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.

Teach your children how to study the way you want them to?

I see no reason why you can't teach them knitting and seewing if it's important for you that they can produce clothes. I can and it's quite expensive compared to shop bought.

@ColdAsAWitches I think you’ve missed what I mean on my post. Of course I can tell my dc not to use it but I’m posting trying to understand what the bigger picture and where all this will lead to. Feels a large portion of what they learn at school will be fairly pointless one day and should we adapt sooner to that prospect.

Not my experience of my children in a faith school.
But at any rate, schools' dont have much power against parents. I have done supply in many (non faith) schools, and been really surprised how often parents complain/threaten schools about curriculum, forbidding their kids to do research into certain topics or even telling that they will be organising protests if a child is taught something they don't like. (Tbh the amount of people who are anti LGBTQ+ on mumsnet made me realise this should not be surprising, those people are probably on this very board too).
It's not abot schools being capable (sure, some teachers would be better at this than others) to teach critical thinking, but people just wanna go to work and go home without beign abused, drugged through the mud, spend hours replying to emails and feel scared that they may say something that a child or parent wil ltake out of context and will harrass them for this. No one wantsto put their job on the line knowing that odten schools wont support you and will cut you off to please parents.

In my country they do a couple of hours of handicrafts a week every school year until 8th grade (14/15 years old), at which point its an elective, half of that time is spent on fabric handicrafts so sewing, knitting, crochet etc. In the last year of primary my DD had to make a pair of trousers according to her own measurements. In 7th grade they do home ec and learn how to cook and clean up properly (including the "correct" way to do the dishes, and cleaning the oven, and setting the table, and folding napkins). I like that they learn this stuff but they have the time for it here, and the facilities in schools.

If I were you, I would tell your child to stop using chatGPT to do their homework! They aren't going to learn anything if they're using AI to do their work. I'm glad my teenager is very anti- AI, so she won't be using it and uses her brain instead.

Ds’ school teaches them how to use it and I’m really impressed by them.

They teach them how to spot things written by ai. They did assignments picking out the flaws and errors in an ai answer. But they encourage it as a learning support. There’s a lot of value in it when it’s used well.

It’s a very empowering approach because it’s not ignoring the technology but it’s showing them how relevant the human operator is.

People thought like this when the internet became widespread. It will shake out.

Perfect!

Take your volcano example. Chatgtp might be able to tell you how one works. But how does it know that in the first place? Because geologists worked it out. Because field scientists collected information over years. It's not just a question of being able to look something up. We still need students to be able to critically think, to look at a problem and work out how to answer it. To be able to get to a mountain and measure what's happening. And know if those measurements are believable or not. We have information, but it's vital to know how to interpret it. Having chatgtp do your homework is no good if you aren't good enough to understand it, or know if it's spouting shite or not.

So tell us what job you do Op? Then I'll tell you what you did in school to help you be prepared to do that job.
There's no bloody wonder schools have such a difficult job when parents think everything they do is useless, yet also expect them to educate students on absolutely everything.

Also stop your child using AI to do their homework. Make them actually use their own brains. That's on you OP.

DC’s school have very clear policies on using AI for homework and teach them how to use it responsibly. Fine for research, and help if you don’t understand something, absolutely not for copying verbatim. Most importantly, not to believe everything it says and double check that what it’s telling you is correct.

The vast majority of what we learned at school in the 80s and 90s was already pretty pointless for everyday life. That's not the point of education as far as I can tell. I have never had to use trigonometry in my whole life, nor do I particularly need to know what sort of plants are prevalent in South Africa and what is annual GDP of Poland. But for some of my classmates who went on to become engineers, maths teachers, geologist and economists, his was what ignited their passion. Similarly, I had passion for chemistry and Human biology which led to a degree in clinical science.
Given that AI is rapidly developing, it seems crucial that kids are aware of how to use it, what its limitations are and given an opportunity to utilise it as part of their learning. Seems much more useful to me than sewing own clothes.

