Latest news with #RikkiSchlott
New York Post
23-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Zohran Zoomers: Gen Z loves socialism
Zohran Mamdani owes his primary victory to young New Yorkers' fiscal anxiety — paired with their economic illiteracy. The majority of my generation is warm to socialism, thanks to our education system's failure to equip us with the knowledge of history and economics required to debunk the shiny promise of 'free things.' NY Post columnist Rikki Schlott shares this story.
New York Post
01-07-2025
- Science
- New York Post
Curb classroom AI before it's too late
For the sake of the next generation, America's elected officials, parents and educators need to get serious about curbing kids' use of artificial intelligence — or the cognitive consequences will be devastating. As Rikki Schlott reported, an MIT Media Lab study found that people who used large language models like ChatGPT to write essays had reduced critical thinking skills and attention spans and showed less brain activity while working than those who didn't rely on the AI's help. NY Post assistant editorial page editor Brooke Rogers shares this story.
New York Post
28-06-2025
- Science
- New York Post
We've all got to do more to protect kids from AI abuse in schools
For the sake of the next generation, America's elected officials, parents and educators need to get serious about curbing kids' use of artificial intelligence — or the cognitive consequences will be devastating. As Rikki Schlott reported in Wednesday's Post, an MIT Media Lab study found that people who used large language models like ChatGPT to write essays had reduced critical thinking skills and attention spans and showed less brain activity while working than those who didn't rely on the AI's help. And over time the AI-users grew to rely more heavily on the tech, going from using it for small tweaks and refinement to copying and pasting whole portions of whatever the models spit out. Advertisement A series of experiments at UPenn/Wharton had similar results: Participants who used large language models like ChatGPT were able to research topics faster than those who used Google, but lagged in retaining and understanding the information they got. That is: They weren't actually learning as much as those who had to actively seek out the information they needed. The bottom line: Using AI for tasks like researching and writing makes us dumber and lazier. Advertisement Even scarier, the MIT study showed that the negative effects of AI are worse for younger users. That's bad news, because all signs are that kids are relying more and more on tech in classrooms. A Pew poll in January found that some 26% of teens aged 13 to 17 admit to using AI for schoolwork — twice the 2023 level. It'll double again, faster still, unless the adults wake up. Advertisement We've known for years how smartphone use damages kids: shorter attention spans, less fulfilling social lives, higher rates of depression and anxiety. States are moving to ban phones in class, but years after the dangers became obvious — and long after the wiser private schools cracked down. This time, let's move to address the peril before a generation needlessly suffers irrevocable harm. Some two dozen states have issued guidance on AI-use in classrooms, but that's only a start: Every state's education officials should ensure that every school cracks down. Advertisement Put more resources into creating reliable tools and methods to catch AI-produced work — and into showing teachers how to stop it and warning parents and students of the consequences of AI overuse. Absent a full-court press, far too many kids won't build crucial cognitive skills because a chat bot does all the heavy lifting for them while their brains are developing. Overall, AI should be a huge boon for humanity, eliminating vast amounts of busy work. But doing things the hard way remains the best way to build mental 'muscle.' If the grownups don't act, overdependence on AI wll keep spreading through America's classrooms like wildfire. Stop it now — before the wildfire burns out a generation of young minds.
New York Post
10-06-2025
- Politics
- New York Post
Hamas Telegram groups radicalizing Americans
Telegram group chats with hundreds of thousands of subscribers are posting daily propaganda directly from Hamas — and potentially radicalizing anti-Israel activists here in America. The Post monitored two major English-language Telegram networks — Resistance News Network and Gaza Now In English, with more than 100,000 and 200,000 subscribers respectively — over the past week and observed dozens of daily updates purporting to be from spokespeople for Hamas, Hezbollah and terrorist military brigades. NY Post columnist Rikki Schlott shares this story.
Fox News
07-04-2025
- General
- Fox News
Harvard's remedial math course reignites concerns over test-optional pandemic policies
Some students at Harvard are playing catch-up on a year-long remedial math course aimed at rectifying a "lack of foundational" skills believed to be exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, but some, like New York Post opinion columnist Rikki Schlott, say scaling back or eliminating standardized testing is responsible for such skill gaps instead. "Without any SAT or ACT scores on their applications, no wonder kids without basic math skills were able to slip through the cracks. The school should have seen this coming," she wrote in a piece published Saturday. Schlott went on to mention that college readiness exams, like the SAT, are key tools said to determine "college and career success," according to the College Board, which spearheads the test. If students' abilities were tested on these key measurements, she argued, there would be no need to reinforce fundamentals. Schlott also critiqued an emerging narrative among some in the academic community who claim standardized tests are relics of racism, and scrapping the practice is a promising way to "help lower barriers to accessing higher education for historically excluded populations." A 2021 article from the National Education Association (NEA) teachers' union, for instance, explored the "racist beginnings" of standardized testing, quoting activist and author Ibram X. Kendi as saying, "Standardized tests have become the most effective racist weapon ever devised to objectively degrade Black and Brown minds and legally exclude their bodies from prestigious schools." Harvard's Director of Introductory Math, Brendan A. Kelly, told The Harvard Crimson upon the addition of Math MA5 — an in-depth Introduction to Functions and Calculus I — last fall, that the pandemic created skill gaps that were difficult to overcome, and the course was the school's way of helping students "step up to their aspirations." "Students don't have the skills that we had intended downstream in the curriculum, and so it creates different trajectories in students' math abilities," he said. The skill gap issue reflects a broader concern spawned by lengthy lockdowns, the sudden transition to a remote learning environment and chronic absenteeism that combined to create plummeting reading and math scores that have yet to recover. The outlet reported in September that the year-long course meets five days a week to ensure students' development. The university website says the "Extra support" will target "foundational skills in algebra, geometry, and quantitative reasoning" to help students "unlock success" in Math MA, the regular math course. Harvard reinstated standardized testing requirements for students applying for fall 2025 admission. Fox News Digital reached out to Harvard for comment, but did not receive an immediate reply.
