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AI has taken a toll on kids’ brains — removing technology from the classroom will fix that

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Is it the end of the Flynn effect? 

Decades ago, the researcher James Flynn recognized a secular increase in IQ scores around the world that amounted to humanity getting smarter all the time. 

Now, technology appears to be pushing the other way. 

The new results are in from a 2025 Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development test of teenage educational achievement around the world, and it looks like the Flynn effect in reverse. 

“Learning outcomes have stagnated or declined in many countries, in some cases for well over a decade,” according to the OECD. 

It’s a mistake to put too much weight on any one imperfect test, but the OECD assessment matches up with other data. There are various theories for what accounts for the slide, but it overlaps with the advent of ubiquitous smart phones, universal access to social media and the rise of AI. 

No screens in schools 

As one would expect, reading has suffered most. Average reading scores dropped nearly 30 points in OECD countries over the last decade. This amounts to about a year of schooling; in other words, 15-year-olds are now reading at roughly the level of........

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