Thirty years.
I have spent three decades teaching teachers how to actually talk to their students. Not the performative kind. The real kind. Questions that land. Listening that respects. It’s supposed to be the baseline for education.
And yet?
A shocking number of classrooms still treat important issues like landmines. We avoid them. A recent report from RAND’s American Youth Panel backs this up with hard numbers. Only about one in three students says their school even has a policy on AI use. Most say it depends on the teacher’s mood or memory. Even scarier? Sixty-seven percent of students believe using AI hurts their critical thinking. They know what it feels like when shortcuts rot the brain.
The RAND report suggests we just… talk to them. Direct conversations.
Let’s unpack how.
The Reality Check
Here is the thing most administrators miss: 85% of teachers and students are already using AI. (Source: Center for Democracy and Technology.) It’s happening in the margins, in the silence, right under your nose.
If you have a clear policy, fine. Bring it up. Ask your students how they feel. Is it fair? Does it make sense? Where are the holes in the armor?
No policy?
Better start drafting one. Start talking to your colleagues. Start asking the uncomfortable questions before the tech dictates your curriculum for you.
Questions for Adults
Don’t look away from the mirror. Ask yourself these:
- Ease vs. Value Do we want AI to make our jobs easier? To simplify? To increase efficiency? That’s the selling point. But is it our goal?
- The Danger of Smooth Sailing When is it bad to make things easier? Where does “help” turn into “substitution”?
- Guardrails How do we use these tools without killing the parts of learning we actually care about? I’m talking about the struggle. The friction. Working through a hard problem and failing until it clicks. Can we automate that? No. Can we preserve it while using AI? That’s the question.
- Critical Literacy Can your students spot a lie? Not just a wrong answer, but a biased one? Will they ask for the source? Will they know the difference between a fact (earth to sun distance) and an opinion (is the filibuster good for democracy?)
- Ownership Who drives the bus? You? Or the algorithm? Do you have the skills to keep the steering wheel in your hand?
- Borrowing Ideas Who are you looking up to? Other schools? Researchers? Stop working in silos. See what the trusted folks are doing.
- Student Voice Let them talk. Include them in the policy making. It’s their lives. Their learning.
Questions for Students
Shift gears. Talk to them like humans.
- Value What is good about the work we do here? How could AI add to that? How would it subtract?
- Integrity What does honesty mean at this school? Not just “don’t copy/paste.” Real integrity. How do we use this tool without breaking our word?
- Curiosity What do they really know about this? What do they fear?
- Trade-offs List the benefits. Now list the costs. Weigh them.
It’s Messy Work
It seems like a lot, right? Because it is.
An AI policy isn’t a sticker you slap on the windshield and keep driving. AI disrupts. It rips open the floorboards.
Sometimes that disruption helps. It can democratize information, give kids access they never had. Other times? It’s poison. It breeds laziness. It dulls curiosity. It makes kids lazy thinkers.
So, you can’t just adopt a policy. You have to align it with your school’s soul. Your values.
This requires conversation. Real ones.
Use this phrase freely: “I don’t know.”
Say it out loud. I don’t know what this tech will do. I don’t know what it should do. I don’t know if it saves us or sinks us.
When you say that? You aren’t showing weakness.
You’re modeling uncertainty. You’re showing students how to live in the grey areas. How to puzzle through the knot without demanding a quick knot-cutting answer. That’s problem-solving. High-level. Dangerous. Necessary.
So here we are.
We have the tools. We have the fear. We have the questions.
Who’s going to lead the first honest conversation today?
