> The end-stage dystopia of the deprofessionalization of teachers is already apparent in some parts of the US. A new online charter school, Unbound Academy, plans to teach kids for two hours a day using learning apps driven by artificial intelligence. Afternoons will be spent on activities like public speaking and group projects.<p>> Initially approved for grades four to eight, this school replaces teachers with “guides,” who provide emotional support and individual coaching, at a ratio of one guide to every thirty-three students. For the moment, these guides still need teaching degrees, at least according to the charter school’s initial application for approval.<p>Given that a giant chunk of "teaching" just involves lecturing about the same material over and over again, replacing 50% of a teacher's time with video lectures that the child watches at home seems like a good option. Then the teacher could spend the time answering questions and helping the student directly. And since videos have a marginal scaling cost, the school could use high-quality videos (e.g, 3Blue1Brown YT videos) for everyone in the school system.