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40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

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Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#21

Post by robshep »

jdalgetty wrote: post #16

This is 100% the fault of parents.

Parents (myself included) have an impossible task of regulating access to technology for their children.

Societal norms are not aligned with what these educators are saying. I and many other parents know this but they are exposed to technology outside of our direct oversight at schools, friends and relatives houses.

Imagine whining about smoking in the first half of the 20th century or even the 60s and 70s. Sure there’s an obvious element to it, but smoking rates used to be higher than 50%. Societal norms were that everyone was exposed to smoke, government was lobbied by tobacco and tobacco got rich.

There has been a generational shift in attitudes to, and prevalence of smoking, but only when the medical consensus was harder to lobby away and politicians were faced with pressure of a critical mass of bereaved relatives. It’s at the this stage that “average” adult has strong enough convictions supported by regulation that society breaks through.

Meanwhile, as an adult I am borderline forced to use a smartphone for banking, shopping and communication and need superhuman levels of willpower to avoid social media entrapment.

Big tech is 100% thrilled that people still push around the argument that parents are 100% to blame.

Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#22

Post by magicalhippo »

V__ wrote: post #18
werdnapk wrote: post #2

From the summary of video: "40% of fourth graders can't read. Kids are asking their teachers why they need to learn to read when AI can do it for them. Social media has destroyed their attention spans and now teachers aren't teaching, instead they're managing withdrawal symptoms." Why are fourth graders on social media and using AI already? My fourth grade kid has no social media presence and definitely isn't familia…

A lot of people want to have kids but don't want to be parents. There are a lot of kids who spend hours on tablets watching TikTok and so on before they even reached first grade.

Couple of years ago I was taking the tram home, and there was a toddler in a stroller. The toddler was young enough she couldn't speak properly. She got frustrated about something and started crying.

Without hesitation the parent whipped up the iPhone and handed it to her. The kid navigated the menu with ease, launched a game and started playing. After about 15 seconds, she exited the game, navigated a few pages with purpose to another game and ended up playing that instead.

Meanwhile I was standing there gobsmacked...

Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#23

Post by xenospn »

werdnapk wrote: post #2

From the summary of video: "40% of fourth graders can't read. Kids are asking their teachers why they need to learn to read when AI can do it for them. Social media has destroyed their attention spans and now teachers aren't teaching, instead they're managing withdrawal symptoms." Why are fourth graders on social media and using AI already? My fourth grade kid has no social media presence and definitely isn't familia…

How do they expect to understand what the AI is doing if they can’t read the output? Seems like critical thinking skills are also not entirely there.

Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#25

Post by V__ »

magicalhippo wrote: post #22
V__ wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people want to have kids but don't want to be parents. There are a lot of kids who spend hours on tablets watching TikTok and so on before they even reached first grade.

Couple of years ago I was taking the tram home, and there was a toddler in a stroller. The toddler was young enough she couldn't speak properly. She got frustrated about something and started crying. Without hesitation the parent whipped up the iPhone and handed it to her. The kid navigated the menu with ease, launched a game and started playing. After about 15 seconds, she exited the game, navigated a few pages with…

As part of the "in-between" generation which skipped lead poisoning and the extreme social media/smartphone dependency, I kinda feel worried.

Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#27

Post by JohnFen »

b3lvedere wrote: post #4
werdnapk wrote: post #2

From the summary of video: "40% of fourth graders can't read. Kids are asking their teachers why they need to learn to read when AI can do it for them. Social media has destroyed their attention spans and now teachers aren't teaching, instead they're managing withdrawal symptoms." Why are fourth graders on social media and using AI already? My fourth grade kid has no social media presence and definitely isn't familia…

Not all parents on this planet are investing in their offspring. Some parents also miss the required knowledge. Getting the required knowledge could be a society problem.

This is incredibly true, and has been a growing problem from before LLMs came around. Even wealthy families who presumably have plenty of resources they could use to better their children's fates are failing their kids. My sister is a teacher in a well-off school district and has to buy food out of her own pocket (on a teacher's salary) to give to her students because so many haven't even had anything to eat before they show up.

I mean, these are bare minimum things, people.

Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#28

Post by werdnapk »

xenospn wrote: post #23
werdnapk wrote: post #2

From the summary of video: "40% of fourth graders can't read. Kids are asking their teachers why they need to learn to read when AI can do it for them. Social media has destroyed their attention spans and now teachers aren't teaching, instead they're managing withdrawal symptoms." Why are fourth graders on social media and using AI already? My fourth grade kid has no social media presence and definitely isn't familia…

How do they expect to understand what the AI is doing if they can’t read the output? Seems like critical thinking skills are also not entirely there.

No need to read text, AI can talk in a voice of your choosing.

Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#29

Post by OutOfHere »

Annual escalation of the grade, e.g. eight grade, should be altogether eliminated in favor of one month modules. This avoids wasting a whole year if one fails the grade. Faster feedback is better, up to a point, and it is better here.

How would this work in practice though if a teacher has to teach an entire class? Of course it would have to use computer instruction, with the teacher helping small batches of students who're in the month-long module, but only for a fraction of the time. Whatever you do, please do not call it a sprint - it misuses the concept from running by lasting forever, resulting in inevitable burnout.

Re: 40% of Kids Can't Read and Teachers Are Quitting [video]

#30

Post by readthenotes1 »

SanjayMehta wrote: post #24
dvh wrote: post #13

Why are you letting kids that can't read pass the grade?

"No child left behind"

"Every child college bound"

(Who knew this was the financial aid industry slogan, and "bound" meant "shackled", not "headed to"?)

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