Like the internet of 1996, artificial intelligence is here to stay. The question that educators should be considering is not whether to ban it or impose a moratorium, but how to harness its potential for tackling the problems it's best equipped to solve.
AI is not a magic fix for all of the issues educators and students face in their classrooms, but when coupled with explicit education about its uses and limits, it can enhance student learning.
New technological tools have a history of causing unease, especially when they affect young people. People worried about this more than 30 years ago when the internet became a fact of modern life. These are legitimate concerns, but the dangers of leaving our youth unprepared for how to manage AI are far greater.
Students are already using AI to help with homework, and students of color are more likely to do so. Many students are not using it well, often as a shortcut to get answers without questioning the results they get. That should be no surprise, when less than a third of teenagers say that a teacher has ever talked to them about how to use AI safely.
Instead of banning AI, schools must lean into it, with a heavy emphasis on developing and using critical thinking skills when engaging with AI,. which is why we appreciate the opportunity to do this work in high school with New York City Public Schools’ new guidance.
AI literacy is now an essential extension of media literacy. Just as students learn to evaluate sources during traditional research, it is critical that they also learn both the proper, constructive use of AI and the risks it poses, starting with the ability to fact-check its answers. Teachers need training both on using it to improve their own practice and in how to help students use it well.
Banning students from the opportunity to engage safely with these tools only exacerbates the harm over time. Limiting students’ access to developing these skills within the safety of the classroom creates a dangerous digital divide, leaving students vulnerable to misinformation and unprepared for the AI-driven future landscape they are entering.
Protection for youth lies in building student competence in intelligently using AI, not enforcing ignorance of it.
Even before the internet, the same type of debates happened over pocket calculators in math classes. Assessing both the benefits and ethics of emerging technology in schools is not a new challenge for educators or for students, who are debating it now, too.
AI is not perfect and many tools can reinforce the structural racism and bias already rampant in our society. New tools also appear each day, making it difficult for teachers and parents to ascertain which ones are actually useful for student learning. Teachers need clear guidance on acceptable AI use in classrooms and parents must feel confident that only vetted and developmentally appropriate AI tools are used in their schools.
At our school, the Urban Assembly Institute of Math & Science for Young Women, where more than half our students are people of color, we are committed and purposeful users of AI. We have experienced first-hand how AI can ease the consistent time and resource constraints in urban schools, where teachers often have fewer resources and greater needs than in more affluent districts.
Our choice to use AI is rooted in a deliberate commitment to equity. This choice is not about replacing the human element but to use AI to streamline more routine tasks so that we have time within our packed days to invest in what we value most: genuine, meaningful, human connections.
We know we don’t have everything figured out. We are still learning and trying to navigate how to guide ourselves and our students in using these tools responsibly. But we know that AI does not mean abandoning critical thinking if we use it properly.
Thoughtful use of AI with students could include tools that use only teacher-provided material to serve as a resource when students are working independently at home. It’s akin to a study tool or a tutor, for students whose families may not have the time or resources for either.
We do not promote the use of AI to eliminating critical thinking. If a student uses an AI tool to write an essay for them, that’s plagiarism, plain and simple. But when we guide students to critically evaluate, verify and push back on AI-generated outputs, we are sharpening their judgment, agency, and higher-order thinking skills.
There is a real danger in banning a new and accessible technology. Even if it’s barred from use inside the school walls, students still will use it — but not properly. It would be like teaching someone to build a house using only a hammer, then sending them onto a job site full of tools they’ve never learned to use.
Instead of hiding from this latest tool, we should learn how to make good use of it and then do what we do best: Teach.
Kelly Preston and Judy Cappuccio are teachers at the Urban Assembly Institute of Math & Science for Young Women in Brooklyn.
