An easy way to circumvent the AI problem is to ask the kids to read the material ahead of time and use class time for socratic method questions each student has to answer to determine their grade over time. Social media is training the new generations to be fed information - mostly stuff that flushes down the brain with an emotion, but also content. AI can easily create custom courses fit to a child’s needs and add density or adjust pace without being tired. Have them answer questions along the way to adjust pace and you have an educational opportunity beyond measure. The real problem is not that - it’s the US system’s multi use as a credentialing signal. Grading on curves and having kids play zero sum games where there don’t need to be any is what makes bad behavior unethical and unethical behavior a habit at an early age. With AI everyone can have mentors in every discipline (some better that others). So instead of encouraging laziness with laziness, invest in gamifying the degree experience so the more levels a student unlocks the more advanced they are certified to be. You will find abundant qualified people in no time. The real problem is that the current qualified people don’t want abundant competition for high paying jobs.
> Grading on curves and having kids play zero sum games where there don’t need to be any is what makes bad behavior unethical and unethical behavior a habit at an early age. With AI everyone can have mentors in every discipline (some better that others). So instead of encouraging laziness with laziness, invest in gamifying the degree
I agree with all else but I get a different impression here.
The unethical behavior really ramped up not with participation trophies per se, but around the same time we started gamifying everything. People treated each other like NPCs in GTA to abuse for their own amusement or advancement. On the internet we stopped being people and became targets to destroy. Nothing appeals to psychopathic behavior like turning any environment into a feedback loop of reward-seeking.
"Gamifying" life should give anyone pause when you witness how people act within existing game systems. How much effort is spent policing fraud, abuse and antisocial behavior within zero-stakes environments of games themselves? Multi-player Minecraft is unplayable unless you band together into tribal cliques with private servers (de-facto ingroup "racism" with no inclusivity clause for trolls); otherwise random people will log in, destroy your world on purpose and leave. We see similar behavior in real life from terminally-online types committing arson and trying to bait law enforcement into killing people. It's not coincidental.
Gamifying anything drives a competitive environment in which people are compelled to win (dominate) by any means necessary. It's not ethical to force opponents into bankruptcy by ruthlessly exploiting them, but it's the literal point of Monopoly.
School itself is gamified through the reward of grades and privileges. The system you describe is the one we already have. People will always have incentive to cheat to get ahead, especially when competing for or trying to retain tenured positions.
Grades are a competition with yourself. The grading curves where a certain % has to have a low grade even if they answer 90% of their test correctly. Curves means that if someone does close to as well as you they became an enemy instead of a future teammate.
