AI and Education: What Comes Next?

I think it is a lot like building a house, the idea is important, but the process makes it real.

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A good friend and supporter of my work asked this question:

“Have you ever pondered how AI could largely end the public school system?”

My response was that I have...a little.

People who read my rants regularly know that I tend to think and express myself through analogies (sometimes cornpone Mississippi analogies drawn from my own life). This is going to be one of those times.

We have a few areas close to us, along two roads I travel frequently on the way to Lowe’s and Home Depot, where lavish estates exist—McMansions all. I think some in the area are owned by local sports figures from the Memphis professional teams, but there is also the old-money crowd, along with the usual lawyers and corporate executives. These are beautifully manicured, heavily wooded estates (my guess is five acres or more) and they are the envy of anyone who looks upon them.

I’ve been watching a new one being built up the street from my personal favorite, a stately European château design, ever since they poured the foundation. They finally have it dried in, the framing (a massive amount of framing, I might add) is finished, the roof decking is on, the roofing felt is secured, and the exterior sheathing, wrap, and insulation are going up now. From this point on, they will be working primarily inside. I won’t be able to see what they are doing, but based on my experience, I know what comes next.

Having grown up in a family of builders, the process is very familiar to me. Technology has improved it, but over my 67 years on this emerald orb, it really hasn’t changed all that much.

After my friend asked his question, and because my mind works in analogies, I immediately connected AI with that house, and for several reasons.

First, the new structure is undoubtedly going to be a magnificent home, but like all structures, it began as an idea and a pile of raw materials. Before the lot was prepared, before the forms were set, and before a single cubic yard of concrete was poured, there was only the idea of the house. No doubt the future owners worked with an architect, structural and landscape engineers, and contractors to develop a plan that reflected what they wanted, what was possible, how long it would take, and ultimately what the entire process was going to cost.

In a very literal sense, that house began like every other structure since the beginning of civilization, with piles of Portland cement, gravel, lumber, nails, and screws that, if they had all been delivered at the same time, would have looked like nothing more than a random assortment of materials. A casual observer would have known it was going to become something but would have had no idea exactly what.

Right now, I see AI as that pile of lumber and raw materials. The ideas certainly exist, but there is no real consensus on the blueprint, and nobody really knows or agrees on how all the pieces fit together. So, for the moment, it remains just a pile of lumber with enormous potential that has yet to be fully realized.

But the potential is certainly there.

The mistake many people are making is assuming AI is the builder.

It isn’t.

AI is far more like the power tools hanging in a contractor’s trailer.

Give a master carpenter a laser level, a precision miter saw, and a cordless framing nailer, and he can produce better work, more quickly, with less wasted effort than his grandfather could with a handsaw and a hammer. Hand those same tools to someone who has never built anything, and all you’ve done is make it possible for him to make expensive mistakes much faster.

The tools did not replace the craftsman. They simply amplified whatever ability the craftsman already possessed.

I suspect AI is going to do much the same thing with education.

A motivated student with curious parents and a good teacher may eventually have access to what amounts to a personal tutor that never gets tired, never loses patience, never runs out of examples, and can explain the same concept twenty different ways until one of them finally clicks. That has the potential to be revolutionary.

But place that same technology in front of a child who has never been taught self-discipline, who cannot focus for more than thirty seconds without reaching for a phone, or who has learned that effort is optional because someone else will always lower the standards, and AI won’t rescue him. It may make the problem worse by allowing him to produce answers without ever learning how to think.

That is why I don’t believe AI will replace teachers in the way some predict. It will replace many of the repetitive tasks teachers perform today, freeing the best of them to spend more time doing what only human beings can do: inspiring curiosity, recognizing potential, correcting misconceptions, and expecting excellence.

The real question is not whether AI will transform education. It almost certainly will.

The real question is whether parents, schools, and society will transform themselves enough to use the tool wisely.

Just as a magnificent house still requires an architect with a vision, skilled craftsmen to execute the plan, and an owner who knows what he wants to build, the education system of the future will still require parents who value learning, teachers who know their craft, and students willing to do the hard work that no machine can do for them.

The blueprint has always mattered more than the tools.

I suspect that will still be true long after AI has become as common as electricity.

I’ve been married to a teacher for 45 years (she taught 36 of them), and I listen carefully when she talks about classroom matters. She says the greatest barrier to children learning is not the availability of materials or money. It is the absence of discipline, both behavioral discipline and intellectual discipline.

That’s not a technology problem; it’s a parenting problem first and a societal problem second. Children need to be taught how to behave in a public setting and how to discipline themselves to learn. None of that is the teacher’s job. For a child to be successful, those foundations should already be in place before he or she walks into kindergarten or first grade.

AI won’t cure any of that. But I do agree that the educational model we’ve relied upon for more than a century is becoming obsolete and increasingly insufficient.

It will change because, eventually, it must.