Lindsay’s blog post #2

Hi Lindsay,

I enjoyed your post – especially the lovely black & white photos with the rounded edges. I related to what Natasha Berg was saying in that first TED talk you linked to. Not that I’m a teacher yet, but it does often strike me as a little strange to rely so comfortably on things in adult life and then assume that prohibition of those same things is what’s essential in preparing children for adulthood. On the other hand, I also agree with the importance of limiting access to things that could easily become enough of a distraction or a crutch to stunt students’ growth – and I relate this to Berg’s point about setting times for student use of AI. As an analogy, in my after school work with youth, I see some students given money to spend however they see fit, and they very regularly see fit to spend it all at the corner store, buying and eating in one go truly ungodly quantities of candy. I’m no nutritionist, but it seems to me sugar consumption at this level could easily constitute a dangerous dependence – one that would interfere with these individuals’ well-being and fulfillment down the road. Perhaps use of large language models is similar. Regardless, it does seem that their ubiquity in the adult world is a foregone conclusion, to the point that banning them completely in education will soon be not so much immoral as impossible.

Anyway, thanks for the stimulating post!