"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 familiar with AI tools. This sounds like a parent problem.
I mean, these are bare minimum things, people.
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...
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.
Unless something worse comes along, like vaping and we undo all the anti smoking progress of the last two generations.
OK, I found it, peak was 2020. Just in case someone will (again) argue this means we have to go back to pedagogy of 1970.
(Who knew this was the financial aid industry slogan, and "bound" meant "shackled", not "headed to"?)
„Skibidi Toilet is rotting brains!! Kids don‘t want cartoons!!“.
I suppose videos like this might get people to think about the problem who hadn‘t considered it before.
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.
People smoked for the same reason people doomscroll - anxiety.
You can expose your kid to technology and also explain the role of moderation the same way you do with candy and sweets. You will need to model the behavior you want in your kid - that means putting your phone down. Buy a timed lockbox if that is what you need.
if it's 50% it's a society problem and can not be pushed to the individuals.
