Relentless advancement to produce new gen of 
seppos
I asked Wendy if I could read the paper she turned in, and when I opened the document, I was surprised to see the topic: critical pedagogy, the philosophy of education pioneered by Paulo Freire. The philosophy examines the influence of social and political forces on learning and classroom dynamics. Her opening line: “To what extent is schooling hindering students’ cognitive ability to think critically?” Later, I asked Wendy if she recognized the irony in using AI to write not just a paper on critical pedagogy but one that argues learning is what “makes us truly human.” She wasn’t sure what to make of the question. “I use AI a lot. Like, every day,” she said. “And I do believe it could take away that critical-thinking part. But it’s just — now that we rely on it, we can’t really imagine living without it.”
unfortunately I am a burger american. There are good and bad teachers, and a lot of bad incentive structures and structural issues undermining education quality here, but that doesn't mean this isn't still ostensibly the goal of most assignments. Admittedly I went to supposedly good k-12 schools and the hit rate was probably still like 50% in HS, but it was better than that in college, even at a not at all prestigious school
and my comment said that in >50% of my classes, what it did was genuinely foster learning in the way described. Not all of the evils of the US school system even conflict with this very basic model of learning, and regardless schools aren't a monolith. A blanket statement about how schools operate in the US isn't appropriate in this case, because it's a gross exaggeration of how useless they are and doesn't apply across the board.
edit: and to be clear I agree that classes/assignments that only foster learning in theory, are meaningless, but many still do in practice