ai is… nada, cold and heartless. The hype around it bothers me, how cool the new kid in town, ai is for ignorant people, hillbillies all of ya, and I come from a family of hillbillies, sorry folks for raining on your cool parade. Lady G gets cranky sometimes 🤣 I can handle the fallout 🤗
Thanks for bringing up the hype. I check in with Cal Newport who debunks the sensational headlines and drills down to what’s really happening in tech, which these days is all about AI.
AI can do a lot of things, better and quicker than humans. But it doesn’t have feelings (at least not yet), and no souls (which I can’t imagine it ever will); it can’t teach what it can’t experience.
And, AWW, you look so cute in your May Day photo! 🥰
Right. It can’t teach what it can’t experience. I like that. But of course, it teaches us these types of things all the time ~ which is a little scary!
And thanks for the love, I’m surprised I have it because my mom certainly didn’t take it. Grateful for the photo.
Lani, this really lands: "schools are where we clock in resistance training" for the marathon of family life. And your closing line — that classrooms are where we learn how to live in the world together, not just about it — feels like exactly the argument we need right now. Thank you for this. Carried with care!
Lani, “one of the few places where children regularly encounter people they didn’t choose” gives the purpose-of-school question enormous weight. The playground, the classmate nobody initially welcomed, public embarrassment, unexpected recognition, and even comparison all became part of an education in living among other people. As AI assumes more of the informational work, schools may become even more consequential as places where children practice disagreement, attention, cooperation, repair, and belonging in shared reality. Grateful for the way your own classroom memories make this question about human formation rather than technology alone.
Thank you, Reverend. Just wanted to point out what I feel is an overlooked and important component to schools that is quickly disappearing. Appreciate your thoughtful comments, as always.
I admire the Aussie model of banning phones in schools very much and hope Canada follows. But as my retired bro (high school teacher for years then Prof) frequently observes, people *always* think teachers should be doing/fixing/teaching something. And these days it's a bloody big ask. Such a brutally difficult balancing act for good teachers and I bow deeply to you, Lani
Teachers as scapegoats is a long time honored tradition! 😆🙃 And since I’m at a language school, but I observed this at the international school I taught, admin tries to capitulate to the parents and students $$$.
I believe Rudolf Steiner said that education should be free from the influence of power and money. I’m probably butchering the quote, but you get the idea. And to your brother’s point, that’s why many teachers have left the profession!
I admire the Aussie lead on banning phones in schools very much (hoping Canada follows too) but as my retired bro (high school teacher and then prof)often observes wryly, people *always* want to know why teachers aren't doing/fixing/teaching something. It's a bloody big ask, all of it. Teachers have a brutally difficult task right now. And I bow deeply to you.
Perhaps the most important role of a school in today's society is to create the Pygmalion effect. If teachers can see the potential in kids, it can help them blossom. I doubt AI can do it.
I had to look up Pygmalion and then look up how to say it. 🤗😆 But yes, thank you for that. It’s increasingly difficult to push the students to do more, to be more, to remind them of their capabilities when so many are turned off.
There’s a huge difference between pre-Covid and post-Covid students. The setback was enormous.
A thoughtful piece, Lani. I don't want to see children simply instructed by AI or babysat by robots (when they finally learn to walk upstairs and open doors, etc.). But I wouldn't mourn the passing of what I think of as the industrial model of education that prevails, shipping kids into the confines of an institution at 5 or 6 and then loading them into trains or trucks off universities or jobs at 18. It can be a wonderful experience, I'm sure, and some socialisation does take place, even a bit of learning. But it strikes me that the model belongs to another age - the factory age - and we need a better one, along with new models for working and doing politics. So there's not much to do....
I agree. I wasn’t ready to tackle the whole system 😄 but highlight an important (and overlooked) component. In Cambodia, the students do A LOT of rote learning and are at school all day, sometimes 7 days a week, and very often 6. Perhaps Japan is similar?
We might, however, be entering an era where all of this institutional learning gets shaken up with the introduction of AI. Thanks, Jeffrey.
I don't know the education system here from the inside. But my sense is that Japan does elementary education pretty well. It's later on that the regimented drudgery seems to kick in. But again, that's not a very well informed opinion.
