ChatGPT for Homework
August 31, 2023 – Barre, Vermont, USA
On the first day of his junior year, Ivan Nebeker wandered into his final class. He chose a desk in the back of the room, next to some friends. His schedule simply called the class “English”. Looking around, he could see it was filled with all the kids who struggled to pass anything.
The teacher, Mrs. Reed, also kept her desk in the back of the room, but in the opposite corner from the one Ivan chose. He had never been in one of her classes, but Spaulding High School was small enough that he knew every teacher’s reputation. Mrs. Reed was supposed to be a soft pushover. She never yelled. All she cared about was books. The inside of her classroom was what Ivan expected. Pictures of authors hung on every wall. Paperbacks overflowed bookcases and were stacked in towers on the floor.
“I’m Carly Reed,” she said after the bell rang. “You should probably call me Mrs. Reed.”
Ivan quickly decided there was nothing intimidating about her. She was short and reading glasses stuck out of her poofy hair. She smiled as she spoke in a voice that made her sound like she was reading poetry.
“I asked to teach P.E., but the principal told me with a name like Mrs. Reed, I had to teach English.” She chuckled at her joke but none of the students in the class responded.
“I’ve been doing this for twenty-five years, so I’ve seen everything. All I ask is your attention. Please put away your phones. You can sit anywhere you like. You are going to learn to express yourself and to feel and understand other points of view. These will be the most important things in your life.”
Mrs. Reed then asked two students sitting up front to pass out copies of a book from one of her stacks. Ivan was soon holding a book titled “The Cure.”
“This is a relatively new book,” Mrs. Reed continued. “It’s a story about the future. We’ll read it out loud together. Don’t worry if you’re not a fast reader or you don’t know some of the words. We aren’t here to judge you. We’re in this together.”
The entire class turned to the first page. Every student took a turn reading a paragraph, with Mrs. Reed pausing to ask them their name and then complimenting them on something she liked about their reading. This continued until five minutes were left in the class period.
“Let’s stop there so I can tell you about your first big assignment. I want you to write a 500-word essay about the future. Tell me what the world will look like in twenty years. This will be due on September 15th. You’ll have over two weeks to write it. Plenty of time. I want you to love language like I do. I want to see the good in you.”
Copies of “The Cure” were returned to a stack and the class ended when the bell rang. Ivan and his friends shuffled out the door, eager to go home.
“Why do we have to take English? Waste of time,” one of them said.
“At least we can do whatever we want in there. The teacher has no idea what’s going on in the real world.”
Ivan was back in the same desk the next day. The class picked up reading “The Cure” where they left off. Mrs. Reed had everyone’s name memorized and she stopped the reading to ask students why the words in the book were arranged a certain way.
“Does it sound natural? How would you write them?”
Ivan kept his mouth shut, but some of the other students suggested changes to the dialogue between characters. Mrs. Reed encouraged them to question whether the voices sounded authentic.
“Sometimes there’s a difference between how you might say something and how you would write it. Your voice can change, as long as it’s yours. But never try to steal someone else’s.”
Each new class period followed the same pattern. They began by reading from the book and Mrs. Reed took more and more of the time asking questions and analyzing words. She also made a big deal about the upcoming essay. A week before it was due, she paused their book reading and had the class make a list of things that would be different in the future.
As she collected the lists, she said, “Use these ideas when you write your essay. I want to hear your voice and your ideas. Don’t borrow or steal from anyone else.”
Ivan made his future list and handed it in. He included electric cars and three-dimensional video screens. He was okay with doing little assignments like that during class time. Homework outside of class was a different story. He had zero homework motivation. He did not care about grades and was not interested in any of the subjects his teachers thought were so important.
When Mrs. Reed first mentioned the 500-word essay, her words passed right through Ivan’s brain without slowing down. The more she talked about it, however, bits and pieces began to stick in his memory, as if the words had thrown out tiny hooks on their way through his head. He began to believe Mrs. Reed truly was excited to read what he had to say.
Ever so slowly, Ivan moved from complete indifference to maybe wanting to try. He could not explain why. He had never cared about a homework assignment before and this one did not sound very different than things he had blown off in the past. For whatever reason, on Thursday night before the essay was due, he sat in front of his mom’s computer intending to write something.
Ivan spent ten minutes typing and retyping before ending up with the following: “The future twenty years from now will be different. We will drive electric cars. A lot of people will eat bugs for food.”
He stared at the computer screen feeling exhausted. He counted the words. Twenty-three. Getting to 500 would take all night. Did he have much more to say? Would all his thoughts on the future add up to 500 words if he had the energy to drag them out of his head?
Ivan realized he had spent all his motivation. He had written as much as he could and could either turn in 23 words or nothing. Maybe if he turned in the 23 words, Mrs. Reed would see they represented a big achievement for him. Or maybe she would laugh and think he was better off staying quiet.
