Posted from Jimmy’s Bar & Grill, 2:43 PM, halfway through my fourth Wild Turkey
Christ, another article about “preparing students for an AI world” just landed in my inbox like a dead rat on my doorstep. Had to order a double just to get through it.
lights cigarette
Look, I spent 12 years sorting mail at the post office while management consultants kept showing up with their “efficiency protocols” and “modernization strategies.” Now I’m watching the same song and dance with teachers, except this time it’s wearing an AI costume.
takes long drag, signals Jimmy for another round
The piece starts with that familiar tech industry patronizing tone: “Every educator knows the truth… they feel it in their gut.” Yeah, what teachers feel in their gut is probably acid reflux from grading papers until 2 AM while making less than a junior programmer at some bullshit app startup.
The author then drops five “carefully crafted ChatGPT prompts” like they’re giving away the secrets of the universe. Let me translate these prompts from Silicon Valley-ese to bar stool English:
ashes falling on my laptop, Jimmy shooting me that look
You know what’s funny? I used to write technical manuals for a living. The kind nobody reads. But at least I admitted they were useless. These folks are packaging common sense as revolution and selling it back to the people who actually do the work.
My sister teaches third grade in Oakland. Called her last night about this article.
“Henry,” she said, “I’ve got kids who can’t eat breakfast, parents working three jobs, and a classroom ceiling that leaks when it rains. But sure, let me worry about crafting the perfect ChatGPT prompt.”
finishing this bourbon, starting another
Here’s what teachers actually need:
Instead, they’re getting:
spilling ash on my notes
You want to prepare kids for an AI world? How about we first prepare them for THIS world? Teach them to think critically, to question the bullshit being fed to them, to understand why some suit from Silicon Valley thinks he knows more about education than someone who’s been teaching for 20 years.
But what do I know? I’m just a drunk tech writer in a dive bar, watching the same old corporate circus parade past in new clothes.
Jimmy’s cutting me off soon, better wrap this up
Bottom line: Teachers don’t need more prompts. They need resources, respect, and for tech bros to stop “disrupting” their classrooms with solutions to problems they don’t have.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, Jimmy’s giving me that look again. Time to settle up and stumble home to my cat.
Signing off from the sticky end of the bar, Henry Chinaski Wasted Wetware
PS: Sent from my whiskey-stained MacBook Pro, typos courtesy of Wild Turkey