As an adult, I think of schools as helping kids learn to think critically, work together, and become good citizens. Along with that comes problem-solving. I remember that some of the best teachers I had really encouraged my passion and curiosity. In return, I learned the most from those classes.
With AI and phones, I think it's more important now than ever to teach kids how to think critically. Kids adapt and learn so quickly, and I feel like AI is going to be a skill they'll need in the workforce. My girlfriend's kid has been vibe coding with AI, creating websites and other tools. It's great that his school is allowing him to be curious and explore this. But that doesn't apply to every kid, plenty are just taking a picture of a homework question and letting AI answer it for them.
Well put, Ricky. I agree. I need these nice reminders as I head into the classroom today. 🙃🌞 It’s actually very challenging to get students to think for themselves these days. AI is easy. Students feel lazy, unmotivated, and the real kicker is they sense they have no future with climate change and AI all around them. Life looks fun on TikTok, and that’s what they want.
How often do you hear kids want to be content creators now?
You are doing great work! I have some friends who are teachers. It is such a difficult job! I'm sure you have made an impact on the trajectory of a kid's future, hopefully that makes it all worth it.
I’ve got a student who did a speech on his TikTok channel. So, they’re there. I’d say in the past I heard ‘I want to be a YouTuber’ more often. Gamer is still holding strong. 😄
I can't say my school experience was entirely enjoyable, but it was definitely formative. I keep thinking about the teachers I've had over the years and how they shaped me in many ways. And yes, no AI can replace that. As we saw during the pandemic, human interaction is something very precious that we should preserve at all costs.
Yes, good point about the pandemic, Dinara. It’s something I forget because when I ask the students if they could travel anywhere in time, there are inevitably those who want to go back to Covid, when they didn’t have to go to school. 😩😭
Of course, never ask a kid what they want. It’s spaghetti, pizza, junk food, and sugar. 😆🙃
Hi Lani, l agree, schools are about relationships… and it wasn’t often in my classroom experience that students didn’t want to show you what they had learned, when the learning environment was safe and supportive. Curiosity and the desire to learn is who we are, and unfortunately the system at large rewards individual achievement over collaboration.
Of the system, l do believe it is manufactured to “produce compliant citizens”, and a ‘good’ teacher will “cultivate critical thinkers”, starting with what is governing them … schools are snapshots of the broader community.
We, teachers, are third parents for sure - l sometimes found it frustrating that the general consensus is that people assume they know what teachers do, because they have all been in classrooms … and a ‘good’ teacher really is worth their weight in gold, like a ‘good’ sociologist, doctor, psychologist, cop etc. the title doesn’t really mean much, does it? There is plenty of mediocrity out there too.
The A1 scares me a bit, a lot actually … l have sat through school assemblies where the leaders have read speeches spat out by A1, so l worry about the future of education … perhaps it will be the push for systemic change … it would be good to see the day that education wasn’t a political football.
As you say, “academic learning matters, but the universe of personalities do too”. There, l have had my rave for the day. Thanks for this thought provoking piece. Sending love … have a great day at school. 🙏🌀💖
It's true, because everyone has gone to school, everyone has strong opinions of what it is, including what teachers do.
Good teachers are taken for granted by the system because schools are a-okay with mediocrity. Of course, they don't say that. Just keep the cogs churning.
God, it's hard not to be cynical. Rants welcomed. And very good point about collaboration ~ we need for that to be pushed to the forefront again. Sports, yes, but not everyone's sporty.
Yes, and l believe teachers who can see through the system, help teach students resilience…. Training for the “marathon” as you say. It is hard not to be cynical, thank goodness for the students. Yes, sport has its place … but that is over rated in the broader sense, see World Cup, Olympic etc … next rant 🤣🤣🤣🙏🌀💖
I am back at work tomorrow and I am half-expecting at least one staff meeting about the use of AI. Last year, I found it all rather depressing how some students would say to me how it was too much effort to actively go and do research on something in lessons. They just wanted AI to throw them the answers.
