longer.blue

I feel like the fact that university and college students feel the need or urge to use AI or cheat on their exams has more to do with the fact that our education system has been broken for a very long time, rather than being a problem with today’s students. I am a self-taught software engineer. I had to go through so many loopholes just to find and scavenge the knowledge I needed because of sanctions in my country of birth (Iran). I never once felt the urge to cheat. I came to learn willingly, and using AI or cheating would have defeated the entire purpose. I learned that if I’m not failing, I’m not really challenging myself enough. I feel like our system punishes small failures when they are actually great opportunities to strengthen your knowledge, understand your weaknesses, and improve what you know. I think that if you don’t fail, you’re not really learning or moving in the right direction. Meanwhile, in universities, you pay thousands of dollars for the same privilege, and every single mistake adds to that cost and wastes a large portion of the effort you put into a course. There are big consequences for small mistakes. We’re encouraged to cram knowledge and memorize it without deeper understanding, only to dump it onto a piece of paper without ever really using it to its full potential again for a while. Learning should not be crammed into a 4 to 8 year period, it should be a lifelong journey. It’s not something you do once and get over with. You’re doing all of that for just a small chance at a job. You’re not really learning, you’re pushed into playing a meaningless performative game for survival. And after all, why wouldn't you cheat?