AI & Learning
Is your teenager actually learning?
In an age when AI can write the essay, solve the problem, and summarize the reading, it has never been easier for kids to produce acceptable work without actually learning very much.
The grades may look fine, but the skills may not be there. I help students learn to use AI as a tool that builds their capabilities, not one that bypasses them.
Increasing use of AI by students is genuinely cause for concern. According to the Pew Research Center, more than half of American teens now use AI chatbots for schoolwork, and a majority say AI-assisted cheating is a regular occurrence at their school—and the tools are only getting better.
In a study of nearly 1,000 high school math students, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School found that students who used ChatGPT during practice solved more problems correctly—but scored 17% worse on the test when AI was taken away. The practice sessions felt productive, but in reality they did not increase mastery.
The essay that ChatGPT writes doesn’t teach your child to think. The math problem AI solves doesn’t build the analytical skills that your child will need on the test, in college, or in a job interview.
The solution isn’t to pretend AI doesn’t exist
These tools are going to be part of your child’s professional life. The students who will thrive are the ones who know how to use AI to extend their own thinking—not replace it. That’s a learnable skill, and it requires exactly the things I work on with students: metacognition (thinking about their own thinking), judgment, intellectual honesty, and a sufficiently solid foundation in a subject to evaluate what AI produces and know when it’s wrong.
I’ve been working with AI tools in my sessions almost since they first were released to the public, and I think carefully about what these tools mean for learning. I can help your teenager develop a genuinely healthy relationship with AI—one that makes them more capable, not less.
There is a real and important difference
Using AI to check your thinking, explore a concept, or work through a problem you’ve already attempted builds capability.
Using AI to produce work you haven’t done undermines growth.
The first prepares your child for the world. The second doesn’t.
If you’ve been wondering whether your child is actually building skills or just getting through, that question is worth taking seriously—and I’m glad to talk about it.
Let’s talk about your student
I’m happy to have an initial phone conversation to talk about your child and whether I might be able to help. There’s no charge for that call.