Pinned
Annie Abrams
@annieabrams.bsky.social
· May 28
This Year, We All Realized That Kids Aren’t Reading Books in School. Only the Right Is Offering a Solution.
Common Core and the College Board are my enemies. But the classical education movement is not my friend.
slate.com
Gift link to my argument in favor of teaching works of "serious literary value" in public schools: slate.com/life/2025/05...
it’s amazing in this moment for anyone in public education to say “you know what kids don’t really need to learn? how to speak for themselves and how to piece together their own arguments about what’s real and true in the face of a lot of bullshit”
December 26, 2025 at 3:30 AM
it’s amazing in this moment for anyone in public education to say “you know what kids don’t really need to learn? how to speak for themselves and how to piece together their own arguments about what’s real and true in the face of a lot of bullshit”
Reposted by Annie Abrams
To summarize - hard to accept from tech bros & policymakers who sat around Harkness Tables with 11 peers interactively opining on history, philosophy and literature that "other peoples' children" should be placed in sparsely supervised rooms of cubicles interacting with AI bots on tablets.
December 24, 2025 at 2:45 PM
To summarize - hard to accept from tech bros & policymakers who sat around Harkness Tables with 11 peers interactively opining on history, philosophy and literature that "other peoples' children" should be placed in sparsely supervised rooms of cubicles interacting with AI bots on tablets.
i really, really want to believe in public schools
You are painting a vision of a future in which teachers create lessons with "A.i.," students complete them with "A.i.," and teachers grade them with "A.i."
No learning takes place under this system.
The only benefactors of this system are the corporations being paid for the "A.i." products.
No learning takes place under this system.
The only benefactors of this system are the corporations being paid for the "A.i." products.
December 24, 2025 at 4:20 AM
i really, really want to believe in public schools
whoever’s in charge of marketing isn’t doing a great job
This is quite literally a series of single-sentence horror stories about ed tech in the last 25 years… even as it addresses key issues like training…
…because if I was asked to spend any amount of time on this training, I’d skip it and take the write-up — at some point, we have to just refuse.
…because if I was asked to spend any amount of time on this training, I’d skip it and take the write-up — at some point, we have to just refuse.
December 24, 2025 at 3:35 AM
whoever’s in charge of marketing isn’t doing a great job
Reposted by Annie Abrams
Valuable reading for all. This is not just a teacher issue—this is about American culture.
Gift link to my argument in favor of teaching works of "serious literary value" in public schools: slate.com/life/2025/05...
This Year, We All Realized That Kids Aren’t Reading Books in School. Only the Right Is Offering a Solution.
Common Core and the College Board are my enemies. But the classical education movement is not my friend.
slate.com
December 23, 2025 at 7:29 PM
Valuable reading for all. This is not just a teacher issue—this is about American culture.
whatever is going on in higher ed in terms of theories of reading and selection, an enthusiastic teacher discussing and writing about an old book with kids at taxpayer expense remains a good idea
December 23, 2025 at 7:26 PM
whatever is going on in higher ed in terms of theories of reading and selection, an enthusiastic teacher discussing and writing about an old book with kids at taxpayer expense remains a good idea
Reposted by Annie Abrams
Thank you for writing this. I have been teaching English in NYC schools for over a decade and in that time I have seen our discipline dismantled piece by piece by edtech under the guise of “reforms” or “measuring progress.”
December 23, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Thank you for writing this. I have been teaching English in NYC schools for over a decade and in that time I have seen our discipline dismantled piece by piece by edtech under the guise of “reforms” or “measuring progress.”
Reposted by Annie Abrams
Parents do not want their kids in front of screens or only reading text excerpts in class. When will progressives get serious about this?
December 23, 2025 at 6:00 PM
Parents do not want their kids in front of screens or only reading text excerpts in class. When will progressives get serious about this?
it's deeply not a waste of time
To be clear: this is also a call-to-action for me! I think sometimes the busy-ness of trying to do everything we want to do can distract from valuing our own intellectual life and the habits needed for its foundation.
Reading more = a non-negotiable for me.
Reading more = a non-negotiable for me.
