentious

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#92

Post by pavel_lishin » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:19 PM UTC

underlipton wrote: post #89

pavel_lishin wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> For k-12, getting the parent and the student to sit down outside of school and “cheat” by having the parent teach the kid is… victory! You’ve reinforced the idea that learning can happen outside schools. I don't think they were trying to prevent parents from working with children; I think they were trying to prevent parents doing the homework for children, or the kids farming it out to someone else online, or getti…

>Same with college; it wasn't exactly networking when someone I knew paid someone to do their homework for them. Right, that's delegating.

I certainly hope that doctors, civil engineers & researchers aren't doing too much delegating in college.

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#93

Post by fzeroracer » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:28 PM UTC

For reference, a similar HN story from about a month ago [1] on teacher usage of AI tools in the classroom.

It's pretty fucking dire. I think we're failing an entire generation of kids and the ramifications of this is going to be real bad in 5-10 years. I've heard similar stories from friends of mine whom are teachers.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44808122

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#94

Post by StefanBatory » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:33 PM UTC

csa wrote: post #76

zdragnar wrote: post #5

I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Homework- at home- seemed like such a fundamental part of the schooling experience. Now, I'm thinking that was pretty much they onl…

> I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Good! If they want to give kids the chance to develop the skill of managing unstructured time, that could easily be fit into the…

My uni performance would always drop whenever my parents would fight at home.

You aren't doing your homework when you're trying to not have a panic attack from shouting.

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#95

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:38 PM UTC

textadventure wrote: post #18

This take from a Hermione-type High School senior shed next to zero new light on the subject. Yes, we know AI is redefining school and jobs and daily life. The perspective of an obnoxious A+ type student isn't helping, especially because you kind of can read between the lines that she isn't friends with these kids using AI, which would give her a deeper perspective of why and how they are using AI. Is this what The A…

[deleted]

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#96

Post by nancyminusone » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:40 PM UTC

zdragnar wrote: post #5

I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Homework- at home- seemed like such a fundamental part of the schooling experience. Now, I'm thinking that was pretty much they onl…

Homework is nothing more than the denial of childhood. I am very thankful I quit doing mine as soon as I could get away with it.

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#97

Post by paul7986 » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:41 PM UTC

zdragnar wrote: post #5

I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Homework- at home- seemed like such a fundamental part of the schooling experience. Now, I'm thinking that was pretty much they onl…

My college professor (English) friends are doing this. Making students hand write and do their assignments during class. I think it's great, thanks AI!

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#98

Post by glitchc » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 7:51 PM UTC

csa wrote: post #76

zdragnar wrote: post #5

I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Homework- at home- seemed like such a fundamental part of the schooling experience. Now, I'm thinking that was pretty much they onl…

> I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Good! If they want to give kids the chance to develop the skill of managing unstructured time, that could easily be fit into the…

> For many/most students, the home is not particularly conducive for doing homework a variety of reasons.

I think this speaks to the parents and the type of home environment that they create. This is one of the major sources of disagreement between the right and the left, where the former (sometimes strongly) feel the parents bear responsibility for the type of environment their kids grow up in while the latter (equally strongly) feel that they can't really help themselves due to external factors (abuse, addiction, sickness, etc.).

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#99

Post by warkdarrior » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 8:01 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #92

underlipton wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Same with college; it wasn't exactly networking when someone I knew paid someone to do their homework for them. Right, that's delegating.

I certainly hope that doctors, civil engineers & researchers aren't doing too much delegating in college.

They'll soon be replaced by chatbots, for better or for worse.

Re: A high schooler writes about AI tools in the classroom

#100

Post by tripletpeaks » Thu, Sep 04, 2025, 8:02 PM UTC

csa wrote: post #76

zdragnar wrote: post #5

I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Homework- at home- seemed like such a fundamental part of the schooling experience. Now, I'm thinking that was pretty much they onl…

> I recently found out that my nephew's school had no take-home homework before high school, instead having kids complete assignments during class time. At first, I was flabbergasted that they would deny kids the discipline building of managing unstructured time without direct supervision. Good! If they want to give kids the chance to develop the skill of managing unstructured time, that could easily be fit into the…

> For my personal experience, college was a time management joke after high school, mainly because I didn’t have to spend so much bullshit/wasted time in classes.

Same here. Junior high and high school especially were the least-flexible, strictest environments I’ve ever been in, including in work life. People (teachers, relatives) telling me things like “this is the best part of your life” and “they have to be tough on you because the real world is so much harder still”—luckily I got a job early in high school and started to get the sense they might all be wildly wrong about that, then went to college and instead of being harder, it was like a fuckin’ vacation. So much more flexible, humane, and chill.

And yeah, 8 hours at school and 2+ hours of homework every night… in hindsight, I have to not think about it too hard or I’ll get angry. I could have learned more putting in literally 1/4 the time, and not been constantly stressed out to a degree I wouldn’t realize until later was extremely unhealthy.

Not just a huge waste of time, but caused harm it took me more than a decade to mostly get over. And I wasn’t even seriously bullied or anything! I was even somewhat popular!