My dc goes to school and uses ChatGPT for everything and I’m thinking the education system needs a good shake up to prevent becoming almost useless, aibu

[Pineapplespongebob]

They’re in secondary school and their school isn’t the best. Every day they get homework and do it on ChatGPT. They and the rest of their class have taken to using gpt in class on their laptops wherever they can. I am wondering what’s the point of education system as it stands. It’s a shame we can’t look to improve the whole situation, like, learning about a volcano is all well and good but it’s easy enough to look it up now. And if I’m stuck personally on a subject I will too.

eventually AI will get good enough to do things we mock it for now. Shouldn’t we be hearing more about education changing to suit dc in the future? Why can’t we take a step back from academics and give more life skills now. Even things like learning how to cook cheaper healthy meals would probably suit more people in my dc school than the ins and outs of a volcano and possibly reduce the strain on the nhs when a large majority of my dc class seem to survive on fast food rn.

this isn’t my experience at all and I have 2 children in secondary. Neither use chat gpt - homework is handwritten.
and - I’ve taught them to cook.
maybe it varies from school to school, but I’ve been impressed with the level of work they have to do.

Chat GPT isn’t academic. It might give you facts (though of course the accuracy of AI search results is very patchy) but it doesn’t teach you how to think. It doesn’t teach you to be critical of the sources it expounds, or how to evaluate their legitimacy. It doesn’t give a grounding in a subject which would allow understanding and analysis which could be applied to other questions and problems in the field. In short, it is not at all like human intelligence.

It might, though, have a use for people who want to look up eg how to eat a balanced diet, or open a bank account, or how compound interest works. Those are the sort of life skills you’re asking about, but which could, ironically given your question, be easily answered by AI. Or a parent?

The school i work st has flipped learning really so homework is research and any written work is done in class with no laptop access.

I think that adjustments will need to be made to education though.

Why don't you (and other parents) teach your kids life skills,and let schools focus on academics?

The school sounds very poor. That's separate to issues posed by AI.

Our school has been taken over by it. It plans lessons, it writes emails, it arranges PSHE. I keep thinking in ten years we will have forgotten how to speak to one another normally.

The school system still involved exams without Internet access so everybody who uses chat gpt rather than study, will be screwed later.

Don’t your kids do Food Tech? My kids did a term of Food Tech from year 7 and one of them picked it as his GCSE option.

It's your job as a parent to teach your child life skills, and to teach them why cheating on their homework by using Chat GPT will probably come back to bite them later on.

I agree op. There is no value in teaching knowledge, as anyone can find out anything at the touch of a button. SchoolS need to shift to teaching about critical evaluation of sources, how to spot unreliable news, assessing the value of information etc. That, social skills, and practical skills would be far more beneficial.

My daughters homework is handwritten but she does use chst gpt for answers when shes stuck.

It’s your job to teach life skills and ensure your child doesn’t use Chat GPT for homework. Your child’s school should be ensuring they don’t use it in the classroom.

Education should enrich young people’s lives with knowledge and understanding of the world we live in. It should equip young people to open the door to the future they choose: whether that be scientist, leader, world traveller, debater, raconteur, someone who is able to voice their thoughts and beliefs, and who understands the impacts of their actions on others, the environment etc. Or even someone who just loves books, or knows when words are being used to manipulate, or feels they belong in a theatre, or can go to another country with curiosity about its culture.

It’s a sad state of affairs if we don’t value learning, knowledge of our world, and critical thinking skills, treating life instead as a matter of survival.

There’s isn’t food tech at their school but my point isn’t for my dc alone, it’s that there’s a fairly decent chunk of society who everyone ends up paying for one way or another because they’re left behind due to assumptions that everyone has people at home to teach them

I’m not just talking about cooking btw. Just an observation and wondered why we can’t tweak the education system into something that means a better society for all going forward. Imagine if all the dc leaving school could make their own clothes, cook etc. I think that would be better future proofing than some of the things they learn.

Interesting thought in the current political climate, when parents threaten schools with boycotts and protests for doing just that, and then politicians call schools 'woke' for teaching critical thinking.

@HerNeighbourTotoro it could be argued that it’s for parents to teach critical thinking, I’m not convinced all schools are capable either. We still have faith schools for example, they are usually biased in their teachings.

They're at home when they do their homework. Why are you letting them do it that way? How do you expect the school to stop them when they're at home?

I do agree with learning life skills and having more vocational opportunities available to school children.

As for ChatGPT I would seriously discourage your child not to use it. It weakens their cognitive development and there has been lots of research in this area.

At my children’s secondary school they have been told not to use AI to write their essays. It’s good for summarising papers but it’s not always accurate. We have been encouraged to use it at work but I don’t use it to write as I like to Sue use my brain. But it does take notes for meeting (transcription) so can be useful for some things.

So you want to take education back to...what? 19th century?
As someone who can make my own clothes, I don't mind telling you that it's a fun hobby but isn't future-proofing in any way unless you predict a complete collapse in society. Making your own clothes is expensive. It's a luxury that very few could afford, I imagine.
Also, future-proofing would surely involve a competent use of emerging technology. So instead of teaching kids how to milk cows and weave baskets, I'd argue it's best to focus on skills such as critical thinking and fact checking. We seem to be lacking in these as a society.

Why will they make their own clothes when it's cheaper to get them from Shein, Sainsbury's or Primark? The limitations of what school can practically teach are huge with classes of 30+. There is still a place for academic knowledge, general knowledge. Absolutely agree about critical thinking but they have to learn that in the context of actual knowledge..no way to think critically about Trump if you know nothing about how American politics work, NATO or world history. We have a massive problem with mistrust of experts..people who actually know stuff are drowned out by loudmouths on social media who think because they've seen an AI doctored photo they know stuff. Academically educated teachers can pass on things that less educated parents can't but most can teach life skills and if they can't, that is a social problem, not an academic one. How about bringing back youth clubs, widening access to and participation in scouts, cadets etc? Schools are academic, not a 360 life coach.

Not if they want to pass an OFSTED they're not.

Why is it the schools / the education systems responsibility to stop your son using chatgpt for homework?

Teach him when it's appropriate and when it's not. And why.

Tell him not to…

Well there is a whole circulum review being done as we speak, and we are over due a change as the last one was 2016. Also technology changers quicker then the school systems can keep up.

But reliying on chatGTP for answers is daft, if often lies if it can't find the answer. You can't take it into and exam with you either so you still need to learn the subject. Your best teaching your children when technology can be useful, when you need to know actual facts and how to find out if it's actually accurate.

Perhaps it’s you who are biased OP.

@PurpleCyclamen how so?

Why are you letting your daughter have chatGTP do her homework for her? There's parental responsibility around education too.