Most millennial teachers I know aren’t trying to ban AI because we’re scared of technology. We grew up with Google, spellcheck, Wikipedia, calculators, and forums. We’re not nostalgic for suffering.
What we are against is outsourcing thinking.
When AI replaces:
grappling with an idea
forming an opinion
making a messy first attempt
struggling through “I don’t quite know what I mean yet”
…that’s the problem.
AI as a tool to support thinking? Fine.
AI as a shortcut around thinking? That’s where learning collapses.
The issue isn’t “students using AI.”
It’s students never learning how to think before they use it.
If your brain never does the work, there’s nothing for AI to enhance.
This hits. As a student, the hard part was always that foggy middle — when you kinda know what you think but can’t say it yet. That’s where the learning actually happened.
Google helped me find info. Spellcheck cleaned things up. But I still had to wrestle with the idea first.
If AI steps in before that struggle, there’s nothing left to develop. Tools should sharpen thinking, not replace the moment where it forms.
It’s about cognitive sequencing. Tools have always existed. What’s new is a tool that can fully replace the formative stages of thinking, not just accelerate execution.
Calculators didn’t eliminate the need to understand math. Spellcheck didn’t eliminate the need to form sentences. AI, used prematurely, can eliminate the need to form ideas at all.
If you skip the thinking phase, there is nothing left for technology to enhance. That’s not nostalgia. That’s how learning works.
Goodness this hits close to home. I grew up when Google was still new, and people keep saying it is cheating. Now it is the same with AI. Tools will be tools, and it is your intent to use them. A knife can help prepare a gourmet meal or give someone a booboo. People choose the intent.
When I graduated from college, professors were still relying on Turnitin solely, so it goes both ways. We had to manually create mistakes when we think the grammar is too clean.
Question. How do modern teachers teach students to use AI as a tool and not as a brain?