It’s an easy fix. It can be banned on the school network, just like we have blocked YouTube at home.

The bigger issue is that schools are being a bit lazy. Or more than a bit. Ours is supposedly no phones, but teachers ask them to get out their phones to use in class all the time and they are often left with subs doing homework on their phones when no one can teach. I work in higher ed and if I did that to my students, I’d be in big trouble.

@MathsTeacherandLoveit I’m actually saying schools should teach more practical life skills instead of subjects that are becoming less relevant to a school classroom. In the same way things like Latin was dropped at the majority of state schools to accommodate ‘newer’ subjects such as MFL.

teach your child the value of learning and understanding something. To use your examples they’re not going it be able to understand the workings of a volcano if they don't do basics at school.
All children have caregivers so every child does have someone who could teach them life skill, they don’t again have to be left to schools. Schools do already teach bias, critical thinking and perspective, encouraging children to build a foundational knowledge that prepares and supports them in learning what they want in the future when the formal system is over.

I honestly despair.

So, if they stop learning geography at school, where is the next generation of specialists going to come from to keep people safe from the effects of earthquakes, landslides, volcanic activity? You can’t suddenly start at university level without the foundation of GCSE and A levels. Even if you can sew a nice seam. How are we going to make advances in medicine and science if nobody studies the relevant foundations at school so they can then go to university? Your plan abdicates the responsibility of parents to the school, while depriving children of the secondary education they need for tertiary study or to be successful in work. You can’t really be serious?

What irrelevant subjects do you think should be dropped?

I suppose they might need to know how to grow their own veg, sew their own clothes and stuff when the ecological disasters occur that using AI so readily are contributing to...

Is it teaching them the massive environmental cost of using AI?

Those subjects are the basis for later careers

That's why until 13/14 they do a host of subjects which are narrowed down for GCSE and then again at A Level and into a relevant field for university. Or they discover school based learning isn't for them and move to vocational college at 16 (where those skills of learning, discernment and critical thinking are still applied. Plus things like ratios, acids and alkaline, trigonometry, cause and effect etc can all still come into play)

Does your kid want to outsource their brain to AI? Because that's what they're doing. Do I think we should change education so people can do this more easily? No. No, I don't.

Some things for you to consider

A) What life skills would you like taught? A new subject, curriculum planning, teachers to deliver, that takes time and effort and a lot of money

B) new 'qualifications' are often not very popular with students nor parents (look at T Levels)- you cant just put a fancy label on it and expect that people will flock to do that instead of the 'traditional' GCSEs
One of the schools I didsupply tried to introduce life skills sort of lesson, hardly any uptake and the etachers who were allocated to teach it were a random bunch with underallocated periods. A recipe for success.

C) You seriously undervalue what is on offer.
While lots of students use chatgpt to cheat and do homework, it does not give them the knowledge they need and they still know nothing about the subject. Lets say Im a student, sure, I can ask AI to write a paragraph or a story or whatever, but it does not mean I will know/understand the content. If ever I want to for example get a job in banking, Im not gonna bring chatpgt to do the interview for me. Would you like to be treated by a doctor who used AI to do all his assignments? Or would you like a house designed by AI 'architect'? Go abroad and rely on google translate for all your communications with the local people? Pretty sad.

A lot of DC don’t use chat gpt, it’s instantly recognisable by most teachers.

How do / does your DC get on in formal exams?

Latin was dropped at the majority of state schools due to a lack of teachers and funding. A surprising number of children still opt for it when it's offered (at my comprehensive, for example).

Ditto music.

I'm old enough to have been told not to use a calculator in class as "you won't always have it with you". Look how that turned out. 🤣

Yes, but you should always have an idea what sort of size the answer that comes out of your calculator should be. If nothing else, because of user error.

Some people need to be able to do this. You were just being taught the skills that you might have needed in the future. If you don't need it then there is no harm done.