Fortunately, my school does have an AI-policy, but I think with such as an emphasis on the use of devices (phones are banned, but tablets/laptops are necessary), we are stuck in a trap of our own making. This year and against my faculty's policy, I am going to do more printing of some class materials to force students to read things on paper!
Sarah, “a trap of our own making” captures the tension especially well: schools can depend on devices for learning while watching students increasingly outsource the effort that learning requires. Your decision to return selected materials to paper introduces useful friction, creating space for sustained reading before an answer can simply be generated. Grateful for the classroom reality you added to Lani’s question about what schools must still teach when information becomes effortless to retrieve.
Oh, we have an AI-policy as well (hard eye roll). I wish we’d banned phones. It must help! We have a computer lab and Chromebooks, all of which I’ve seen students play games on and use ChatGPT. And naturally, they have it on their phones. It’s so commonplace now.
I used to spend a few minutes talking about the use of AI at the beginning of the term, but I’ve given up. Perhaps it’s time to redo those slides (they’re so outdated already!) and try to give a pep talk.
Such a good question. I'm about to write a chapter in my memoir titled 'Notes from a middle school teacher' about the time I taught maths. And in South Africa it feels like schools are set up by left brains sitting in offices, having no idea what it really looks like in a classroom where the minority of children do well with the current system. That was even before AI came around, and we're really going to need to rethink everything.
Yes, the system was already running on fumes, wasn’t it? AI just adds firewood, maybe one of those big burning synthetic logs, to the fire taking down educational systems.
It’s funny what you said about left-brains because our school is currently undergoing a whopper of a transformation. And not for the better. It never is. Thanks, Dorette. [and thrilled to hear you’re working on a memoir!]
ai is… nada, cold and heartless. The hype around it bothers me, how cool the new kid in town, ai is for ignorant people, hillbillies all of ya, and I come from a family of hillbillies, sorry folks for raining on your cool parade. Lady G gets cranky sometimes 🤣 I can handle the fallout 🤗
Thanks for bringing up the hype. I check in with Cal Newport who debunks the sensational headlines and drills down to what’s really happening in tech, which these days is all about AI.
I’m going to check out Cal Newport, thanks Lani!
Thanks Lani, brilliant, a flaming arrow on point, no mincing of language. Oh by the by, you’re looking really adorable for the May Day celebration 🤗
Thank you, Geraldine! 🥰😍💞
AI can do a lot of things, better and quicker than humans. But it doesn’t have feelings (at least not yet), and no souls (which I can’t imagine it ever will); it can’t teach what it can’t experience.
And, AWW, you look so cute in your May Day photo! 🥰
Right. It can’t teach what it can’t experience. I like that. But of course, it teaches us these types of things all the time ~ which is a little scary!
And thanks for the love, I’m surprised I have it because my mom certainly didn’t take it. Grateful for the photo.
Lani, this really lands: "schools are where we clock in resistance training" for the marathon of family life. And your closing line — that classrooms are where we learn how to live in the world together, not just about it — feels like exactly the argument we need right now. Thank you for this. Carried with care!
Thanks, Willow. Glad it resonated with you. 🙏🥰😍
You are welcome!
Lani, “one of the few places where children regularly encounter people they didn’t choose” gives the purpose-of-school question enormous weight. The playground, the classmate nobody initially welcomed, public embarrassment, unexpected recognition, and even comparison all became part of an education in living among other people. As AI assumes more of the informational work, schools may become even more consequential as places where children practice disagreement, attention, cooperation, repair, and belonging in shared reality. Grateful for the way your own classroom memories make this question about human formation rather than technology alone.
Thank you, Reverend. Just wanted to point out what I feel is an overlooked and important component to schools that is quickly disappearing. Appreciate your thoughtful comments, as always.
I admire the Aussie model of banning phones in schools very much and hope Canada follows. But as my retired bro (high school teacher for years then Prof) frequently observes, people *always* think teachers should be doing/fixing/teaching something. And these days it's a bloody big ask. Such a brutally difficult balancing act for good teachers and I bow deeply to you, Lani
Teachers as scapegoats is a long time honored tradition! 😆🙃 And since I’m at a language school, but I observed this at the international school I taught, admin tries to capitulate to the parents and students $$$.
