Being good with kids involves practical application of principles childhood development and psychology. Knowing things about the theory behind it is indeed very helpful for applying it and lets you generalize accurately to more situations.

And nobody needs to tell me how bad Sam Altman is. I know. But he is actually being super normal in that clip and I think it’s important to understand that.

(And wanting to understand their perspective is actually a laudable parenting goal)

I also don’t think the use case he cited (“why is my son dropping pizza on the floor”) is a bad question. Kids’ minds work differently than adults’ and they can’t communicate so well in our language. We need help sometimes interpreting them and understanding their perspective.

I also think a lot of people are underestimating the value of knowledge in childrearing and may especially take for granted the things that they know from experience or teaching as an educated middle class person and being quite condescending about “seriously? You need to ask the internet about it?”

I also think reacting this way to that particular clip of Sam Altman is a little out of touch and if it breaks containment (prolly won’t, AI isn’t a fun culture war topic yet) it will definitely make a lot of perfectly normal people feel defensive and ashamed for no good reason

That’s the big problem with AI, people are using it as a substitute for books and reading, and to substitute for their own judgment in what source to trust Some of us don’t have moms to ask but that’s a problem that’s already solved by the many well researched books by child development experts.

I mean to be fair to Altman people do very much need reference materials and lessons on how to care for a newborn. His problem is that he’s taking advice from an uncredentialed mish mash of information that sounds plausible but can’t be adequately sourced.

I feel like I’ve been seeing a lot of cynical Christmas ads this year. Haven’t seen a single earnest or schmaltzy one this season

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Disabled students do not get separate rubrics. They do not get reduced coursework. They do not get lower academic standards unless they meet a *very* high threshold of cognitive disability that requires a separate setting. Somehow I don’t think people are concerned abt people faking that.

Disabled people are not cushioned from failing in our society. They aren’t even cushioned from failing in schools where they get their legally required accommodations. The accommodations just give them the chance to learn and function at the level of academic rigor expected of everybody else.

As a teacher I also do not care. Getting extra time on a test hurts nobody. Going undiagnosed and without access to necessary educational supports can actually ruin lives.

In MA the state assessments (and our reading benchmark exams) are untimed precisely because timed tests confound the data on student learning because students with test anxiety and slower processing speed just don’t get to finish.