Debates over whether students should use artificial intelligence in school resemble a question raised by playground design: how can adults reduce serious hazards without removing every opportunity for children to learn to manage risk? Nathan Kraai, a school director of innovation, makes that comparison in an essay about AI in education.
Kraai recalls childhood playground equipment that exposed children to risks, including falls from tall structures. As safety rules changed playgrounds, researchers also questioned whether efforts to eliminate hazards could go too far by preventing children from experiencing manageable uncertainty and learning to make judgments.
The same tension shapes school decisions about AI, Kraai writes. His school, which serves boys in grades four through nine, has created guidelines, tested AI in controlled settings and discussed with teachers when the tools might support learning or interfere with it. Yet recent decisions by large school districts have made the question more pressing.
New York City Public Schools banned student-facing generative AI through eighth grade for the school year, while Los Angeles Unified School District prohibited students from using generative AI on district devices. Those moves prompted teachers at Kraai’s school to reconsider whether middle school students should use AI at all.
Kraai also notes that Massachusetts has taken a different approach, encouraging schools to build AI literacy and develop policies, while supporting a curriculum pilot for grades eight through 12. He stresses that teaching students about AI is not the same as simply giving them access to a chatbot.
Concerns about early use include the possibility that students may rely on AI before developing their own writing and thinking skills. Kraai also points to the risk of students turning to a tool whenever work becomes difficult. But he argues that keeping students away from AI has drawbacks too: they will need to understand what these systems can do, where they fail, how they influence information and when relying on them is a poor choice.
In his view, schools should preserve time for students to wrestle with questions, develop their own voices, work through confusion with other people and discover what they can do independently. At the same time, students need opportunities to learn how to use AI responsibly, with adults available to guide them.
Kraai says schools must make decisions even as the technology continues to change and research takes time to catch up. The challenge, he concludes, is deciding when students should be introduced to AI and how to balance protection with the chance to develop sound judgment.
Sources: EdSurge.