During his internal struggle, Ivan remembered something that might save him from embarrassment. It was probably his mom who had sounded excited about artificial intelligence. She said something about ChatGPT and how it could instantly write better than humans. Ivan forgot his own 23 words and searched for ChatGPT on the internet. He found the right website, created an account, and typed instructions for ChatGPT to write a 500-word essay on the future. The words instantly appeared.
Ivan read the first two sentences with a smile: “The world is an ever-evolving place, constantly shaped by technological advancements, cultural shifts, and societal changes. As we peer into the crystal ball of the future, envisioning life twenty years from now, a tapestry of possibilities unfolds before us.”
The words sounded great. Mrs. Reed would appreciate them. This would be much better than 23 words or nothing at all. Ivan copied and pasted the text, added his name to the top, and printed it out. He handed it to Mrs. Reed on Friday when she collected essays at the end of class. It was the first high school homework assignment he had ever turned in.
Monday’s class was different. Instead of passing out copies of “The Cure,” Mrs. Reed stood up front with all the essays. “What a treat I had this weekend when I got to know you through your words. Not all of you made it to 500, but it was a great start.”
She read excerpts, gushing about the things she liked and then mentioning possible improvements. Ivan waited for her to read from his essay, but she never did. His was the only one neglected.
When the bell rang, Mrs. Reed said in a nonchalant voice, “Ivan, may I speak with you after class for a minute?”
She walked to her desk in back of the room and sat down. Ivan followed. He recognized his essay sitting on top of a paper stack resting on one of the desk’s corners. Mrs. Reed picked up the essay with a smile.
“I wanted to tell you in private what remarkable work this is. It was informative, enjoyable to read, and it shows real maturity.”
Ivan stood in front of her desk and grinned. He tried not to look too proud of himself. He did not want her to realize he had completely fooled her. As long as she was happy, he could keep feeding her ChatGPT essays for the rest of the year.
“I loved your beautiful analogies,” Mrs. Reed continued. “And your quotations and citations are things we weren’t going to cover in class until next semester.”
Ivan nodded his head and soaked up the praise.
“You obviously have a gift. Since writing comes so naturally to you, I want to switch your schedule and have you join our accelerated class.”
Ivan stopped nodding.
“In the other class, you would write all the time. Multiple stories and essays per week. Sometimes we spend the whole class period writing and then you turn in what you compose. Doesn’t that sound fun?”
Ivan’s smile disappeared. His mouth hung open in fear. He whispered, “I don’t know if I’m ready for something like that.”
“I can see you as a journalist or a novelist. Maybe a lawyer where you write long opinions. So many careers depend on good writing.”
“I don’t think the other class is for me.”
“As a teacher, I wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t give you extra possibilities to develop. I couldn’t live with myself if I didn’t encourage your talents.”
“I like this class. I’ll stay here.”
“Maybe I’m being a little selfish, but I want to hear more from you. If you were in the other class, I would get to read something from you almost every day.”
Ivan shifted nervously. His face tightened like he was about to take a punch. There was no way he could agree to the move. It was all a mistake. How could Mrs. Reed not understand what happened? Was she so clueless that she actually believed he was a great writer?
As Ivan’s whole body cringed over the future suffering Mrs. Reed had planned for him, she continued to bring up the ideas from his essay he would be able to explore in the advanced class. She wanted to hear his deep thoughts about technology.
Ivan could not stand it anymore. He blurted out, “I didn’t write it, okay? I used ChatGPT. I typed in what the essay was supposed to be about and it made up the whole thing.”
Mrs. Reed dropped the essay and looked up at him with disappointed eyes. Ivan thought she might cry. It was a look he had seen on the faces of victims being teased by packs of tormentors. “Those aren’t your words?” she said quietly. “But you made me think those were your words.”
Ivan sighed miserably. Only a few minutes earlier, he had basked in her praise. She thought he was smart and wanted to hear more from him. Now she thought he was a useless liar.
“I’m not used to doing homework,” Ivan muttered. “It was the first homework I ever turned in. I needed help.”
Ivan expected Mrs. Reed to react defensively and threaten to fail him or call his mom. He had heard those threats before and was ready to ignore them. But instead of threatening, Mrs. Reed stayed quiet and sad. As the silent seconds passed, Ivan wished she would lash out. The only thing she ended up saying was, “I really thought you had something to say.”
“I do. I do. I’m not just a cheater. Let me try again. I’ll do it for real this time.”
“How do I know you won’t use ChatGPT again?”
“I promise. It’ll be me. My words. I’ll show you.”
Mrs. Reed slowly nodded. “How about if I give you another week? Is that enough time?”
“For sure. I’ll start tonight. I won’t let you down. I promise.”
Mrs. Reed broke into her familiar smile and Ivan left her classroom determined to produce the 500 words even if it took him 50 hours.
When he was gone, Carly Reed reread the first two sentences of the ChatGPT essay Ivan had turned in. She chuckled to herself. Like Ivan, she had only ever made it as far as those first two sentences. She turned in her chair and dropped the essay into the recycling bin. Like she said on the first day of school, she had been doing this for twenty-five years and had seen it all before.
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