Kindling a Fire: The Era of Artificial Intelligence, Part 2: Revolutionizing Education with Generative AI

As I wrote last month, the inexorable march of generative AI continues to reshape vast swathes of industry. Yet it is education where AI’s impact may prove most profound—if, that is, educators approach it with a spirit of curiosity rather than their sometimes reflexive risk aversion.

For now, many schools remain stubbornly ensconced in a defensive crouch, banning AI outright or regarding it solely as a tool for cheating. But while it is true that AI presents challenges to traditional assessments—homework and essays chief among them—its potential reaches far beyond such legitimate but short-sighted concerns.

Just a few current examples highlight the immense potential of AI in education:

1. Personalized Learning
   Generative AI heralds an era of genuinely adaptive learning, allowing students to advance their learning with a personalized approach tailored to their needs. Tools such as Khan Academy’s AI tutor offer real-time guidance, and platforms such as Magicschool.ai (which we use at CCDS) allow teachers to see every stage of the student’s AI use, nudging them toward understanding rather than merely providing answers.  
2. Creative Tools and Computational Ingenuity
   Art, design, music composition—these, too, are domains in which AI proves a provocative partner rather than a soulless saboteur. Tools like Canva and Adobe Express inspire new forms of creativity while coding and engineering students leverage AI’s computational prowess to wrestle with complex problems.
3. Automated Teacher’s Assistant
   AI is not merely a friend of students. Teachers can use AI to grade papers, design lesson plans, and manage interactive projects. This efficiency frees up teachers to engage in the more meaningful work of mentoring and inspiring students.

Yet, for all its promise, AI must be used carefully to be effective. In one notable recent study, unfettered use of AI by students led to higher performance in the short term on homework assignments, but lower performance on tests in the long term. However, when the AI was modified to offer prompts for critical reasoning rather than to serve as a crutch for quick answers, student learning actually increased on assessments.

This research confirms much of what we already know about good education, namely that it should not demand mere rote memorization, but rather encourage deep inquiry, metacognition, and productive struggle. Thus, if AI can be used with discernment so that it promotes wrestling with ideas rather than passive absorption of them, it can be transformative.

For all the exciting applications of AI in education, we are still only in the beginning stages of this revolution. The dizzying pace of AI innovations often renders yesterday’s new discovery quickly obsolete.

In such a world, educators must ask bigger questions than simply how to use the latest large language model. We must ask questions like: What world are we preparing our students for? What will the future of work look like? What is the purpose of education?

At CCDS, we approach those important questions with more curiosity than certainty. But for now, we believe students will need at least four key competencies:

• Technical Proficiency: A grasp of data analysis, coding, and AI tools is fast becoming as fundamental as literacy itself. Schools must embed these competencies within curricula, not as optional electives, but as essential components of modern education. As the axiom goes, humans may not be replaced by AI, but they will be replaced by a human who knows how to use AI.
• Soft Skills: Creativity, problem-solving, collaboration, and the ability to communicate persuasively—these are the distinctly human faculties that will remain indispensable in an AI-augmented world. 
• Adaptability: In an era of relentless technological upheaval, the ability to navigate ambiguity, to pivot and reinvent oneself, will prove paramount. Intellectual curiosity and intrinsic motivation will be the true arbiters of success. At CCDS, we use a simple maxim to reflect this reality: Agility is now as important as ability.
• Meaning and purpose: Even if (perhaps especially if) AI leads to the end of work as we know it, our students will still need to be able to craft a life of meaning and purpose. Indeed, this has always been the heart of the human condition. In this respect, students may benefit more than ever from an old-fashioned dose of the humanities. How can we navigate a radically changed world? History and literature offer many answers to make sense of societal upheaval.

Ultimately, generative AI is neither salvation nor scourge. Schools that integrate AI without sacrificing the core tenets of deep learning, critical thought, and human connection will find themselves not supplanted but strengthened. For while AI may augment the work of teachers, education remains a deeply relational act. The singular magic of education is in the spark of discovery, the interplay of ideas, and the uniquely human pleasure of intellectual pursuit. And that, one hopes, is something even the most advanced AI will never learn to replicate.

"Kindling a Fire" is a column submitted regularly to Indian Hill Living by Head of School Rob Zimmerman '98. This ran in the April 2025 edition of the publication.