The Salamanca city central school district in upstate New York has paused a $60,000 program that would have brought an android teacher’s aide named Sally into high school technology and robotics classrooms. The robot, created by Realbotix, was intended to assist human instructors.
District superintendent said: “The robot also provides opportunities for students to learn how the robot is maintained, how it is updated with new approved content, and how to troubleshoot issues.” Students picked Sally’s look, choosing a perky brunette over alternatives that included a “bald middle-aged man” and an “aspiring author struggling to finish their novel during lunch break”.
Pause after public outcry
The district, which has a municipal population of just 6,000, put the project on hold after criticism from the public. Sally has working arms and hands but no legs, so at least there was no immediate threat of robot disciplinarians issuing hall passes or detention. The writer jokes that robocop-style punishment for tardiness was off the table.
Defending the plan, the superintendent said the robot would let rural students interact with high-level technology they would otherwise have to “travel 1-2 hours” to see. Students could ask Sally questions about their classes, much as they already could using the internet-connected smartphones in their pockets.
Better ways to spend the money
The writer argues the $60,000 could be better used by dividing it among teachers or buying laptops for every student. Teenagers are already unimpressed by human teachers, so a lifelike android is unlikely to win them over. They would be more interested in throwing erasers at it than learning from it.
If robot teachers are the future, the writer suggests making them more engaging: a robotic Super Mario or Pikachu, or perhaps an android Logan Paul or MrBeast to teach algebra. But ultimately, kids want to play Roblox and drink Mountain Dew. A real, flesh-and-blood human being might still be the one to inspire them.
