Today I experienced the work of a teacher at an institution. Interestingly, there is no need for live teaching here.
I was looking for a part-time job, and they said it would be 7 hours of work per day, 100 yuan per day. There is basically no work in the afternoon, just sitting there and watching the store, and I can do my own things. I handle the students in the evening.
However, during the three-day trial period, there was no salary.
On the first day, as soon as I walked in in the afternoon, they asked me to make a short video and write a WeChat post. I said I haven't done it before, I don't even watch short videos. They insisted that I give it a try, calling it learning. I only brought my own Android tablet, so reluctantly, I downloaded and installed a video editing app. After flipping through more than ten templates and being urged repeatedly, I finally exported the video. Then, under the guise of "teaching," but actually a "demand," I changed the image once.
After that, they explicitly stated that in my subsequent work, it would include "ground promotion" marketing tasks.
As for the WeChat post, I used ChatGPT to write it. Their product is an AI tablet combined with an offline "study room," but they have no knowledge of ChatGPT or other early (mainly referring to the first half of 2023) AI products. I used the OpenAI interface with some modifications, and when the boss asked why it was NEXT-GPT, I explained the key points. Then he asked if it was paid, and I replied that it was GPT4 (of course, GPT4 is paid and a bit expensive). GPT's understanding of Chinese semantics is not perfect, so the output of the text did not meet the standards of the boss, who had a background in humanities. I had to make several revisions as requested.
During the interview a few days ago, I was asked if I knew about children's programming. I blurted out Scratch and Mixly, and specifically explained that the latter is a product in the field of microcontrollers (which was quite amusing, as I only searched about it and never actually used it). He remained silent, and I thought he had no knowledge of this area at all (even though the job posting had related requirements). Our conversation ended abruptly.
In the evening, I cleaned the classroom and took care of the children. They call it a study room, but it is actually a tutoring institution that uses AI as a gimmick. The boss keeps mentioning "artificial intelligence."
The flaws in their use of AI are far more serious than we can imagine. The transfer of knowledge is completely entrusted to software. And the most important teaching function is just playing instructional videos for the students. Older students can adapt to it to some extent and benefit from it. But for younger students, they have no interest in watching these long and boring instructional videos. In the use of this product, no matter what questions the students ask, the boss always smiles and guides them to the tablet using rhetoric. I feel a bit sad, not only because these children have learned to use rhetoric at such a young age, but also because they have placed their hopes on this pitiful thing.
Considering that I didn't receive any salary that day, I put on my headphones and watched Professor Chen Junhua's "Critical Thinking" on Bilibili. I thought it was great—I could watch it for a while, then stand up and check on the children, and then sit back down and continue watching. I could work and study at the same time. But when I started watching it for the second time, the boss ordered me to put it away. I didn't feel angry, I just wanted a chance to disgust him.
After the children left, I had already worked an extra hour, but I had to fill out the very pretentious "Parent Feedback Form". I had to point out where the child's knowledge gaps were and provide solutions. Instead of copying the statistical data from the tablet, I filled it out based on my own observations. Before giving solutions, I thought about how this thing had no practical effect. What the children lacked was a real teacher who could explain knowledge in a simple and interesting way. Alternatively, it could be concise and easy-to-understand instructional videos. However, it was regrettable that there was none of that here. In reality, the children were sent to a place full of traps and were asked to find treasures.
At half past ten in the evening, I could finally go home, but my colleague was still there. That day, I only had to fill out the "Parent Feedback Form" for one child, while he had to do it for the remaining dozen or so. The boss called me out for a talk. During the conversation, he belittled a child, saying that the child couldn't learn. I silently disagreed because I used to be like that too. The child was just mentally active and lacked training in attention (for some reason, writing this makes me feel a little uncomfortable. In the survivorship bias of life, there are always some lucky ones mocking from below, even without realizing their own malice). He emphasized his temper again, wondering why he gets angry and why another colleague didn't pay attention to his temper. I traced back to the root of this conversation, and one of my unintentional remarks became the cause. But I still don't think there was anything wrong with it, I just think he's making a big deal out of it. Now I understand, in his words, he blames the other colleague, but in the shadows, he picks on my faults. The level of absurdity is so high that I don't find it funny at all. Among a group of children, I have never taken into consideration the emotions of those older than me, not in the past, not now, and not in the future. After all, I don't have a salary, I'm doing unregistered work for you, and you assign me a bunch of tasks unrelated to my position, and then you blame me for not caring about your temper? I pretended to think about it, but I was actually pretending to be ignorant, silently passing my judgment in my heart.
When I came back from work, the only thing left in my mind was myself. How many people in this world are down-to-earth and want to do practical things? Can they withstand such wear and tear before their abilities have grown?
"I really don't want to become like this for just a few coins."
Finally, I'll advertise myself: If you, who are reading this, have a job position suitable for me, you can consider contacting me.