An AI Primer for Parents: Five Questions to Ask Your Child's School
At a recent school event, parents kept asking me the same question: what does AI mean for my child? I’m not an AI expert. I’m a classroom teacher in my 41st year in education, and this is what I told them. It’s for any parent, grandparent, or teacher who wants the short version.The short version* The risk isn’t AI itself. It’s a student handing the thinking to a machine. AI can now produce a finished essay or assignment better than most high school students, so a perfect answer no longer proves anything was learned.* Homework AI can finish comes back perfect and teaches nothing. The hard thinking belongs in the classroom, and home is for first meeting the content.* Struggle is how learning happens. Ted Chiang compared using ChatGPT to complete an assignment to bringing a forklift into the weight room.* A simple rule for AI: do the thinking first, then let AI help where you’re stuck.* Ask schools five questions (below) to find out whether students are really learning.* What kids need most is someone who sees their potential and says so out loud.What I do in my classroomI use a three-part approach that educators around the world are starting to adopt. The goal is to protect my students’ thinking.* Flip. Students watch a short video or read the night before, so they first meet the content at home. Last week it was a video about Mount St. Helens before our volcano lesson. Then the hard thinking happens in class, where I can see it.* Analog. Every student is issued a laptop, but it mostly stays in the backpack. We use an old-school textbook, a set of questions, discussion, and experiments.* A human check. When students finish a lesson, they explain and defend their answers to me out loud, one at a time or in small groups. I sometimes use AI to help me write good questions that get to the heart of the lesson. But the conversation is human, and that’s something AI can’t replace.How to help your child* Make sure they do the hard thinking. The point of school isn’t a perfect answer. It’s for students to grow.* Build in productive struggle. Not crazy struggle, but real effort. Struggle is how the learning sticks, and AI makes it easy to skip.* Use this rule: do the thinking first, then use AI as a tutor when you’re stuck. Have frank conversations with your kids about it, and be willing to set boundaries. The easy route has never been easier.* Reward the process, not just the product. Schools have often rewarded the polished finished work, and AI can produce that now. What matters is the learning and the person's growth.* Share my open letter to students about AI with your kids. It’s about the exciting and uncertain time they’re growing up in. My Letter to Students about AIFive questions to ask any school* How do I know my child understands, and isn’t just finished?* What work is done in class without devices?* Do students ever explain their thinking out loud?* How do your assignments hold up now that AI exists? Too many teachers have taught the same year 30 times and haven’t adapted. Ask whether the teachers are changing what they do.* How do you teach students to use AI? How is the school preparing them for a world that includes it?Try this tonightTell your child one specific thing you see in them. And know that sometimes they don’t see their own potential - but we can call them to more. I closed the episode with the best free advice I have, from an old teacher who’s been working with teenagers for more than four decades. More than any lesson, kids need to know somebody believes in them. When you see a spark, name it out loud: “I see something in you.” I’ve watched students who were acting out and causing problems start to believe in themselves once someone said that, and then they became it. Catch them doing good, and fan it into flame.What are you seeing in your own home or classroom? Leave a comment, or just hit reply. I read what you send, and your questions often shape future episodes.Thanks for reading Reach Every Student with Jon Bergmann.! This post is public so feel free to share it.Key moments* 0:00 Parents’ questions at a school event* 1:44 The promise school used to make* 3:01 “I’m not anti-AI”* 4:24 Why homework now comes back perfect* 5:10 My three-part approach: flip, analog, human check* 8:35 Productive struggle and the forklift* 10:00 AI as a tutor: think first* 12:58 Five questions to ask any school* 13:57 Teachers who teach the same year 30 times* 15:26 Free advice: speak words of lifeLinks* My Letter to Students about AI This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.reacheverystudent.com
