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It's not a competition. Teach her to use her brain, and hope school will end up being a net positive. You can't fix other parents and their children.

It starts now for you by the way. Keep her away from screens for now, and be a good role model when handling devices (and the apps on them). You have ten years to show them what computers can do for you, but also what being the master of your own cognitive skills will gain you. If you do it right it won't matter whether she is allowed to use those tools or not, she'll use her own brain because that will allow her to get ahead by the time it really matters.



> It's not a competition.

As a parent whose child has been in two school systems, respectfully: yes, it is. And it begins earlier than you think.


Was it ever a competition for you? I’m French and don’t remember that kind of thing.


I did all of my education post elementary school in the United States, specifically in Texas. Class space was limited in advanced subjects, and there are only so many scholarships to go around. If I had not gotten one, I am not sure if my family would have been able to afford college - which, regardless of we may think of the utility of higher education, definitely set me up with connections that set me on a career path that's currently supporting my family.


What if we all just stopped competing?


That's a good idea. You go first?


Suggest watching the movie gattaca to understand what happens to kids of parents who think like this in an extreme version. The problem is if you ignore the reality of the competition it’s basically setting your kid up to fail due to prisoner dilemma dynamics.


You have already failed your kid if you don't teach them to use their brain. Education is what let's people transcend the rat race of life, acquiring knowledge to use for the rat race isn't education in this sense.

Learn to live on lentils and you will not have to be subservient to the king.

If you want your kids to be subservient to the king then of course they should use ChatGPT, and you should want schools to allow it otherwise we will just have more Asian and Indian students "getting ahead"


Hear me out: we could also build a more equitable society, one where the two choices aren't "live like an impoverished monk" and "win the Hunger Games".




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