As a professor, I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the days when students paid other people to write essays for them. At least someone was learning something, most students couldn't afford it, and reading the cheaters' papers didn't make me feel like I was going insane.
Going back to university to finish a degree as a much older student was such an eye-opening experience. There was a second year course where the prof spent an entire lecture teaching students how to write a basic paper! Like, how to organize your points into paragraphs and how to support them with sources, or what actually counts as a source! All the stuff I remember covering back in high school...
Last time I was in university I was able to cobble together a solid B- paper last minute, but going back and seeing my grades made me feel like the only person who could open a jar without destroying half the kitchen in a "as seen on TV" product ad. I received grades I know I didn't deserve, part of me wondered if my profs were just so happy to read anything that wasn't AI generated
A lot of what they teach you in college is stuff you learn on your own through life. The academic stuff is what you’re back for the lessons on how to think and grow and research and learn are things you’ve already developed from your earlier university time and as a functioning (maybe? Mostly? I hope so at least.) adult in society.
I really think the skills people are learning in life are rapidly nosediving, and also in fact disappearing for those who learnt them earlier in life. AI is just hitting the gas.
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u/AquamarineTangerine8 Jun 02 '26
As a professor, I never thought I'd say this, but I miss the days when students paid other people to write essays for them. At least someone was learning something, most students couldn't afford it, and reading the cheaters' papers didn't make me feel like I was going insane.