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Indian Startup WhiteHat JR is the biggest edtech scam. They are fooling parents with promises of jobs at Google, their kid's app in the play store/app store. T

by ffpip 6y ago

Indian Startup WhiteHat JR is the biggest edtech scam. They are fooling parents with promises of jobs at Google, their kid's app in the play store/app store. Their teachers do not know basic things like what is a cloud server (they said these run on actual clouds), difference between Java and Javascript. Related - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25176230 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25176230

dang 6y ago
It would be better to include these links in a comment in that thread, where they would clearly be on topic. The problem with making a separate submission out of it is that it's repetitive; we don't need two different threads about the same issue with the same startup at the same time. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20repetition%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
manishsharan 6y ago
It's not just an Indian startup ... It's a fully owned subsidiary of a major Disney business partner. It's such a shame that Mickey mouse is now being used to scam gullible and desperate parents in the third world. Such a shame!
- userbinator 6y ago
  It's such a shame that Mickey mouse is now being used to scam gullible and desperate parents in the third world. You may find this amusing: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse#Adjective https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse#Adjective
userbinator 6y ago
I don't think this phenomenon is specific to India, but a culture of strongly encouraging rote memorisation over actual thinking is definitely a factor. I worked in CS education many years ago (not in India) but the decline was already quite visible then, in the form of students who could recite obscure facts and copy-paste code together but were otherwise mostly computer-illiterate. These people then think they are successful and try to teach others, leading to a case of "the blind leading the blind".
- ffpip 6y ago
  This is not specific to India. Edu scams exist everywhere. However this is in India.
bawolff 6y ago
> they said these run on actual clouds Lol. Wat.

by ffpip 6y ago

dang 6y ago

It would be better to include these links in a comment in that thread, where they would clearly be on topic. The problem with making a separate submission out of it is that it's repetitive; we don't need two different threads about the same issue with the same startup at the same time. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=curiosity%20repetition%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so... https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=follow-up%20by%3Adang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

manishsharan 6y ago

It's not just an Indian startup ... It's a fully owned subsidiary of a major Disney business partner. It's such a shame that Mickey mouse is now being used to scam gullible and desperate parents in the third world. Such a shame!

userbinator 6y ago
It's such a shame that Mickey mouse is now being used to scam gullible and desperate parents in the third world. You may find this amusing: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse#Adjective https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Mickey_Mouse#Adjective

userbinator 6y ago

I don't think this phenomenon is specific to India, but a culture of strongly encouraging rote memorisation over actual thinking is definitely a factor. I worked in CS education many years ago (not in India) but the decline was already quite visible then, in the form of students who could recite obscure facts and copy-paste code together but were otherwise mostly computer-illiterate. These people then think they are successful and try to teach others, leading to a case of "the blind leading the blind".

ffpip 6y ago
This is not specific to India. Edu scams exist everywhere. However this is in India.

bawolff 6y ago

> they said these run on actual clouds Lol. Wat.