I believe Rudolf Steiner said that education should be free from the influence of power and money. I’m probably butchering the quote, but you get the idea. And to your brother’s point, that’s why many teachers have left the profession!
I admire the Aussie lead on banning phones in schools very much (hoping Canada follows too) but as my retired bro (high school teacher and then prof)often observes wryly, people *always* want to know why teachers aren't doing/fixing/teaching something. It's a bloody big ask, all of it. Teachers have a brutally difficult task right now. And I bow deeply to you.
Perhaps the most important role of a school in today's society is to create the Pygmalion effect. If teachers can see the potential in kids, it can help them blossom. I doubt AI can do it.
I had to look up Pygmalion and then look up how to say it. 🤗😆 But yes, thank you for that. It’s increasingly difficult to push the students to do more, to be more, to remind them of their capabilities when so many are turned off.
There’s a huge difference between pre-Covid and post-Covid students. The setback was enormous.
A thoughtful piece, Lani. I don't want to see children simply instructed by AI or babysat by robots (when they finally learn to walk upstairs and open doors, etc.). But I wouldn't mourn the passing of what I think of as the industrial model of education that prevails, shipping kids into the confines of an institution at 5 or 6 and then loading them into trains or trucks off universities or jobs at 18. It can be a wonderful experience, I'm sure, and some socialisation does take place, even a bit of learning. But it strikes me that the model belongs to another age - the factory age - and we need a better one, along with new models for working and doing politics. So there's not much to do....
I agree. I wasn’t ready to tackle the whole system 😄 but highlight an important (and overlooked) component. In Cambodia, the students do A LOT of rote learning and are at school all day, sometimes 7 days a week, and very often 6. Perhaps Japan is similar?
We might, however, be entering an era where all of this institutional learning gets shaken up with the introduction of AI. Thanks, Jeffrey.
I don't know the education system here from the inside. But my sense is that Japan does elementary education pretty well. It's later on that the regimented drudgery seems to kick in. But again, that's not a very well informed opinion.
No, I think you’re right; that’s the sense I get as well, now that you mentioned it.
As an adult, I think of schools as helping kids learn to think critically, work together, and become good citizens. Along with that comes problem-solving. I remember that some of the best teachers I had really encouraged my passion and curiosity. In return, I learned the most from those classes.
With AI and phones, I think it's more important now than ever to teach kids how to think critically. Kids adapt and learn so quickly, and I feel like AI is going to be a skill they'll need in the workforce. My girlfriend's kid has been vibe coding with AI, creating websites and other tools. It's great that his school is allowing him to be curious and explore this. But that doesn't apply to every kid, plenty are just taking a picture of a homework question and letting AI answer it for them.
Regardless, I would not want to be a teacher now.
Well put, Ricky. I agree. I need these nice reminders as I head into the classroom today. 🙃🌞 It’s actually very challenging to get students to think for themselves these days. AI is easy. Students feel lazy, unmotivated, and the real kicker is they sense they have no future with climate change and AI all around them. Life looks fun on TikTok, and that’s what they want.
How often do you hear kids want to be content creators now?
You are doing great work! I have some friends who are teachers. It is such a difficult job! I'm sure you have made an impact on the trajectory of a kid's future, hopefully that makes it all worth it.
I’ve got a student who did a speech on his TikTok channel. So, they’re there. I’d say in the past I heard ‘I want to be a YouTuber’ more often. Gamer is still holding strong. 😄
Thanks, Ricky. You’re very kind.
I'm grateful to be neither a school kid nor a teacher in 2026. It all sounds very hard!
I think there were the golden years of education, but unfortunately, we’re not in them anymore.
I can't say my school experience was entirely enjoyable, but it was definitely formative. I keep thinking about the teachers I've had over the years and how they shaped me in many ways. And yes, no AI can replace that. As we saw during the pandemic, human interaction is something very precious that we should preserve at all costs.
