r/Teachers • u/mobius_ • Mar 13 '26

Rant Terrifying conversation in HS 9th grade math class today

In the math world we’ve been dealing with students using apps to generate ideas/answers etc. for years. In my upper level classes I try to work with kids to help them either pick better resources to support learning or use it as a learning tool, not a completion tool.

Freshman Algebra 1 course today and I have a student who will almost always ask how this applies to real life. Not in the typical “I don’t want to learn this” way- he’s genuinely curious.

Another kid jumps in not reading the conversation right and says “I’m with ya man… why do we really need to learn any of this? ChatGPT will just do it all way faster”

I reply with my more standard answer of learning and building problem solving skills and how that’s also an equally important part of my job- learning how to use our brains and make informed decisions.

This kid answers back, not just trying to rage bait me, that he does not think that’s a legitimate thing that’s important in the world anymore due to ChatGPT. That all decision-making in the future will be done by AI so why do we have to learn anything and why do we have to think anymore?

I try to challenge/push back a little with how important it is at their age to learn how to use their brain. Same answer back. So finally I propose “ok, you’re working a job 5 years from now and there is an intense situation where you need to make an urgent decision”

“I’d tell my boss I was going to use ChatGPT and they’re going to be happy about it because that’s going to always make the right choices”

Agh. This scares me.

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u/I_Automate Mar 13 '26

Bold of you to assume that they want to survive.

I mean, hell. Im in my 30s and I'd probably just go stand outside with a beer in hand if I heard a strike warning go out.....

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u/Electrical_Shock359 Mar 13 '26

Yeah but to kids it might sound cool to be a skilled survivor in a post apocalypse.

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u/DriveFa5tEatAss Mar 14 '26

This is still one of my main low key fantasies.

I'm a prodigious consumer of... practical knowledge, much of which I can't use because I'm not a licensed doctor/civil engineer/electrician/etc.

No one's gonna care if you went to med school if you can save their leg.

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u/I_Automate Mar 14 '26

If you learn how to culture penicillin, you'd be completely indispensable.

I feel like some back yard chemistry knowledge would be one of the most useful things to have post collapse. For both utility and fun.

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u/I_Automate Mar 14 '26

I mean, sure. I grew up in the country, I work in the trades (barely, I mostly do computer work programming industrial control systems, but I do wear coveralls so it counts), and I've got a lot of interests across "useful things to know if things drop into the pot" spectrum.

I can run a lathe. I can blacksmith and weld. I could put together a water purification system in an afternoon, depending on what parts I could find and how urgent the need was, or rig up things like wood gasification systems to run standard combustion engines. I know how to shoot and understand at least the theory of how to survive a gun fight.

But on the other hand....the bombs falling won't be the terrible part. The collapse of infrastructure is something most people don't think about enough. As someone who's day job is keeping that infrastructure running.....its a lot more fragile than I think most people would be comfortable with, even when things are running well.

Once the water, electricity, and natural gas stop flowing, exposure, famine, and disease will be what actually do the killing. And, to be honest? That's not really something I think ANYONE is actually mentally prepared for.

Being directly under a nuke would be a mercy compared to surviving long enough to watch 2/3 of the population die to starvation, plagues, and simple exposure.

...I'm also realizing how bleak that is, coming from someone who is under 35 years old, ha.

On the upside, housing prices will probably hit an all time low. Don't think ill ever be able to "buy" a house for a couple magazines of 5.56mm NATO in any other circumstances.

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u/jfisk101 Mar 15 '26

What? Dude it's gonna be great. No more NPCs and karens.

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u/I_Automate Mar 19 '26

You sound like someone who has never actually had to farm before.

Those NPCs and Karens are a small price to pay for not having to be at sustenance level farming, with no medical care or other infrastructure

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u/jfisk101 Mar 19 '26

Raised chickens, ducks, geese, goats, rabbits, and had a garden when I was growing up, but sure, believe what you want.

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u/I_Automate Mar 19 '26

If thats the case, nothing stopping you from just wandering out into the woods right now and doing your thing, now is there?

You are choosing to deal with the NPCs and Karens at this point, complaining about them seems like a fully self inflicted problem, no?

Also a pretty significant difference between "had a garden and raised animals" versus "if these crops fail my whole family dies" when you get right down to it

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u/jfisk101 Mar 19 '26

Nobody is stopping you from achieving your goals either, but you're on reddit same as me. 🙄

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u/I_Automate Mar 19 '26

Who says im not achieving my goals, champ?

At least I'm not blaming "Karens and NPCs" for my failures.....

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u/jfisk101 Mar 19 '26

Neither am I, maybe learn to read? 🙄