IMO standard tests (which must be improved) give us insight into a small part of “being educated” (how we compare to similar folks). How students create polished products matters more. How students navigate hierarchical social organizations matters more.
Superficiality characterizes a particular approach to teaching. It has been under attack since long before ChatGPT by some educators. If education it threatened, it is that brand.
I am often amazed at how much more capability and enthusiasm for science there is among elementary school youngsters than among college students. - Carl Sagan
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. -Carl Sagan