December 23, 2025 at 4:03 AM
it's deeply not a waste of time
i just don't think there are any shortcuts--if we want kids who are readers, we need teachers who are readers, and if we want teachers who are readers, we need professors who are readers
December 23, 2025 at 1:59 AM
i just don't think there are any shortcuts--if we want kids who are readers, we need teachers who are readers, and if we want teachers who are readers, we need professors who are readers
oh man david banks www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
21 big ideas for NYC schools from New Yorkers to Mamdani (Part 2)
How should Zohran Mamdani improve NYC schools? Here’s what parents, students, educators, and experts told us.
www.chalkbeat.org
December 22, 2025 at 9:58 PM
oh man david banks www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025...
Reposted by Annie Abrams
My child? Went to the library? Voluntarily? And got a physical paper book? And is reading it??? 🤫
December 22, 2025 at 9:43 PM
My child? Went to the library? Voluntarily? And got a physical paper book? And is reading it??? 🤫
Reposted by Annie Abrams
I have retreated so much from even trying to hold the line on canon, diversity, and depth. Here in Bridgeport I’m down to just barely keeping AI at bay.
December 22, 2025 at 8:35 PM
I have retreated so much from even trying to hold the line on canon, diversity, and depth. Here in Bridgeport I’m down to just barely keeping AI at bay.
Reposted by Annie Abrams
But this is not something a machine could do for us. The goal of all that reading is not a document full of summaries, nor a mind full of "just summaries," because a mind never reads in such an automatic or intellectually inert fashion. We draw connections, and hopefully we change in the process.
December 22, 2025 at 8:01 PM
But this is not something a machine could do for us. The goal of all that reading is not a document full of summaries, nor a mind full of "just summaries," because a mind never reads in such an automatic or intellectually inert fashion. We draw connections, and hopefully we change in the process.
Reposted by Annie Abrams
December 21, 2025 at 4:43 AM
doesn’t make any sense
it bewilders me every time i see a guy argue that the era of reading books is over because of LLMs
It’s the same damn thing - the idea that successful people have less and not more time and interest for reading books.
December 22, 2025 at 2:06 PM
doesn’t make any sense
Reposted by Annie Abrams
It’s the same damn thing - the idea that successful people have less and not more time and interest for reading books.
December 22, 2025 at 1:57 PM
It’s the same damn thing - the idea that successful people have less and not more time and interest for reading books.
Reposted by Annie Abrams
when I interviewed for social studies at harvard my interviewer said “this is the only time in their lives the students will see these texts” and what she named opportunity, seemed to me abject failure.
December 22, 2025 at 1:54 PM
when I interviewed for social studies at harvard my interviewer said “this is the only time in their lives the students will see these texts” and what she named opportunity, seemed to me abject failure.
we’re there
We may be heading toward a world in which it seems peculiar or even foolish to read an article or book in its entirety. Incredibly, schools - K-12 & higher ed. alike - seem reconciled to becoming the accomplices of Big Tech by pointing us there.
December 22, 2025 at 1:29 PM
we’re there
do it
Consider the subtleness of the sea
December 22, 2025 at 1:58 AM
do it
Reposted by Annie Abrams
Thinking about how if education is for the workforce then corporations should have to pay directly for it.
December 22, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Thinking about how if education is for the workforce then corporations should have to pay directly for it.
Reposted by Annie Abrams
For example, one obvious and extremely important thing for which a book is far better than an LLM is validating a stable citation trail. If a book says X you can trace the claim in the citation and it never changes; if an LLM says X you can’t, it a black box. Where does X come from?
December 21, 2025 at 11:11 PM
For example, one obvious and extremely important thing for which a book is far better than an LLM is validating a stable citation trail. If a book says X you can trace the claim in the citation and it never changes; if an LLM says X you can’t, it a black box. Where does X come from?
know what’s great? poems
Feel extremely lucky to walk into a room every morning and be like “whoa, look at this thing—what do you think of it”
December 21, 2025 at 9:17 PM
know what’s great? poems
Reposted by Annie Abrams
Know that there are nobler reasons to be a teacher but staying interested in the world is probably my number 1
December 21, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Know that there are nobler reasons to be a teacher but staying interested in the world is probably my number 1