The Perils of Modern Education

The Perils of Modern Education

Years ago, when I was in school, teachers faced a time-worn educational challenge. Though succinct and easy to state, it was often difficult to achieve. It still is. Children needed to develop the ability to:

·       Think critically.

·       Ask meaningful questions.

·       Explore and investigate.

·       Express their own ideas.

·       Solve problems independently.

·       Learn through interaction with teachers and peers.

Education is the most powerful engine a human being can have. This list summarizes the key learning methods over the centuries. They have produced kings, generals, engineers, inventors, accountants, and professors. Notice there is no mention of technology. Yet, technology is most important in modern times. So, we should add a new method.

·       Learn and use technology responsibly and ethically.

The real problem is that no one quite knows how to do this. Many have figured out methods for themselves depending on what they do, but no universal methods have come close.

Early technology (e.g., lodestone) helped navigators sail their ships; early books spread knowledge; adding machines helped compute sums quickly, even run corporate accounting systems; and telephones enabled faster communication. However, they were assistants, ineffective if you didn't already know how and what to do. In other words, the tool served the trained mind.

Now, with Artificial Intelligence (AI), the relationship is inverted. You don't even need to know what to do or how. Just give a hint of what you need, and AI engines will complete the job. It solves math homework; it writes “What I did on my summer vacation” themes. It helps executives write annual corporate reports and even puff up their resumes.  It even helps judges reach and write their opinions and mathematicians prove their theorems.

Yet using AI has limits. AI cannot transform a poetry major into a financial wizard. Knowledge and judgment remain necessary, which is why educated unemployment persists even as AI proliferates. We have created a technology that replaces the very cognitive capacities education seeks to build, even as we recognize that capacity cannot be fully replaced.

AI has become almost fully a brain-replacement engine, and while many cry foul, we have come to rely or even depend on it. For others, helplessness without AI is a fact.  This sets up the problem of our times, an impossible problem at this point. How to teach it? Let me add that countless “experts” claim to know. They do not.