Great post by @pluralistic on the reason why virtually all first year college kids use AI in their writing.
Writing vs AI – https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/07/delicious-pizza/#hold-the-gravel
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@ameel @pluralistic Perhaps if education was free there would be less incentive to cheat for good grades and more to learn?
No need to look at Europe for free college/university education, Mexico has it with its UNAM* network. Mexico is not a perfect country, far from it, but it does understand that education is primordial in society.
*Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
If not free, at least the focus should be more on public institutions than private ones.
Of course, that's a choice that society needs to make: do you want to have a couple of multibillionaires while other people can't properly buy food for their kids OR do you want a more balanced society where everyone pays for but also can benefit from services regardless of their economic status?
@dom @ameel @pluralistic
As someone who benefitted from free education, I'll point out that making it free only makes the system less bad, it doesn't address the root cause.
As long as achieving good grades is seen as essential for success, students will focus on it. For them to learn, you need to offer a way forward to those with mediocre grades.
@brunogirin @pluralistic @dom @ameel Agreed. As an educator at a programme with no grades whatsoever (BFA in filmmaking) I can attest to the fact that when grades are not involved, and the students’ futures do not depend on whether they get a C or an A, they are free to focus on learning to a much greater degree.
I would love to see grades eliminated altogether from most educational programmes, at all levels.
@fgraver @brunogirin @pluralistic @dom @ameel
Grades are probably the epitome of Goodhart's law.
@fgraver @brunogirin @pluralistic @dom @ameel I’ve always thought numerical or letter-grades are especially inappropriate for most, if not all arts and humanities disciplines. Being required to assign them forces teachers to find ways to quantify what are primarily qualitative subjects; and this usually becomes a points-docking mentality that can ruin the quality of the experience for all concerned.
@etikemik @fgraver @brunogirin @pluralistic @ameel I don't really have preferences on letters or numbers for grades, but I do think they can help for student to understand if they need to put a bit more effort in their learning. I do think that grades need to be done in a way that helps students improve but not necessarily made to facilitate a teacher's job.
@dom @etikemik @brunogirin @pluralistic @ameel I think there are better ways to give the students an indication of whether they need to works harder or not, and where they need to put in their effort. Grades inevitably become a goal in themselves, and thus undermine learning. It took a long time (far too long!) to realise this.
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