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Comment by frantang3 | Hacker News Reader

I'm a mom who actually has kids and this thread is insane. 'Just get a tutor'...okay?? Are you paying for it? Because that's not an option for a lot of families. I get that it's more ideal, but the alternative is...nothing? Do you not agree that all kids deserves a chance to read? Are we not seeing the lack of reading proficiency in the majority of American adults nowadays?? Or yall too stuck in your tech bubbles?? There are high school students graduating who cannot do math. This is tech that is actually being used for GOOD here.

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>There are high school students graduating who cannot do math.

Then the problem is that they are graduating, no? We need to address the fundamental issues in schools, if there is no consequence to poor grades and you can still graduate without doing math then what's the point of even having school and doing math. I'm not even against AI tutors, though I'm not even sure really why there needs to even be an "AI" component, just computer learning aides seem reasonable. But if we can't figure out how to improve education with computer learning aides yet I don't really see how AI is going to improve the situation. It's just a more expensive way of doing things.

I keep seeing lines like 40% of 8th graders can't read etc.. then they shouldn't be in the 8th grade. Although IME with my kids, nieces, nephews etc it doesn't even seem true as they are all learning much more than I was at the same age.

exactly, maybe the grading wasn't rigorous enough if 7th graders managed to get into 8th grade without being able to read

> I'm a mom who actually has kids and this thread is insane. 'Just get a tutor'...okay?? Are you paying for it? Because that's not an option for a lot of families. I get that it's more ideal, but the alternative is...nothing?

Well said. I think many posters in this thread come from a pretty privileged backgrounds..

why would a 5-year old need a tutor?

because of bad grades?

At 5 years old, in the US and UK at least, they're either in preschool/kindergarten or not in school at all yet. Grades aren't a thing at that level and I have to imagine the same is true in other areas of the world.

How bad does a finger-painting need to be to get bad grades?

Came here to say that 'just get a tutor' isn't the failsafe that people think it is.

We tried to get two tutors for our child. Both had no idea what they were doing and oversold what their capabilities were. You can't just hire someone to teach your kid how to read and expect results.

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