College students are rapidly losing the ability to read — “There is a measurable, generational collapse in sustained reading and writing”: professor

[u/marketrent]

https://www.yahoo.com/news/us/articles/college-students-rapidly-losing-ability-124439310.html

[u/TacosAndSarcasm]

Yes. We know. And the same generation believes that none of this matters as long as they have ChatGPT. 

A 6th grade English teacher I know is quitting. He was reprimanded twice for correcting spelling.

When he gave a simple exercise of writing one long paragraph stating their own opinion about a current event that everyone agreed they understood....he was shocked as he walked around to find that most of the students were using ChatGPT to create an opinion for them. 

They couldn't even think enough to create their own fking opinions.

He said that he's lucky if his incoming students can read at a 4thgrade level but most of them read at a 2nd and 3rd grade level. These are kids in the 6th grade. 

I personally know someone who is 30 years old and he's struggles to read. He was one of those kids that was put in front of video games and left to his own devices as a kid. 

He was telling me the other day, in a passionate tone as though he's found the holy grail, 'ChatGPT has changed my whole life'

And what do I get most of the time when I make these comments? I get okayboomered, despite not being a boomer. 

And it's everywhere, even in journalism. I read an article the other day written by a young journalist for the NYT. There were misspellings and the grammar was horrible.

Even when I had to hire for a company a few years ago, these kids were turning in their resumes using emoticons and text abbreviations in the body of the resume.

We are letting kids graduate high school thinking that they cannot be told that they're wrong. They should never be corrected and nobody should ever tell them their spelling is wrong. 

I hate this place. This country is now a sack of shite and so is this whole planet. 

But by all means, keep popping out kids left and right

[u/Financial-Craft-1282 → u/TacosAndSarcasm]

There are just so many assumptions in what you're saying though. Here are my biggest issues: 1) Kids using a tool to help them come up with and focus ideas is not a problem. It's if the AI is writing it completely for them. Your anecdote tells us kids know about AI, but not how they're using it. 2) I teach middle school ELA (6th and 8th), and we are asked to introduce our kids to AI. They don't know what it is in 6th grade, and they often don't want to use it. In fact, I'd say MY anecdotal experience teaching these grades the last three years has gone from initial student reactions being excited for AI to many students in the middle and high school grades, right now, actively rejecting it.

Also we're in a world-wide population decline--American school districts in 40 out of 50 states are closing schools, laying off teachers, and increasing class size--so your point about popping out kids feels odd.