🐴 "No ChatGPT Until High School"

Today's ChatGPT panic looks remarkably similar to the calculator protests of the 1960s. What can history teach us about the tools we fear? PLUS: A reimagined gap year and free online STEM tutoring.

April 21, 2025

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IN THIS EDITION:

  • Why teachers in 1969 were right to worry about calculators (and what it means for ChatGPT)

  • When the gap year becomes the launch pad for real learning

  • Free 24/7 STEM tutoring from a student-led Discord community

WHEN CALCULATION REPLACES COMPREHENSION

A black and white photo from 1969 has resurfaced, showing elementary school teachers picketing against calculator use in grade schools, fearing that the machines would hinder understanding:

While it’s tempting to see these concerns as quaint in an age of AI tutors and supercomputers, Synthesis founder Chris Frankman makes a valid point: being able to do math in your head is a real skill that comes with intuitive understanding.

Would you trade the ability to read for a device that reads aloud to you? Of course not. Yet we readily surrender mathematical thinking to calculators and apps, forgetting that numeracy is just as fundamental as literacy.

📊 TREND

REIMAGINING THE GAP YEAR

The "gap year" is dead. Rising in its place: The Flight School, offering high school graduates a transformative "launch year" with up to $10,000 from their "Night Sky Fund" to design their own learning path.

Instead of pub hopping across Europe, Flight School Fellows get weekly virtual gatherings with a diverse cohort, monthly coaching sessions, and guidance from near-peer mentors. They're asked questions that won't appear on any standardized test: "Who are you beyond your achievements?" "What makes you feel most alive?"

The year-long fellowship includes access to faculty from organizations like Kiva, The New Happy, and the Million Mask Movement. Fellows develop clarity, confidence, and what the program calls "an inner compass" to navigate an increasingly complex world.

🛠️ TOOL

24/7 STEM HELP WITHOUT THE PAYWALL

A group of high school, undergraduate, and graduate STEM students recently created a free Discord server offering round-the-clock help with science, technology, engineering, and math.

Questions? Contact the organizers at [email protected]

Note: we haven't personally vetted this service. As with any online community, we recommend oversight for younger students.

🖼️ MEME OF THE WEEK

HISTORY RHYMES

Same fears, different years?

That’s all for today! See you tomorrow.

– Charlie (the OpenEd newsletter guy)

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