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I’ve been thinking a lot about AI these days and also considering doing some keynotes, lectures to pay the bills. Honored I do get requests. However, I want to remain committed to my writing, as regular readers might know - but the lights have to be kept on.
Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you. - H.D. Thoreau
Part of my reflection about AI, large language models and generative intelligence involves invoking a clear as crystal definition of what learning is. Why do we want students to learn? What magical thing happens when “learning” occurs? And how does AI intersect with student learning, the development of the student mind?
There are many purposes to schooling, to learning, to education. But the primary one has always been to develop students into citizens that “think for oneself”. Like the Timothy Leary video I put together plugs - education is about the quest, the birth of a fully autonomous person who will think and decide for themselves. It’s crucial for the growth of democracy, for an engaged citizenry, for business and for a world that becomes more than a cash register and grows into a home, a place of sanity and betterment.
One of my heroes in education is John Taylor Gatto. More teachers should know about the man and his ideas. His overriding premise, conclusion, after working years in the public school system is that schooling still is tied to conformity, the assembly line, standardization and making children into malleable, passive, obedient adults. Read his Underground History of American Education.
When you take the free will out of education, that makes it schooling. ~John Taylor Gatto
We’ve made little progress in creating the conditions of freedom and of students thinking for themselves while obtaining their education. In fact, I believe AI might even set us back much further than we could ever imagine. It is a false promise. Sure, it has a place but it shouldn’t be used as a substitute for students thinking for themselves. Students won’t be thinking for themselves - they’ll be asking computational algorithms to crunch data and come up with answers, conclusions, findings … it’s as if we’ve given up on the sun and started to worship the dim light in our basement.
Blended learning, self-directed learning, project based learning, inquiry based learning, question based curriculum, discovery based learning, task based learning (in language education), learning in depth (see Kiernan Egan’s fine work), democratic education …. all this is just at the edges. Meanwhile the real show of conformist education goes on. These things are the sprinkles on the cake when they should be the whole damn cake. Students constructing knowledge (thank you Dewey) and asking questions and building understanding on their own. Not students stuffing themselves full of concepts to be regurgitated on the plate of standardized officialdom.
The goal of all education is student autonomy. Free thinkers, one and all of us. Fostering learners that questions, critique, doubt, contrast, dig deeper, engage, stir, refute and more …. Not fostering learners that just want to pass go, collect the diploma and then tune out. I often say, the goal of each teacher is to seek their own demise, so they won’t be needed anymore, their students free, autonomous learners of their own accord and independence.
I won’t rant on anymore than I have. Take Leary’s words to heart. On all our lesson plans, we teachers need to replace as the objective, “Students will:” with “Students will think for themselves and …” Let that be our new battle cry in education.
PS. The above video was deleted on YouTube. Seems YouTube wants to think for us and not let us think for ourselves. I’ll let you think for yourself whether the video is good for public consumption. It all starts there … trusting our students, trusting each other, to think for ourselves. The last few years has been one big lesson in this.
Think For Yourself