THE ROLE OF EDUCATION IN THE AGE OF A.I.

I'm really going to try and say this without grandstanding or virtue signaling but it's something that's really important I think. Do you remember that kid in middle school or high school who sat at the back of the class didn't really do any of the assignments and then waited for the day before the final exam during a review session to stick their hand into the air and say to the teacher when are we gonna use this in real life. Remember that kid. He kinda looks like me huh. He is me. He was me. Now sometimes a young teacher or inexperienced teacher feeling insecure that that question was actually questioning their job security would be tempted to answer it directly and say something like in the future when you're looking to get a job employers are gonna need you to have skill X Y and Z which is actually the subject matter of this test you're taking tomorrow. That teacher might also cite some statistics that show that students who have skill X Y and Z will earn more money in the marketplace. Alright now hold that scene in your mind. So a few days ago Mark Andreesen retweets the frustration of an anonymous teacher. Post reads student cheated, but I have no proof. A rant. This student is a D C minus student at best. Took my essay final exam. They take it outside of class I already know and will be changing this in the future with a time limit. His answers are so far above anything else I've seen from him all semester or anyone else in the class, but turn it in which is the software came back clean. I'm pretty sure he cheated, but I have no way to prove it. I'm just frustrated and ranting. I'm stressing too much about this with everything else I have to finish up. It's just exhausting, that's all. So it's clear that this teacher thinks that this student used chat GPT or another artificial intelligence to write their final exam essay outside of class. For the first time in history, not 6 months from now, not a year from now, students are asking the question when am I going to use this in real life in the age of artificial intelligence. And for the first time in history, inexperienced teachers will not be able to look to the economic value of that knowledge to reassure the student that they'll be able to make money from that skill in the marketplace. Now for the part where I try not to grandstand. You see great educators never conceded the ground that foundational education in reading, writing, mathematics, hard sciences etc. was only valuable insofar as it made you money. Instead they responded I don't know if you'll use this in real life, but that's not why I'm teaching you. I am teaching you to learn to write so that you will know how to navigate your own mind. I'm teaching you to think critically so you'll be less critical of others. I'm teaching you to articulate your feelings so that you'll be liberated by them and not held captive to them. And every time, every time in the history of the world when a hard skill becomes automated, a soft skill becomes exponentially more important. The irony of artificial intelligence is that as it makes our life easier it requires more civility from us and therefore more education in us. Not just to enjoy the perks of new technology but to keep us distinctly human.