Imagine trying to master reading—a skill critical to lock in before age 10—while your school was closed during a health crisis. Add the pull of addictive technology, eroding focus and mental health.
Now, artificial intelligence is changing how we work and learn, creating opportunities but also causing young people to doubt whether school is preparing them for the future.
This is the world today’s students are navigating. How can we ensure our schools harness AI thoughtfully while prioritizing what’s best for young people?
The answer starts with recognizing that our most powerful educational tool isn’t technology. Rather, it’s the one thing machines can never replicate: human curiosity. When educators nurture the impulse to explore, question, and connect, students rediscover school as it ought to be: the ultimate expression of their humanity.
To get there, we must build on the traditional “three Rs” (reading, writing, and arithmetic) and embrace a vision of education anchored in rigor, relevance, and relationships.
Rigor: Beyond the basics
With the latest National Assessment of Educational Progress exam showing that two-thirds of fourth and eighth graders lack reading and math proficiency, we must restore literacy and numeracy as the foundation of higher-order thinking.
Rigor must be for all students, not just those in gifted programs or affluent districts. When AI can draft essays, solve equations and synthesize information in seconds, only a solid grounding in reading, writing and mathematics ensures students are equipped and inspired to do that work for themselves.
The solution lies in high standards and research-based practices like science-of-reading-aligned instruction and math that foster conceptual and procedural fluency. Schools should also embrace accountability, with regular data checks so every teacher knows exactly where students stand and what they need.
AI can help by giving students immediate, constructive feedback and reducing administrative burdens so teachers can focus on developing students into independent thinkers and doers. In this context, AI ceases to be a shortcut and instead becomes a tool to deepen learning and spark creativity.
Besides, what good is AI if you can’t write the prompt, read the response or check its accuracy?
Relevance: Mirror the world they live in
Students feel disconnected from school, with half reporting that coursework doesn’t challenge them or tap into what they do best. Armed with distraction devices offering endless entertainment and easy answers, some fail to see the importance of reading novels or solving multi-step equations.
High absenteeism confirms that many students are checked out.
Disengagement didn’t start with AI, and technology won’t cure it. Instead, we need relevant instruction connected to students’ interests.
Literature should examine issues students care about. Science should reveal itself in everyday phenomena like the chemistry of cooking.
Teachers can show the math behind sports statistics or streaming algorithms. When students see how skills empower them to shape their world, they lean in.
Relevance also means preparing students to distinguish truth from fiction. A recent survey of Gen Z found that nearly half fear AI will hurt their ability to think carefully.
We must teach students to fact-check data, detect AI “hallucinations” and develop informed opinions. This requires exposure to primary documents from the Federalist Papers to social media posts. When headlines assert a new study shows something sensational, students should check the source to see whether claims hold up.
Equipping students to navigate a noisy world honors both their agency and our democratic ideals. And school is more interesting when you aren’t told what to think.
Relationships: The power of connection
If the pandemic taught us anything about school, it was this: technology is no substitute for real-world connection. Meaningful learning happens when students take risks and build knowledge under the guidance of a skilled, caring teacher.
Great teachers know when to push and when to back off. They model how to test assumptions, engage with opposing viewpoints and revise thinking in light of new evidence.
They design classrooms where questions drive learning and students are motivated explorers of ideas—education as the lighting of a fire, not the filling of a bucket.
AI can meaningfully support this. But no machine can replicate the moment when a student feels challenged, supported, and believed in as they wrestle through a difficult task and master it.
A brighter path forward
Rigor, relevance and relationships are not buzzwords; they are the pillars of a human-centered education. In a time when machines can mimic our ideas, schools must double down on what only humans can do: wonder, question and connect.
The purpose of education isn’t just to transmit knowledge, it’s to ignite a passion for discovery. When we build classrooms where every day begins with curiosity and ends with a sense of empowerment, students will no longer view school as an obligation, but as a profound expression of what it means to be human.