Yes, good point about the pandemic, Dinara. It’s something I forget because when I ask the students if they could travel anywhere in time, there are inevitably those who want to go back to Covid, when they didn’t have to go to school. 😩😭
Of course, never ask a kid what they want. It’s spaghetti, pizza, junk food, and sugar. 😆🙃
And a pandemic, apparently! XD But seriously, I’m very surprised that anyone would want to go back to that terrible time.
Right?
Hi Lani, l agree, schools are about relationships… and it wasn’t often in my classroom experience that students didn’t want to show you what they had learned, when the learning environment was safe and supportive. Curiosity and the desire to learn is who we are, and unfortunately the system at large rewards individual achievement over collaboration.
Of the system, l do believe it is manufactured to “produce compliant citizens”, and a ‘good’ teacher will “cultivate critical thinkers”, starting with what is governing them … schools are snapshots of the broader community.
We, teachers, are third parents for sure - l sometimes found it frustrating that the general consensus is that people assume they know what teachers do, because they have all been in classrooms … and a ‘good’ teacher really is worth their weight in gold, like a ‘good’ sociologist, doctor, psychologist, cop etc. the title doesn’t really mean much, does it? There is plenty of mediocrity out there too.
The A1 scares me a bit, a lot actually … l have sat through school assemblies where the leaders have read speeches spat out by A1, so l worry about the future of education … perhaps it will be the push for systemic change … it would be good to see the day that education wasn’t a political football.
As you say, “academic learning matters, but the universe of personalities do too”. There, l have had my rave for the day. Thanks for this thought provoking piece. Sending love … have a great day at school. 🙏🌀💖
It's true, because everyone has gone to school, everyone has strong opinions of what it is, including what teachers do.
Good teachers are taken for granted by the system because schools are a-okay with mediocrity. Of course, they don't say that. Just keep the cogs churning.
God, it's hard not to be cynical. Rants welcomed. And very good point about collaboration ~ we need for that to be pushed to the forefront again. Sports, yes, but not everyone's sporty.
Thanks, Simone!
Yes, and l believe teachers who can see through the system, help teach students resilience…. Training for the “marathon” as you say. It is hard not to be cynical, thank goodness for the students. Yes, sport has its place … but that is over rated in the broader sense, see World Cup, Olympic etc … next rant 🤣🤣🤣🙏🌀💖
Brilliant piece, Lani.
I am back at work tomorrow and I am half-expecting at least one staff meeting about the use of AI. Last year, I found it all rather depressing how some students would say to me how it was too much effort to actively go and do research on something in lessons. They just wanted AI to throw them the answers.
Fortunately, my school does have an AI-policy, but I think with such as an emphasis on the use of devices (phones are banned, but tablets/laptops are necessary), we are stuck in a trap of our own making. This year and against my faculty's policy, I am going to do more printing of some class materials to force students to read things on paper!
Sarah, “a trap of our own making” captures the tension especially well: schools can depend on devices for learning while watching students increasingly outsource the effort that learning requires. Your decision to return selected materials to paper introduces useful friction, creating space for sustained reading before an answer can simply be generated. Grateful for the classroom reality you added to Lani’s question about what schools must still teach when information becomes effortless to retrieve.
Oh, we have an AI-policy as well (hard eye roll). I wish we’d banned phones. It must help! We have a computer lab and Chromebooks, all of which I’ve seen students play games on and use ChatGPT. And naturally, they have it on their phones. It’s so commonplace now.
I used to spend a few minutes talking about the use of AI at the beginning of the term, but I’ve given up. Perhaps it’s time to redo those slides (they’re so outdated already!) and try to give a pep talk.
Such a good question. I'm about to write a chapter in my memoir titled 'Notes from a middle school teacher' about the time I taught maths. And in South Africa it feels like schools are set up by left brains sitting in offices, having no idea what it really looks like in a classroom where the minority of children do well with the current system. That was even before AI came around, and we're really going to need to rethink everything.
Yes, the system was already running on fumes, wasn’t it? AI just adds firewood, maybe one of those big burning synthetic logs, to the fire taking down educational systems.
It’s funny what you said about left-brains because our school is currently undergoing a whopper of a transformation. And not for the better. It never is. Thanks, Dorette. [and thrilled to hear you’re working on a memoir!]