The state's charter school board approved an application on Monday from Unbound Academy to open a school with a two-hour per day academic curriculum set by AI.

Remember that one teacher who made going to school fun and inspired you to pursue your passions? Students at a new charter school in Arizona won’t, because they don’t get to have teachers. Instead, the two hours of academic instruction they receive each day—yes, just two hours—will be directed entirely by AI.

By a 4-3 margin, the Arizona State Board for Charter Schools on Monday approved an application from Unbound Academy to open a fully online school serving grades four through eight. Unbound already operates a private school that uses its AI-dependent “2hr Learning” model in Texas and is currently applying to open similar schools in Arkansas and Utah.

Under the 2hr Learning model, students spend just two hours a day using personalized learning programs from companies like IXL and Khan Academy. “As students work through lessons on subjects like math, reading, and science, the AI system will analyze their responses, time spent on tasks, and even emotional cues to optimize the difficulty and presentation of content,” according to Unbound’s charter school application in Arizona. “This ensures that each student is consistently challenged at their optimal level, preventing boredom or frustration.”

    • Jiggle_Physics@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      7·
      1 day ago

      No, while the best schools in the country have done a lot to incorporate non-traditional educational tools, like Khan Academy, have changed the class time structure, have moved to more “hands on” methods of communicating ideas, and have been moving away from a dependence on rote cram/purge cycles, they will not be scrapping down time, and forcing kids to do things they think are boring. Instead they have more per capita resources to tutor kids on how to deal with their frustrations, scheduling, boredom, and doing things they don’t like, because they have to. They actually have people that will work 1 on 1 with kids to do this, or their parents will hire private tutors to work with them on that, and subjects they struggle with. However, they know that cutting it out isn’t the solution, it is to specifically teach the kids how to deal with it.

      • pelespirit@sh.itjust.worksOPMEnglish
        4·
        1 day ago

        They actually have people that will work 1 on 1 with kids to do this, or their parents will hire private tutors to work with them on that, and subjects they struggle with. However, they know that cutting it out isn’t the solution, it is to specifically teach the kids how to deal with it.

        I agree, which is what we should be doing with all schools. Training and paying our teachers more while lowering classroom sizes is the way to go, not replace teachers with a computer. Supplementing with AI, yeah sure. Replacing? Fuck no.